New Grower Seedlings Dying - Please Help

[evilsheep]

Hi,

I've got a problem with my skunk #1 grow, it's my first proper attempt at a grow, I'm a total gardening n00b and I'm hoping someone can help me work out what went wrong. I started out with 2 seeds but the first one died not long after sprouting. I germinated another seed and I've now got a problem with both the remaining plants which I call plant 2 and 3. I think they both have the same problem but plant 2 is much worse than plant 3, though I'm really worried that plant 3 will look exactly like plant 2 in a few days if I can't fix the problem. I've tried to give as much info as possible.

Both seeds were germinated in damp kitchen roll and then planted in peat free jiffy pots, the soil is from a vegetable growbag but I'm not sure of the exact NPK or pH, I chose it because it was suitable for tomatoes which I read would be ok. I've not added any extra nutrients yet but I've got some Chempack plant food NPK 25-15-15 for when I need it. The lights are 2 x 30W 2700k and 2 x 30w 6500k CFLs on an 18/6 light cycle, the lights were started about the same distance from the plants as they are now but were moved to about 2 inches away for a while because I thought the plants were starting to stretch, this may have been when the problem started as they both started to bend over slightly but I'm not sure if that was the cause, though I moved the plants further away again to make sure. My grow room is in the loft, so, the temperature has been fluctuating a lot, it once went up to 34c but was usually peaking at about 30c. Originally I had an oscilating desk fan in there but it wasn't enough, yesterday I changed it for an air conditioning unit to keep temps down. Temps are currently set to 21c on the aircon during the light cycle as this gives a temp of 23c under the lights and it drops to about 18c at night when the lights and aircon are off. Humidity is currently 58% and has never dropped below 30%. I've got some bowls of water in the grow room to help with temps and humidity. I've included a pic of my setup as it is now. I'm worried that my early mistakes may have overheated and burnt the plants, I've been watering with tap water that has been left to stand for at least 24 hours but I don't have a pH meter to measure it properly.

Plant 1 germinated 18 days ago but died very early on, I think because I let the soil get too dry but it also had the seed husk trapped around the plant and never got the strength to force itself open.

Plant 2 germinated 17 days ago and was planted that morning, it then sprouted 12 days ago, growth was very slow, I think it was stunted by lack of water, I've now upped the watering but it doesn't seem to have helped. It had quite a slim stem, was otherwise ok but then the leaves started to look a bit brown and crispy and have got steadily worse, it now looks like it's almost dead.

Plant 3 germinated 12 days ago and was planted in the evening, it sprouted 10 days ago and grew much quicker than the others. Because I'd let plants 1 & 2 get too dry earlier on in the grow, I gave plant 3 much more water which seemed to help. It grew to it's curent height in 3 days but hasn't grown much since then, the leaves got a little bigger but haven't grown for about 4 days. Now it looks like the leaves are turning up and going yellow, plant 2 did the same thing before turning the way it is now and I've got no idea what I can do to help.

I was worried that the small jiffy pots were drying out very quickly, if I watered the plants then the soil would look cracked and dry 12 hours later, so, I was also misting the plants twice a day to help out. 3 days ago I thought it might be time to give them bigger homes, so, I've put the jiffy pots in 10" plant pots with more of the same soil to allow the roots more room to grow and maybe keep moisture in better. The problem had started before the pot change so I don't think that is the cause. I've watered the plants a couple of times since then but have not been misting them at all.

I'm really hoping I can save at least one plant, if they don't make it, I have 2 more seeds to germinate but I really want to make sure I've fixed the problems with my grow room before trying again.

Any help and suggestions will be much appreciated.

[evilsheep]

Here are the pics, I got an error posting them first time.

[evilsheep]

I'm trying to upload a picture of my setup but I keep getting an upload error

edit: ahhh it was over 2MB, I had to resize it.

[Darkhosis]

Are you using tap water? Because that can do the things your plants are doing.

Peat pots too can wick away moisture from your seedling. Gotta keep them extra watered in those. But really looks like a water PH/clorine issue.

[evilsheep]

Hi, thanks for replying. Yes they are being watered with tap water but I have been leaving it for at least 24 hours to get rid of the chlorine. I've got a combined light/moisture/pH meter but it seems to be pretty useless at measuring pH, though I think it says the water is about 7.5 but I can't be sure because it seems to say pretty much the same all the time whether it's in air, soil or water. I know my tap water is poor quality hard water because I get loads of limescale in my kettle. Do you think it would be better to start buying cheap bottled water from the supermarket?

[freedom4ever]

If that soil u r using has an npk value, then that's your problem. You don't wanna feed little seedlings.

Get some good organic soil, oh and don't mist your plants.

[evilsheep]

Hi freedom4ever thanks for replying, the soil didn't have an NPK value, so I'm hoping it's ok. I realised that misting was probably a bad idea after a while but the soil was drying out really quickly before I repotted them, the soil seems moister now and I've not misted for a few days.

[evilsheep]

UPDATE:

Poor plant 3 seems to be getting worse before my eyes, here's an updated pic taken only about 4 hours after the first pics. It looks like the corner of one leaf is starting to curl over badly

I've just tested my pH meter by putting it in a glass of orange juice, it told me that it had a pH of more than 7 which MUST be wrong surely??? Is this thing totally useless? I think I need to buy a separate proper pH meter.

[evilsheep]

I've got a waterbutt in the garden, would it be better if I used rain water?

[freedom4ever]

Rain water is good, although I'm really not convinced that your water is the problem.

What are your temps now? When did you last water? How far away are the lights? Are you SURE that soil is organic? Is there any perlite in it?

[evilsheep]

The temp is currently 23c, humidity 57%. I watered the plants at 10pm last night. I'll check the soil bag again and measure the lights and post again in a few minutes.

[evilsheep]

The lights are 4 & 1/2 inches above the plant tops. The soil is from a grow bag and only says it contains all the nutrients needed to give your plants the best start, it doesn't give an NPK measure or say that it's organic. Do you think I should get some better soil for the next grow? I was thinking about buying a bag of perlite for the next grow to mix in too but do you think there's anything I can do for these poor babies?

[freedom4ever]

Yep, get better soil dude, it's killing your littlens. If you get soil that says something like 'feeds for three months' then you're fooked. Looks like the babies are getting burnt up by it.

Get some organic soil and you'll be good to go.

Good luck!

[evilsheep]

Thanks very much for your help.

I dashed to the garden centre (silly Sunday closing time) to get some organic soil, perlite, a new pH meter and a proper max/min digital thermometer.

I mixed the soil and perlite about 70/30 in the cleaned 10" pots and then gave them a very thorough watering with rain water. Removing the plants from the coir pots showed that they had grown almost no roots at all I removed as much of the old soil as possible which because of the tiny root ball was almost all of it and then repotted the plants in the new soil.

The temperature is now 23.7c in the grow room and the humidity is 50%. The new pH meter measured the new soil at 7.1. I checked the plants after about an hour but there has been no change yet. I fear it will be too late for these 2 plants but I'll wait until this evening and might germinate another seed if the plants look worse.

[freedom4ever]

Good moves man. You won't regret it. If they do survive it could take a few days for them to come out of shock so don't expect miracles too soon, like you say, you can always germ another seed.

Measure the pH of the run off water man, not the soil itself yeah? Keep an eye on your temps and don't overwater.