My seedlings keep dying & not growing

[ArtfulCodger]

If cutting back on water and nutes doesn't do the trick, I'd consider turning your lights down. There are a lot of ways to grow successfully, so I'm not claiming to have THE way, but here's a lighting scheme that has worked for me for years. For the first month from seed, my plants are under a single 25 watt fluorescent T5, adjusted to stay 6 inches above the tops of the seedlings. It might be 100 ppfd. Maybe a little less. After a month or so of that, around the time the plants outgrow the seedling setup, I put them in the veg tent, under 25% of my finishing light intensity. I run like that for three weeks. On the first day of the fourth week of veg (V4D1), I bump the lights up to 50% of finishing intensity. They stay like that until I have enough canopy to fill half my flower space, and continue through the first two weeks of flower. On F3D1, the lights bump up to 75% of finishing intensity. On F6D1, they go to 100% of finishing intensity.

Considerations: the big one, obviously, is what is finishing light intensity? In hand-watered soil, without supplementing CO2, a perfect grow in my garden might finish around 35 watts of modern LED per square foot of canopy. A lot of people will say that's low. I'm trying to finish with a tent full of healthy plants. The second consideration is that no recipe is 100% right, and plants don't care what a light meter says. Plants that are happy with the light level have flat, level, big, green leaves. When they pray an hour before lights-out, they're ready for more light. When they canoe, taco, curl, twist, angle down, or anything else that reduces surface area, they want less light. Turning the lights up on sick plants is always wrong. It just makes them get sicker, faster.

OK, I'll get off my soapbox. Good luck with your grow.

 

[cannafarmer420]

I use happy frog soil, keep my humidity at 70% and 75 to 80 F TEMP
KEEP IT SIMPLE. you are doing a lot of stuff

 

[3cats]

Hey guys,

So I went through a few communities & I'd like to ask here, too. I just love to get a few opinions here and there.

For whatever reason, I keep killing my seedlings / young veg plants. The germination always works wonderfully, they thrive in the first few days (5-10 days), but suddenly they always stop growing, and then become yellow & die soon.

Here are a few infos:

* Peat based substrate (BioBizz Light Mix), with perlite, worm castings, all that stuff. Also used Potting MIx, and also used BioBizz All Mix in a few attempts, always the same outcome.
* MarsHydro FC3000 light measuring around 250-350PPFD at plant height
* Temperatures around 70-77°F / Humidity 60-75% (Automated)
* 18/6 cycle
* BioBizz nutrient line, always just using Root Juice for seedlings, with some Bio Heaven here and there. All just organic stuff.
* PH after adding stimulants is at 6.3-6.5, with PPM at 400-450. PH Pen is Apera PH20, fully calibrated with 2 point calibration every few days.
* Water is dechlorinated and sits at room temperature of 70°F
* Exhaust fan works, slight negative pressure inside the tent
* Oscillating fan is moving air around, and creates a slight breeze around the plants
* Pots are tiny plastic pots with lots of holes at the bottom. I do have fabric pots, but they're too large right now (1 / 3 / 7 gallon fabric pots)
* Pots are always measured before transplanting the seed into them, to see the 100% dry weight. Then afterwards they're watered, and will get watered as soon as 85-90% of water-weight is gone.
* Myco cultures are always added into the soil as additive.

Yet they.. die. They all stop growing, and just yellow & die off. They don't fall down (damping off), they are sturdy, but they just stop their growth. Here are a few example pictures of my 2 last plants:


This is my current plant at 13 days now after germination. Growth has stopped as of the 6th day or so. Then the yellowing of new growth, and yellowing slightly creeping up the lower first leaves, too. Don't worry about the soil, it was watered a few seconds before I took this image, it looked fine afterwards.

View attachment 2034774
___________________

This was my older plant:

It was over 21 days old already, and stopped its growth around 14 days in. Then the whole plant became pale yellow-ish, and died, with the lower tips turning grey-ish brown.

