Problem With Seedling In Cococoir, Please Help.

[elcolombiano]

So, this morning (at 7 am, right now its 1 pm) I woke up to find 1 of 3 seedlings looking a bit weak. Her stem was curvy and she seemed to be growing taller , and skinnier, than the other two. Also its two young single point leaves are pointing up, not horizontal as the other two seedlings or as they were yesterday. I did notice that the surface of her substrate (cococoir) seemed to be drying up faster than that of the other seedlings and that close to the substrate the stem looked green and thinner while the rest of the stem upwards was a bit ticker and had darker tone.
I also notice that her her tap root seems to have grown horizontal, since I see a root against the cup's side, about an inch lower than substrate surface. Seeing her substrate dry I though it could be dryness, so since I was already planning to water with low EC solution to keep the cations balanced in the coir, i thought that that it would fix it.

As soon as i watered (from above), the plant dropped to its side, bending right there at the slim/greener bottom part of the stem. I immediately gave it some support and put it next to my window to receive sun light and warmth (A previous seedling a few weeks back that I had under a CFL on my desk, which is normally a cold place in my room, also got lanky after a watering, but recovered a few minutes after i put it in a warmer place). After a while, The top part of the plant (above the greener/slimmer part) seems to be healthy, perking right up... but after almost four hours next to the window i still can't remove its support or it falls right back down.

So i was hopping i could receive some advice and maybe an explanation to this problem I'm facing...
I was planning to add more coir and cover the stem about half an inch above the slimmer/greener part, giving it more support than the one receiving right now, and maybe covering that part helps it recover.
I think maybe I hit the plant last night and broke the stem without noticing, or maybe the lateral growing tap root has something to do. The other two seedling are receiving the same treatment as her and are very healthy, and the watering didn't affect them.

Here is some additional info and a photographs ate the end for visual aid.
1. Are you growing from seed or clones? From Seed
2. How old are your plants? Germinated on the 21st of Dec, passed on to cococoir and sprouted on the 23rd.
3. How tall are your plants? a bit over 2 inches
4. What type of hydro system are you using? coco-coir in a palstic cup, mineral nutes.
5. What brand/type of nutrients are you using? no name brand.
6. What is the Ph of your nutrient solution? 5.6-5.8
7. What is the PPM/EC of your tap water? 0.1 EC
8. What is the PPM/EC of your nutrient solution? 0.4-0.5
9. What is the temperature of your nutrient solution? 22 C / 70-72 F
10. Does your PPM/EC show a rise or fall when you do your daily PPM check?
11. Does your pH show a rise or fall when you do your daily check?
12. Do you foliar feed or spray your plants with anything? No.
13. What kind of lights do you use and how many watts combined? (HPS, MH, fluorescent, halogen, incandescent "plant lights") 1 citizen 1812 cob run at aprox 65 W.
14. How close are your lights to the plants? 28 inches
15. What size is your grow space in square feet? 2x2
16. What is the temperature and humidity in your grow space? humidity around 40 adn temp around 80 F during lights on, around 60 rh and 71 during lights out.
17. Have you noticed any insect activity in your grow space? No
18. How much experience do you have growing? some

Photo of the patient:

Thanks for any input.

 

[ladiesbstfrd]

So, this morning (at 7 am, right now its 1 pm) I woke up to find 1 of 3 seedlings looking a bit weak. Her stem was curvy and she seemed to be growing taller , and skinnier, than the other two. Also its two young single point leaves are pointing up, not horizontal as the other two seedlings. I did notice that the surface of her substrate (cococoir) seemed to be drying up faster than that of the other seedlings and that close to the substrate the stem looked green and thinner while the rest of the stem upwards was a bit ticker and had darker tone.
I also notice that her her tap root seems to have grown horizontal, since I see a root against the cup's side, about an inch lower than substrate surface. Seeing her substrate dry I though it could be dryness, so since I was already planning to water with low EC solution to keep the cations balanced in the coir, i thought that that it would fix it.

As soon as i watered (from above), the plant dropped to its side, bending right there at the slim/greener bottom part of the stem. I immediately gave it some support and put it next to my window to receive sun light and warmth (A previous seedling a few weeks back that I had under a CFL on my desk, which is normally a cold place in my room, also got lanky after a watering, but recovered a few minutes after i put it in a warmer place). After a while, The top part of the plant (above the greener/slimmer part) seems to be healthy, perking right up... but after almost four hours next to the window i still can't remove its support or it falls right back down.

So i was hopping i could receive some advice and maybe an explanation to this problem I'm facing...
I was planning to add more coir and cover the stem about half an inch above the slimmer/greener part, giving it more support than the one receiving right now, and maybe covering that part helps it recover.
I think maybe I hit the plant last night and broke the stem without noticing, or maybe the lateral growing tap root has something to do. The other two seedling are receiving the same treatment as her and are very healthy, and the watering didn't affect them.

