Thanks for taking time to read this. I have grown several times before but always from cuttings in the past, this is my first time from seed so I am not used to caring for plants this young. I have 5 white widow seedlings grown from seed which, while waiting for me to build a grow room, spent 2 weeks on a window sill. This caused them to stretch, but 3 days ago I transferred them to the grow room (in my garden shed) and I assume this problem will sort itself out. All 5 are growing under a 400w Philips Son-T Agro lamp throwing out 55,000 lumens. The top leaves are approx 50cm from the bulb and it does not seem too hot when I put my hand there (although I have not got an accurate temperature reading yet). The light is on 18/6 at the moment. The grow room has an extractor fan and also a stand alone fan for circulation. I water every 2-3 days (in the pics, I have just watered) and the last time I watered I added a little 1/2 strength Ionic soil grow nutrient solution. The problem is that one of the young plants this morning when I checked has very dry crispy leaves which crumble when touched. It's environment is exactly the same as the others, all of which seem to be healthy. The first pic shows the problem plant from above, the second shows it next to one of the healthy seelings. Does anyone have any ideas why this is happening to just one plant and what action I should take. Could it be heat related, watering or nutrients? This plant seemed to be the strongest of all of them until today and I was hoping to use it as a mother to clone from when it was older.
The crispyness is probably caused by a few things. First, if you have a seedling, don't feed it any nutes until it's about 3-4 weeks old. and when you do, go at 1/4th strength. Try and get a temp reading from under your lights. And what is the humidity in the area?
looks burned to me man.. what kind of soil are you using, and like rev said chill on the nutes for a few weeks.
Thanks for the replies.... Just found my temp probe and taken a reading......93F. The grow bible says that around 75F is the ideal but how do I reduce the temp if I already have an extractor fan and a stand alone fan. Is it as simple as raising the lights? If so, by how much and will this not cause more stretching? I won't use nutes again for another few weeks either.
raising the light is only a temporary solution, you're light is at the correct heighth now. First of all you need to evaluate how warm the air is outside of your groom(grow room.) If the air you're taking into your groom isn't under 80 then you're never going to get your temps down to a reasonable level. If you do have your temps down outside then you just need more fans. I have 4 fans in 400 watt setup to keep things cool. You don't need to get it down to 75, anything under 80 will be fine. Also, watch how much you are watering. If you can dig down and find wet soil, then you don't need to water. There should be a noticable difference in the weight of the plants pot when it's dry and wet.
hey man try taking a straw the length of the stem, splitting it and carefullly putting the stem in it to support it, thentry to push the straw into your soil alittle to get some support, dont go too deep or you will damage the baby's roots. this will prevent the frgile stems from falling over. Lower your lights down a little, looks like burn to me to. try to find a cheap window unit and let it run on a thermostat, it will keep your temps down to the level you want, i had the stretch problem too and after the straw and a twisty tie, my stems out grew the straw and it fell off, it was the perfect solution for stretching. Flush those babies with 24 hour old tap water with the corrected ph. give it some time and see the life come back. Do not quit, they told me to start over and i am now having to top mine to let my new babies catch up, but they r thriving now. and starting to smell. Use some carbon filter sheet to stop the smell from exiting when thy do start to smell.
Thanks for all your replies guys. Unfortunately the sickest plant died, it is now just a stem with no leaves whatsoever but I have it still just in case there is a miraculous 'second coming' and it rises from the dead. The other 4 though are still holding on, thriving even. I will take your advice about the straws and from what you say there is every chance they will live (at least until I kill them in some other way!). You've given me hope, thanks.
yeah man no problem, sorry about the other baby, it would have broken my heart had mine died, they r like kids