View attachment 2034775

I've heard several things already: Peat moss is bad, potting mix is bad, everything is bad. I honestly don't know what to use anymore, as everyone hates whatever I'm using and doing. My run-off PH is apparently bad at 7.2, yet others say runoff does literally not matter as long as the input water is PHed correctly. I use fully organic nutrients in "organic" soilless substrate, so I follow the rules of the manufacturer (BioBizz) with 6.3 PH, sometimes 0.1 or 0.2 more. I've heard that I shouldn't let my medium dry out, I've heard that I water too often, I've heard that they got a deficiency, yet the substrate has enough nutrients for 2-4 weeks, and my newest seedling is already yellowing after a few days, with almost no growth at all.

Is it the placement of my tent? It's in a slightly bigger empty storage room, in a corner, with one window a few feet away that I open sometimes. But I've seen grows done in tiny rooms with no aeration, which tells me that it can't be the cause. Is it my watering schedule? I did let them dry out almost fully, I tried everything, but they still stop growing for some reason.

I just.. don't know what to do anymore. I'm just absolutely confused. It's sad to open the tent every day, with the seedling literally looking like 5 days before, but it somehow isn't dead, it's just doing nothing and slowly yellowing. I LOVE these plants with all my heart, yet I see them die everytime because something is just severely wrong, yet I don't know what. I'm completely clueless and I need help.

Hey I'm new here but a long time grower. Try this. Once you have your seed sprouted place it in a solo cup full of saturated soil. I use peat based mixes like promix, Sunshine mix and a few others id doesn;t matter to me what ever is the best price at the time. You can add some worm castings but don't go overboard with supplements just yet.

Keep it under your light but not too bright give the babies time to grow.

I find at 78f the solo cups dry in about 5-6 days. After that just saturate with more water not RO there is nothing in RO water then let dry again. The solo cups need holes on the bottom and I perforate the sides as well in 4-6 spots just for air to help proper dry back of the soil. after 14 - 20 days of water only start with a light feed.

I use GH nutes and 2ml/2ml/2ml/ gal of my micro/grow/bloom and build from there on a once a week feed. My plants need fluid every 3-4 days so it works with a water feed cycle perfectly

 

[Oldchucky]

I use HF in 9 ounce solos. distilled water under cheap barrina grow lights for the first three weeks or so. No added food. Just two cents.

 

[Shneex0338]

I keep it simple, that's the problem. I just tried several different substrates over the past.. 3 months? And killed around 5 plants already, with the same symptoms every time. I don't touch them, I don't give them nutrients early on (besides root juice), in this case I just repotted early into rather dry peat substrate because maybe the soil was just too wet, and now I'll just wait. I lowered the PPFD to ~150 this time, and will see what's going to happen in a few days. I did try it once with fully saturated soil, and the seedling stopped growing again after a few days, and died. Same for slightly moist substrate. That's why I'm asking for so much help, as I tried everything without overdoing anything.

Yes I do PH my water to 6.3-6.5 right from the beginning, but that's because my tap water reads at 8, and that's just too high. Otherwise I really try to not do anything, I just let them do their thing, but they all just stop growing randomly and then yellow until they die.


Those typical "solo cups" don't exist where I live, I'm using a similar method with my newest seed though - It's a small translucent pot with lots of aeration holes on the bottom, and I put it into a second pot which is just as big (with the bottom fully cut out), but won't let any light through. I will see how this one goes, especially because I will completely hold myself back from watering. Stupid me did even do a 100% bone-dry weighing of the pot on a scale, I noted it on a piece of paper, but for whatever reason a single tiny waterdrop fell right onto the number and I didn't notice. I checked a day later, and just the number was washed away, everything else stayed untouched. That's my luck.

 

[3cats]

I keep it simple, that's the problem. I just tried several different substrates over the past.. 3 months? And killed around 5 plants already, with the same symptoms every time. I don't touch them, I don't give them nutrients early on (besides root juice), in this case I just repotted early into rather dry peat substrate because maybe the soil was just too wet, and now I'll just wait. I lowered the PPFD to ~150 this time, and will see what's going to happen in a few days. I did try it once with fully saturated soil, and the seedling stopped growing again after a few days, and died. Same for slightly moist substrate. That's why I'm asking for so much help, as I tried everything without overdoing anything.

