My babies are pathetic!!! Help?

Ok, I think this new grow I'm doing is cursed. Really. I started off wrong by cooking the vast majority of my seeds on my heating mat :BangHead: And now that the remaining survivors are seedlings, they're not looking so hot right now either.


I've got them stuffed in my cedar closet in my basement with a very small heater (my house is forever cold, and it's the smallest room to heat up ATM...)


Temps stay around 72, humidity is ~28%. I know that's low - I mist them every couple of days.


I had a threat of mites early on, so I threw a Hot Shot strip in there, so I expected some little tiny spots on my leaves. Never saw buggies on my babies, but little white dots, and I had a massive infestation on my last grow here. Safe >sorry....


They are in vermiculite, have been since sprout. This usually works great for me. Always pH'ed water to 6.0, one light feeding two waters ago. I mixed up 2.0 ml Microbloom (5-0-1) in a gallon of water, so super light feed. A week later, they start looking like shit. It's hard to think this is from nutes, because that's a really light feeding, but I dunno. They don't all look the same tho...




















Not all of them look the same, some have tipped ends, some have completely dried leaves, some have spots. Man, I feel like a tard. Cloning is so much easier...


Oh.... The roots are visible on the sides of the cup - I'm going to transplant to a bigger pot this weekend. Would light affect them at all?


(There are a few tomatoes in there too Ignore those...)


Thanks in advance for helping a forgetful ding dong who's lost her green thumb!!!! :crybaby2:


GTWT


:XXhippylove:

 

Hey GTWT


I may be wrong but it looks like the cups they are in are NOT light proof. If light is hitting the roots they wont develope properly. Secondly doesnt cedar give off gasses that may not be good for the lil ones? Isnt that why cedar closets are used to ward off moths and bugs because the cedar is noxious? Again I could be completely wrong here

 

Yeah, they are see-thru blue cups. I can see roots. I've been busy as hell lately, and was planning on repotting on Friday....


Dunno about the cedar, that's why I threw it in there.... My furnace is on the fritz, so I'm heating my house with a wood stove, and I have a small tower heater in the basement to keep it around 50. Pretty chilly down there. That's why I put everything in the cedar closet - it's small....


Anyone know about cedar and plants???


GTWT


:XXhippylove:

 

I've used vermiculite quite a bit, both for MJ and regular plants. As far as the science of verm, from what I've read, it's like a more refined perlite. There shouldn't be any chemical or pH effect from it.


I used sort of the 3 part formula for my last hempy grow - it was only 2 part, as recommended by t6. Nutes were fine, t'was the mites that got me last time. (never seen full-blown webs sprout up in 2 days....)


I thought my pH range was 5.8-6.0. for hydro, yes?


So if it's a possible lockout, wtf do I do with them? I know for full sized plants you would flush really well, but these babes are a tad small - seems like a flush might mess them up or saturate them.... :dontknow:


Like I said, I plan on repotting Friday. New growth looks good, it's the bottom leaves that look like shit.


GTWT


:XXhippylove:

 

Don't know about cedar being a problem, but those CFL's look pretty close to the plants, and the wrong color for veg. I use those same bulbs for vegging, just the blue spectrum.


I know the common wisdom is to get the light as close to the plant as possible without causing harm. But I have gotten them too close and burned my young plants a few times. They looked like yours do now. I would back the lights off some. Worse case scenario is they grow a little slower.


Also i'm sure you know those bulbs actually get hot. Tube CFL's don't get warm enough to hurt a plant, and I have had seedlings actually grow touching the tube type bulb itself. But those curly little suckers get almost too hot to touch.


It looks to me like you are roasting them. Low RH and lights too close and wrong spectrum for veg.


People use cedar mulch in perennial flower beds. I doubt the cedar has anything to do with your problem.


my 2 cents!

 

I think they are hungry.

 

BTW your thumb's not green or white. It's a fleshy color.

 

They need dolomite lime, H202, and Epsom Salt. Tea.


Lights do look close, but hard to tell from the perspectives. Still don't want them much higher being CFLs and all.

 

I would repot those back into some perlite and FEED THEM!


T6

 

Nip, aren't you married?


Those cfls look fine. I'd leave them where they are. Mine only burn when they actually touch. If they go up too high the plants will stretch and get thin, not slow down growth. It looks like the roots were too wet and the plants underfed and wether your using the 2 part or the 3 part you should be using either the 2 parts or the 3 parts, you can't leave one out. Don't know about the cedar but my first thoughts went right with BB. Cedar mulch and outside are two completely different animals. A cedar closet (drawer, chest, ect.) should be pretty air tight and the odors something to think about.


Just my $.02

 

Its got nothing to do with the cedar in the mulch!


http://garden-mulch.mywisdombase.com/Articles/3_Fallacies_About_Cedar_Mulch_Debunked.php


They may be a little damp but not overly and I think they just need a good feeding. I also dont think they are getting enough light. You would be better off running a t5 set on them for veg. All they need is adequate nutirents and strong light to process them.


Cheers


Teamster6

 

...what he said...makes perfect sense...they appear to be light/heat burnd...repot...change lights or get plants further away from ones your using now...good potting soil like ocean forest by foxfarms would bring them out of their funk...best o' luck!!...

 

I think they need to be fed. The lights are fine, IMO.

 

Again...


Tea: Dolomite lime, epsom salt, and H2O2. It will solve your problem till you are in flower.


Depending on what you feed them it will only get worse. More so if you do not want to transplant.

 

Lime controls the PH and Epsom adds what little plants need as in MG and calcium. The H2O2 kills bad stuff and promotes oxygen intake.


If you have plants before flower, this three step tea will help you. I've been promoting this for years and Useless has said nothing. If I am wrong, I am wrong, but that is the best feed for early plants despite the soil unless it is hot. It also works for hydro because all the ingredients are solidable if you make a tea.


This isn't a crazy idea, it is the basic things a young plant needs, and for some reason this issue comes up with CFLs more than any other setup.

 

That is why I use coffee/tea filters for making my tea. The lime will not incorporate for days, but the buffering effects will transfer over when making a tea.