Here is some additional info and a photographs ate the end for visual aid.
1. Are you growing from seed or clones? From Seed
2. How old are your plants? Germinated on the 21st of Dec, passed on to cococoir and sprouted on the 23rd.
3. How tall are your plants? a bit over 2 inches
4. What type of hydro system are you using? coco-coir in a palstic cup, mineral nutes.
5. What brand/type of nutrients are you using? no name brand.
6. What is the Ph of your nutrient solution? 5.6-5.8
7. What is the PPM/EC of your tap water? 0.1 EC
8. What is the PPM/EC of your nutrient solution? 0.4-0.5
9. What is the temperature of your nutrient solution? 22 C / 70-72 F
10. Does your PPM/EC show a rise or fall when you do your daily PPM check?
11. Does your pH show a rise or fall when you do your daily check?
12. Do you foliar feed or spray your plants with anything? No.
13. What kind of lights do you use and how many watts combined? (HPS, MH, fluorescent, halogen, incandescent "plant lights") 1 citizen 1812 cob run at aprox 65 W.
14. How close are your lights to the plants? 28 inches
15. What size is your grow space in square feet? 2x2
16. What is the temperature and humidity in your grow space? humidity around 40 adn temp around 80 F during lights on, around 60 rh and 71 during lights out.
17. Have you noticed any insect activity in your grow space? No
18. How much experience do you have growing? some

Photo of the patient:
View attachment 848427

Thanks for any input.

Move your light closer and build around the stock for support

 

[ladiesbstfrd]

At this stage you should not be feeding nutes, just keep the coco moist and for sure bring the lights closer

 

[ladiesbstfrd]

I'm by far no expert,still learning myself with seedlings, this is my first trail with them myself. But I have learned that seedlings need light almost on top of them without burning them.jer are my seedlings which are about 2weeks

 

[elcolombiano]

Move your light closer and build around the stock for support

my problem with that idea would be that yesterday, when she was smaller, here leaves were horiztonal, but today that she is almost twice as tall, here leaves are pointing upwards, as displaying that she's receiving too much light. so im affreaid of getting here closer.

I'm by far no expert,still learning myself with seedlings, this is my first trail with them myself. But I have learned that seedlings need light almost on top of them without burning them.jer are my seedlings which are about 2weeks

beauties.. i hope mine look like that soon!

 

[elcolombiano]

At this stage you should not be feeding nutes, just keep the coco moist and for sure bring the lights closer

I am following @justiceman 's steps... he provides .2-.4 EC waterings during seedling. And it seems to be working with the other two seedling that are growing with this problematic one, as well as having worked with two seedling i had a few weeks back that are now at a friend house growing quite well.
I think its the seedling fault, either too weak or needs more of something, but just can't tell. Thats why i think i damaged it at some point between last night and today.

I will build around the stock for support as you said. got some coco coir buffering in soultion right now.

 

[ladiesbstfrd]

When I first popped these seeds I had 12, only these 7 popped, I had 2 of these pointing straight up, I didnt have enough light muscle,once I brought the light closer they took off, that was with 4r cfls,

 

[ladiesbstfrd]

It could be genetics, post pics of healthier ones for comparison

 

[stanknkatz]

Looks like it's trying to dampen off to me. Stretching is from light being too far away. Iuse a light bar with 3 Sansi 40w LED's on seedlings.

 

[elcolombiano]

@ladiesbstfrd , @stanknkatz , thanks for the input! but i think i found the problem and its solution.

i topped the cup of the seedling with more moist cococoir to support it instead of the toothpick, and it stopped the falling down, so i left it like that while i went for lunch.
additionally, I wanted to confirm if RH wasn't the culprit so i lowered RH below 40 (35%)... came back after 4 hours, it's still at 35, and the initial seedling is frimly erect and leaves are starting to get horizontal... BUT the other seedlings are wilting away from the light, and the one most wilted of them has a huge root poking out the bottom of the cup, which wasn't there today.

So, I guess my humidity levels are too low for seedlings... maybe because
"Plants acquire carbon dioxide from the atmosphere in which they are growing; this requires that the plants open their stomata and capture carbon dioxide. Opening the stomata also causes water to be drawn up through the plant from roots to shoots to the leaves and, ultimately, the atmosphere. This process causes the plant to acquire water from the soil medium, which is laden with nutrients. Therefore, the following can occur if humidity is not balanced correctly:

1. With very low humidity, the plant is drawing water from the soil at a very high rate, and if the humidity is too low, the plant is unable to draw water at a rate equal to loss through the stomatal openings. The result is that the plants close their stomata, which slows the photosynthetic process (due to carbon limitations) and leads to stress, slow growth and compromised yield. Under severely low humidity, the plant will wilt and die because even its protective mechanisms cannot offset the water stress imposed by the lack of atmospheric water." (https://www.cannabisbusinesstimes.com/article/moisture-matters/)

I have raised RH to 50%, and will wait till night to see how it has affected. If that doesn't bring back the wilted seedling, wi will put closer to light source.

 

[elcolombiano]

so, in case it serves others as reference, problem was not entirely low humidity... it was that plus too strong nutes for such a young sprout... last night they were recovering from wilting when checked but i kept seeing their leaves way too dark and smaller than in the morning, like they were starting to claw... especially the one with the initial problem.
so I lowered the EC of them to 0.3 (it was at 0.5 without counting ph adjuster) and this morning they continued growing and leaves are looking better.

I used to pass first to peat, just feed pH'd water, then transplant to coco coir and strat feeding at 0.4-0.5 EC but wish i could skip the peat... but germing straight in coco is proving a bit more difficult than expected, dunno why i didnt realize i shouldve giving them weaker nutes. duh....

 

[justiceman]

I wouldn't worry too much about it. .2EC is fine for them at the very beginning. Just make sure to keep the feed strength below .4EC while they are still that small and keep it supported with that little stick or what ever you can think of. Usually this happens because of a lack of light. Could be a genetic thing too. It will grow out of it in time. Not all seedlings are equal and that's why some plant more than they need and cull the stragglers, but not all can afford to do this.