My seedlings (only 4 at a time) keep dying before their 5th node... They always developed yellow leaves, brown spots, or a bunch of tiny white spots. At first I thought I was overwatering them, then I thought that I had underwatered them. Then I thought maybe it was too hot, and got the temp between 77-88 F and humidity 50-70%. Stil wasn't helping. These were in soil, actually they died when small roots were JUST starting to show outside of the "starter" pouch (i forgot what these are called, for germination...) I tested my water today with a chem test kit.. I found out the water from my apartment was consistently 8.5+ pH level!! Is this the reason I couldn't get a single plant to EVEN ROOT into the soil? I'm using my friends MH bulb, 400 watt. And I just couldn't figure out why no little to no growth was going on. So I guess using the high ph water was killing them, is this most likely true? I know have some distilled water thats 6.5-7 ph =) so hopefully they will recover nicely.... I hope its the water and not just me being horrible stupid at reading guides... this is my 2nd try. hope they get better Also, they were allowed to flower for a tiny bit before I got them, still very little. Will they still switch over to vegging alright? Thanks! and hello everyone
Are you supplying any external nutrients to the plants? Based on your leaf description I would guess they are malnourished.
no nutrients right now, I gave them each a tiny bit to lower ph some. They are still inside of the "nutrient-rich" peat pellet sack, The roots haven't grown into the pot soil yet. They will be growing into fox farms organic soil that has the bat crap and worm castings. I thought those would provide better for vegging needs. They really look too small for any kind of nutrients.... They were dying before they could get rooted in a tiny 3" organic pot
you don't think the water being so basic rather than acidic would cause that damage? ph tester showed almost an aqua tint for my tap water... thats 8 maybe 9 ph. and I'm supposed to be shooting for 6 right? The gallon water that I just bought today, ph tester showed really light green, 7 ph.. so the only water they EVER got, was around 9 ph. And I'm hoping neutral water will help, Many guides say good soil mixes don't require nutrients for the vegging stage, I have nut.s for flowering and final (resin) stages, if I ever get there
PH could definatley be an issues. Are you allowing your tap water to breathe at all? (meaning, are you allowing it to sit for 24 hours to evaporate any of the "harsh" chemicals that are in our tap water?) Are you taking your PH reading right after you fill your container with water, or are you waiting any extended period of time? Distilled water is definately going to work better for you. PH should be just about right straight from the store. It can just get pretty expensive overtime, and tap water can work fine as long as you treat it properly. I might have misread somthing. I thought you were on your fifth node already. I didn't realize these were just babies. Just a tip that has worked for me. I usually wait until the roots have significantly poked through my starter medium before I transplant to soil. I like to make sure that I have 3-6 roots that have poked out 1-2". This is just a gauge I use. Maybe it will work for you too.
Yes they are still babies, they were VERY very streched when I got them, as my friend had given them hardly any light (and they were pre-flowering by the time I got them). I'm just now starting to see new dark green growth above some of the older leaves on the bottom and where some fell off. Thanks for your advice, but where do you keep the babies before the roots poke out? I was going to keep them in approx 1 cm of water and figured they would root into the water, but the peat just sucks up so much and soaks them i'm afraid it would over water them despite 85% of the root structure being above the water. They would still be covered in their soaked cakes, and i'm afraid that would block O2. Whats the best to get those roots to pop out? Temp: 77-88 Water Ph, finally ~7 Humidity: 50-70 rh Metal Halide 400 watt, approx 1.5 meters from babies. These seedlings are streched out to a little over 6 inches and only have 3 pairs of leaves (with about 2 spots below where the leaves had already fallen off when I got them).
OK, added photos: 1) plant #1, brown spots, yellow spots, tiny white spots 2) close up of plant #1 3) plant #2, this one has the smallest, possibly fewest, leaves, and has been watered with my extra-hard water longer than the others. 4)Plant #3 This girl is the biggest, however is slowest at showing new growth. you can see some brown/yellow spots on one leaf. 5)Plant #4 This girl doesn't have a pot, but is showing good nice green at the new growth. 6)Plant #5 This girl seems to have recovered the best, showing some nice green and seems to be recovering? There is a 400 watt hps up above, the pots are 3" for size comparison. You can see how badly streched they are. The roots have yet to really sprout out of the peat pellets... The 4 in pots aren't really IN the soil, simply sitting on top. What should I do to get these little babies to root? I know they are in bad shape, but the new growth is looking good... I think they will just need extra veg time. As for the severe stretching, I plan on doing some LST later... so maybe it will be ok????
The one in the last picture (that I thought was doing best) wilted quickly and is now drying up.... What do you keep the babies in while waiting for roots to sprout outside the peat bag? a small ammount of water? or nothing? need help...
going back to your ph prob id use rain water for cuttings and seedling. collect some up and spray them with it.
I flushed them with tested (6.5-7 ph) water. Do I still need to go buy ph down? Also, tips on promoting root growth for stressed plants would be greatly appriciated!!!! They are still inside their little peat bags with little roots starting to poke out, I wanna get the roots out farther and into the fox farms soil so they can start getting organic nutes.