seedling sudden death syndrome (s.s.d.s)

i know there is no such term but maybe there should be one. anyways, i had 6 seedlings that are today 7 days old. 3 of the seedlings are doing better than expected. they are now up to the 3rd internode, those 3 have 2 full sets of fan leaves and are working on a 3rd. at this time period the operation is taking place elsewhere, so i visit usually in the middle of the week and sunday to make adjustments. sunday all 6 seedlings were very healthy, since the first set of fan leaves got bigger than expected, i ended up adding a small desk fan to start strengthening the stems, well, i ended up moving the biggest of all the seedlings maybe 8 inches away from the fan, then the next biggest and so forth. oh yeah light source at this time period are 4 48in 40 watt ge floros, about 2 to 3 inches above the plants. well, i come back weds, and well, the biggest of all the plants is completely dead, the one next to it is wilted beyond recongnition and the 3rd one that was next to the wilted is wilting. the other 3 no problems. the plants at this time are sitting in half gallon pots, and my soil is basically earth gro soil with some type of compost that ive used in the past for other projects. nothing fancy. i did notice when i inspected the remaining 2 wilting plants, the soil was bone dry. from sunday to weds, 24 hour light with a desk fan blowing on high, is this enough to dry the soil and wilt plants? can this be the cause of my seedling sudden death syndrome? im leaning towards this because the other 3 are very healthy and doing well and are much further away from the fan. im sure you all are wondering how come im neglecting, im really not, im just assisting for someone else who really doesnt have a clue. anyways, that cat informed me that he watered yesterday on the one that was next in line to the fan and he said it wilted further, i dont know what he watered with, mostly likely cold tap water. well, im trying to save these last 2 seedlings, the one is in really bad shape, and all its leaves are completely drooped. the 3rd has minor drop but not as bad. my remedy has been to water all these babies and i did some minor light and fan adjustments. does anyone have a clue to what could have happened? thanks and sorry no pics, the less evidence...

 

anyone?

 

yeah i think you guys are right, so seedlings are really delicate i suppose to a more mature plant, basically an older plant can most likely go 4 days inbetween waterings? ive always been a big fan into stressin the hell out of plants. what are the chances of the 4th seedling pulling out? i havent got a chance to check it, last report was it was further wilted from yesterday. tomorrow if it still survives im considering bringin it home with me to see if i can nurse it back to health.

 

here is the 4th plant i was talking about, i replanted yesterday in a 3 gal. this plant is much smaller than my other 3, but just as compact as the other 3 for 17 days.

 

thanks! here are some others

 

ive got a couple of more

 

another one

 

17 days

 

my favorite picture and current screen saver

 

whats up earth girl, its been about 5 days since the replant. i checked on them on saturday and thats where the pics came from. when i replanted, 2 of the plants looked a little droopy, the smallest and one the other indicas. when i came back saturday, both of those plants were perky as hell, im not sure if it was because the plants were sleep when i repoted or if they were getting a little tight feeling in the 1/2 gallon pots. anyways, 24hrs later i knew they were alrite and happy in there new homes. im going to check on the plants this evening and from what i understand, theyve gotten fatter at the stem and they are now grown into the lights, so im guessing, they didnt stress at all during replant.


i was concerned about the red stems at first, but its a blotchy red, kinda looks like blood. i thought i may have had a mag problem or k problem, but i have no purple stems. so im sure its genetics. ive done extensive checking into this. i have another plant shown here grown in the same soil and with the same mix of organics, but from a different bag. its stem is completely green.

as far as yellowing, sorry, non here, im pretty sure its the lighting, i couldnt get figure out how to use flash on a macro shot on this digi.

 

sup Fire, seedlings are very delicate life forms, it depends on the amount of damage you caused, i do know they are unforgiving when it comes to water neglect, the yellowing could be fert burn, if you flushed your plants out, within a couple of days the new growth should be nice and healthy green, the older leaves that are yellow will remain the same. hope that helped