Hello all! This is my first time. I planted an assorted collection of bag seed 5 days ago in some store bought mix of peat, vermic, and perlite. Lights are 4 X 23W CFL's. I Have had a small fan on them the whole time. I wet the soil a bit before planting but other than that I have given little water. The really sad, droopy plant was watered yesterday to see what would happen. It appears to be worse today. Not sure how to fix these lil guys. DO I need more light and water? All pots are lightweight when I pick them up and feel dry when I stick a finger in. They are in my closet right now which is warmer than my bedroom. Should I take them into a more ventilated area instead of a closet? First pic is the droopy plant:
Mine looked like that it needed water so i gave it water but after putting it under the light again over night it dried out an died, so planted more an 2 of them did it this morn so i watered them and have put them in the window till i get home from work and hopefully theve perked up so they can go back under the light
The way that one plant's leaves are curling under did not look good to me.... Its nice to hear yall think it is doing fine
They are curling a little but new seedlings often have strange shapes. I suspect they will be fine in a few days to a week. Are you definitely watering enough?
Make sure you have proper drainage as we'll cut quarter in. Squares in bottom bout four of them. Although seedlings usually only need some good sprays from the bottle. Also I might move those lights up a hair I burnt all six of my seedlings from 2in. Away. Then again I have ten cfls.
@[member="GoldGrower"] I keep reading that overwatering is a problem with seedlings so I have been trying not to water. Although most of the time they are on the drier side IMO. I need to get on a schedule but I water every other day with ~40ml water and 5-6 sprays from a spray bottle. A few hours ago I watered a plant to see what would happen and it looks like the leaves are curling down even more than before. Should there be any runoff/drainage at this point? @[member="JL20JL"] I have 5 1/4" holes in each cup.
When it comes to watering seedlings, would watering until there is runoff be excessive? I have read people talking about only watering with a couple of tablespoons of water. I guess the answer would be ....it depends.....
hello, so the solo cup has 5 holes in it when you watered it did water come out of the holes? because they look dry. i would take a cup and fill with the same soil if the cup with sprout is as light add a little water. keep cup of dirt for wt differance later to.hope this helps
Yes it would be excessive to have run off at this early stage. I water very lightly in the first week. After that as long as growth is good a full water is good as long as the soil gets to properly dry out in between. Forget schedules, water when the soil needs it. Feel the weight, dip a finger in to the soil, scrape the surface up a bit, whatever you want to do but make sure it's not staying wet. Letting the top couple of inches dry out completely will still have the lower depths damp. Only when the roots are well established will the soil dry out at an even pace If the drooping gets worse after watering then you are probably watering too much and/or too often
2 days later and it seems to be getting a little better. There is another seedling that is small and has yellow curled leaves. Also a few of the bigger seedlings have little crispy burnt tips on the end of the leaves (2nd pic). Im thinking I had the light a little too close...? The first pic is the plant that was droopy the other day. How do they look? Any ideas about the burnt ends and yellow looking plant.
They look dry to me. I can't tell in the last peek but in the first ones the top of the soil looked very dry. You don't want them to dry out completely ever.
Yes they are dry. I was waiting on them to dry out in order to see how they would respond...in case I was overwatering. Point being: they are dry now, time to water.
they look fine water em and turn em once a day to keep em from doing that sideways stuff and just wait for em to grow up a pot size. You can love em too much as easy as you can love em too little
I'm also thinking the soil is not as porous as it should. I misted the top and water kind of sat there on a few of them. I would dig under the top soil and find dry soil right below the wet soil. Shouldnt the water penetrate to the soil below?
You maybe not watering enough by the sound of it. I wouldn't use a spray bottle. You are better off with a small jug or a bottle with small holes in the lid like a rose It's hard to tell someone how much to water without having the plants to hand, but most people over water compared to under water. How much water and how often to do it depends on a whole spectrum of influences