Why are my girls curling so bad?

[Kopper1013]

Hey y’all my girls are about 20 days old.

They’re planted in FFOF
They are in small 2” seed starting jiffy-pots
Light cycle is 20/4 at 100%
Light is a Yehsence 2000 and it’s 18” above the girls.
I have a fan blowing over them (just tickling them)
I’m watering with tap water that has sat with a drop of dawn dish soap cause the soil was repelling the water.
The containers with the seeds and dirt fresh from the bag weighted 27g so I’ve been letting them dry out to 25-27g before watering again. This usually takes 48hrs (seems quick but I’m just going off scale)
I water till run off, and I use a squirt bottle to apply the water so it’s even.

I’m guessing I’m over loving them.
I struggle with that cause if they’re growing and I’m weighing them out to the same as dry soil how is it over love??

 

[MEGA956]

I wait about 3 days to water, I was also running FFOF. I don't use a squirt bottle, though. I give plenty of water.

 

[2Bad]

Looks underwatered. You don't want it to be bone dry it causes hydrophobia and kills microbes.

 

[GNick55]

stop using soap and have patience watering

 

[2Bad]

What's the light situation looking like? Distance? model? intensity?

 

[GNick55]

will you be transplanting out of those pots or planting them with those pots?.
if you want your seedling to grow a bit faster than transplant into a cup with more depth compared to width.. providing environment etc is correct..
i use small shot glass size cups to start seeds also but i’m in no rush to grow plants “faster” generally.. and i find it more safer to start out in tiny shot glass size cups..

 

[Scotty420]

What's the light situation looking like? Distance? model? intensity?

It says in the OP, it's a 200 watt light 18" over the plant at 100%. Seems a little much to me. When my babies were that size I had a 100 watt light over them at 20-24" at 80%. Even with much bigger plants I still only have them under 2 100 watt lights at 70% set to 20" over plants.

These 2 are 21 days old, basically same as the plants in the OP. Something definitely isn't right they should be growing faster than that.

 

[2Bad]

It says in the OP, it's a 200 watt light 18" over the plant at 100%. Seems a little much to me. When my babies were that size I had a 100 watt light over them at 20-24" at 80%. Even with much bigger plants I still only have them under 2 100 watt lights at 70% set to 20" over plants.

These 2 are 21 days old, basically same as the plants in the OP. Something definitely isn't right they should be growing faster than that.

Oopsie good looks Scotty! Yeah too much light for sure. I have a 100 watts on my clones at 36 inches and they're growing like weeddssss lol but def needs to water before it's bone dry too.

 

[mysticepipedon]

I don't think they're getting enough water, either.

Try soaking the entire peat pot in a pan of water, let all the soil get wet, then don't water again until they're light. When you soak them thoroughly, if they're much heavier than when you've been watering with a squirt bottle, that's probably the answer.

It's hard to believe tiny plants like that could suck the water out of those peat pots in 48 hours, unless the soil isn't wet.

 

[Madbud]

How heavy after you water them? They need a good drink.

 

[2Bad]

I don't think they're getting enough water, either.

Try soaking the entire peat pot in a pan of water, let all the soil get wet, then don't water again until they're light. When you soak them thoroughly, if they're much heavier than when you've been watering with a squirt bottle, that's probably the answer.

It's hard to believe tiny plants like that could suck the water out of those peat pots in 48 hours, unless the soil isn't wet.

I love this idea. DUNK EM!

 

[Scotty420]

I don't think they're getting enough water, either.

Try soaking the entire peat pot in a pan of water, let all the soil get wet, then don't water again until they're light. When you soak them thoroughly, if they're much heavier than when you've been watering with a squirt bottle, that's probably the answer.

It's hard to believe tiny plants like that could suck the water out of those peat pots in 48 hours, unless the soil isn't wet.

Yeah mine were in starter trays with slightly larger cells than normal trays. Roughly 2"x2" cells, I bottom watered & the first 2 watering's lasted about 5 days each. Then they pretty quickly went down to every other day. I will second the suggestion that you check weight after watering them to see how much water they're taking. I had similar issues that turned out to just be a bad bag of soil. As soon as it dried out even slightly it would go hydrophobic & would never take on water. Water would just puddle at the surface , I would have to disturb the soil to get it to go in at all & then it would just run past the dirt & immediately start running off. Just because you get runoff doesn't mean your soil is saturated. Get a pot fil it with fresh soil & completely saturate it, then weigh it. Take a weight after watering to make sure the pots are getting close to the same weight as your test pot.

 

[Kopper1013]

will you be transplanting out of those pots or planting them with those pots?.
if you want your seedling to grow a bit faster than transplant into a cup with more depth compared to width.. providing environment etc is correct..
i use small shot glass size cups to start seeds also but i’m in no rush to grow plants “faster” generally.. and i find it more safer to start out in tiny shot glass size cups..

I’m not trying to grow faster, just grow I plan to pull them out of these pots and eventually move to outdoors when the weather breaks, they’ll go to 1gal pots before that…

I can definitely soak them I’ve just been afraid of over watering I can turn down the lights also

Also I did my math wrong, they broke through the soil on the 22nd of April so they’re 12days old

 

[2Bad]

I’m not trying to grow faster, just grow I plan to pull them out of these pots and eventually move to outdoors when the weather breaks, they’ll go to 1gal pots before that…

I can definitely soak them I’ve just been afraid of over watering I can turn down the lights also

Also I did my math wrong, they broke through the soil on the 22nd of April so they’re 12days old

Oh you're good. overwatering means watering too often. that's it. so soaking them ISNT overwatering.
edit: fix your light too raise it to 30 inches and lower the intensity to 25%.

 

[Scotty420]

I’m not trying to grow faster, just grow I plan to pull them out of these pots and eventually move to outdoors when the weather breaks, they’ll go to 1gal pots before that…

I can definitely soak them I’ve just been afraid of over watering I can turn down the lights also

Also I did my math wrong, they broke through the soil on the 22nd of April so they’re 12days old

LOL yeah that's not so bad then.

When I was bottom watering I would fill the bottom tray with water set the starter tray in it, then spritz from the top & leave it soaking in the water for 20-30 minutes. They seemed to love it. As posted above over watering is usually watering too often, not too much at a time. Soak them & leave them alone for at least 3 days until they start to develop more roots & they will start needing it more often.