Hello all! New grower. Concerned about a 1w, 3d old seedling. Gender unknown,strain unknown. Mystery Latvian bagseed. I came here 2 days ago looking for help because my seedling appeared to have stopped growing and the tips of my first two serrated leaves had turned down. The forum helped confirm my fear that I was over-watering so I backed off and it recovered. Now the leaf tips are pointing up much more and I'm afraid that now it might be tacoing due to too much light or heat. Are the leaf tips just "perky" and recovered? or Are they tacoing from too much heat and light? Saber brand daylight 600w mh bulb, 48"x24"x60" mylar lined Gorilla grow tent, lights suspended approx 26" from plant, potted in a 50/50 perlite/vermiculite soiless mix in a 5 gal plastic bucket. Only 1 (nutrient added) watering so far with infused RO water. Nutirents are Advanced Nutrients (Grow Micro & Bloom) 1ml each to 1 liter of water per instuctions. Water is ph'd at 6.0. Humidity in my tent is 43%,daytime temp with light on is 82. Evening temp with light on is 78. When light is off for 6 hours from 1am-7am the temp gets very low and can sometimes reach a scary 66. To remedy this I have purchased a space heater which for the past 2 days has kept the temp around 76 at lights out. I am also concerned that the temp drop with other factors may be slowing it's growth. Misting lightly every hour to prevent light burn. Waiting for medium to dry out a bit before watering again. Is my seedling a normal size for it's age? and is what I'm observing with the leaves the infamous "taco effect" growers commonly refer to? How do I remedy this? Many thanks in advance. xxo
I dont really know, I suck at seedlings. Seems like a solid set up. I started a bunch of seedlings a while back under a 600w MH at about 36", kept the temp under 80 and they thrived. One thing I would say would be start them in a Dixie cup size container and plant up accordingly. I have seen with my own eyes the benefits of this practice. In those 5 gallon buckets they will spend WAY to much time growing their roots into that pot and upward and outward growth will be slow for a long time, Best of luck (~};-]
Thanks for your fast reply. I don't know how true it is but I have heard that plants kept under low heat high humidity become females and high heat low humidity produces males. I have also heard that there's a 90% true case of where a sprout emerges from the seed can predict sex. I hope I'm not wasting all this time on a male plant but on the flipside it's a good test plant and cheap bagseed all the same so I'm not wasting top notch seeds. I'm worried about those leaves pointing up but I removed the seedling from the tent for 2 hours and let it sit just outside the tent and no change so not sure if it is stressed and needs more time outside the tent to recover than what I gave it or if it was never stressed to begin with. Should I xplant it into something smaller? Scared to handle it but if I dixie cup it I can easy transplant it back by cutting the bottom of the cup off. Just scared to move it and snap roots. What you said about the bucket makes perfect sense. The reason I started in something that big is I'm scared to handle the plant,especially while so small. I even get scared and jump back a bit when I accidentally touch it while watering. Lol. Noob times. I'll really laugh at these early experiences one day but for now I just want my weed to grow already!!!
seedlings are like the hardest stage of growth, IMHO I'd keep trying to germ bagseed until it thrives and you get a handle on that stage, once they hit veg they get fairly resistant, mine are taco ed hard today but since bounced back after a light misting, also solo cups are great , the seedling will spend more energy creating a root system instead of veg growth, they can comfortably grow up to 4-5 inches in solo cups
Thanks for this info. Atleast I know not to worry b/c while I may waste some money and light,ultimately they WILL grow. I have a sprout now that I was allowing to germ in water and it's just 2 cyto leaves and a tendril. How do I plant it into a cup?..Just tendril down and wait for it to take root?
yes plant the root down, the husk will fall off revealing the two starting leaves, put about 2-3mm below surface lightly cover and keep moist, I usually put cling wrap over the top of the cup until it sprouts
I heard that you can predict the plant's gender by where the sprout emerges from the seed is this true?
No it's not, it's genetic. The seed itself is either male or female and nothing you do or observe will change it. You can predict a female seed though by making sure both parents are female, one needs to be coaxed to turn hermaphrodite then when they breed they only have female genes and only have female babies. that's the only way to predict females to my knowledge that works. Hermie babies are all girls.
So if I have hermies among this mystery seed I should keep them? Do they self pollinate or do they need "help"?
If it Hermies it means the parent was most likely a hermie, to produce female seeds you have to follow a rather scientific method of apply some chemicals and what not trying to get the female to produce male parts, since it is already only female chromosomes it will only have female offsprings, therefor some people find hermies undesirable unless they caused it intentionally , just my opinion , search on here in advanced techniques i think how to pollenate, should find the more exact method
if I get hermies though I may cut down and cook edibles as a last resort , seed production tends to halt thc production
i pluck the balls every day when i get hermies, always miss a few so i get a few seeds. i just collect them and replant later on. Beats buying more and i don't get many. If you let a hermie go it will pollinate your whole grow area. I've always had problems that more than likely caused it when i got hermies. Lucky this run so far.
If I start buying feminized seeds from a seed bank the seeds are guaranteed fem though right? I'm working with mystery seeds and I'm scared here's a higher ratio of males. I just can't afford to waste electricity and resources on plants that will pose a threat to others and have no use. I Also have limited grow space so I need to occupy that with female plants. Any good seed banks that ship to the USA? I'm worried some I've come across online aren't reputable.
You really don't want to use any nutrients during the seedling stage, only water. It looks like your seedlings are stretching for the light, making their stems weaker. Try to bring the light closer to the plants or raise the pot the plants are in to see if that helps. I would hold off on nutrients at this stage. Also, be careful not to overwater at this stage. I wouldn't "pour" water on your soil, maybe a dropper to water a bit around the stem. You don't want your roots "drowning" in water (roots grow by reaching for dry areas in the growing medium) ChaoticGood Sent from my iPhone using Grasscity Forum
I placed my surviving seedling closer to the light however I have 2 yellow tips on my first 2 serrated leaves that appear to be light burn. I may need a 400w bulb. This 600w may be too intense.
hey you can also veg with cfls, they work wonders on young plants that done need intense lighting right away,also saves on electric bill, try to find CFL rated 6500k , usually easy to find and rather cheap go for at least 40 real watts don't be fooled by the box look for real wattage, maybe 80w to get it a few weeks old