Yes I do PH my water to 6.3-6.5 right from the beginning, but that's because my tap water reads at 8, and that's just too high. Otherwise I really try to not do anything, I just let them do their thing, but they all just stop growing randomly and then yellow until they die.


Those typical "solo cups" don't exist where I live, I'm using a similar method with my newest seed though - It's a small translucent pot with lots of aeration holes on the bottom, and I put it into a second pot which is just as big (with the bottom fully cut out), but won't let any light through. I will see how this one goes, especially because I will completely hold myself back from watering. Stupid me did even do a 100% bone-dry weighing of the pot on a scale, I noted it on a piece of paper, but for whatever reason a single tiny waterdrop fell right onto the number and I didn't notice. I checked a day later, and just the number was washed away, everything else stayed untouched. That's my luck.

What ever small pot / cup you use you should be able to feel the weight of the water when the soil is fully saturated. Before you add the seedling to the soil the soil needs to be soaked completely so that water is leaking out the bottom side and over flowing if you must just make sure its as wet as it can get. When the soil is dry you should be able to feel the weight loss of the water. Roots won't grow into dry soil.

When ever you water or feed you need to make sure the soil gets saturated. I can't stress that enough they like wet and dry cycles in soil / Promix . If you water is an issue buy a couple of bottles of Spring water. $0.99 gal walmart stuff. Too much ph down isn't good either it builds up in the soil and causes more problems. Let your water sit for a day or 2 and read again to see if the ph drops at all

 

[Choppr]

Watering is easily the #1 cause for problems for "new" cultivators. Seeds should be germinated in Pre-Moistened soil/coco (moist all the way thru - but not wet), they will not need any more water for 8-10 days after emergence, Understand, there is a single "tap root" coming out of the seedling (it can only drink maybe 1ml of water per day! Your 1st photo the pot is soaked. When the 1st 2 serrated leaves have a wingspan of about 1.5 inches, you can give them a shot glass(1 ounce) of water every other day, when they have the next set of "true" leaves and start to widen out, the will start to photosynthesize more rapidly but still only need a couple ounces of water every other day, at 3 nodes they will have a couple sets of true leaves (5 blade leaves), this is where you will think about it like this " falling rain falls on the leaves, the rain runs off of the leaves onto the ground" this is your dripline or drip-ring, now you start watering at the width of the leaves in a circle around the plant, this will cause forger roots to start expanding outward in search of water, by now (3rd or 4th node) you will still only be watering maybe 1-2 cups of water every other day. tips #1 seedlings dont need any nutrients for up to 2 weeks, #2 never water at the base of the stem (see damping-off) on seedlings. #3 Cannabis hates wet feet! also what is the wire for in your photo are you trying to train a seedling? (Please Don't!) Cannabis has grown for a millennia without human input, it knows what to do and grows best if we do very little especially at seedling stage, moistened soil and sunlight for the 1st 10 days....(some of us will pre charge our media (soil/coco) with a small amount of dry ferts, or stims but this is not necessary, advanced techniques are for later.) You need to just get through seedling stage first, hope this helps...? good luck

 

[GNick55]

I'd just like to show my setup real quick, there's nothing wrong, or? Don't mind the huge pot with the tiny seedling, it's an auto and it seems to do just fine, besides the fact that it still became a noodle with 300+ PPFD. The one in the smaller fabric pot is my now transplanted slow seedling. I bit the bullet and turned it upside down, carefully took the pot off, to check the soil. Roots were okay, several big white roots around the sides, some coming out the bottom. But the soil was VERY moist to say the least, from top to bottom. I then transplanted it into pre-saturated BioBizz Light Mix (Just almost moist, maybe 10% water content to get it started, water won't come out if I squeeze it), in hopes that it'll suck up tons of the moisture from the smaller pot now, so it evens out with the substrate being able to breathe again. I have an emergency seed ready in the tiny pot with the plastic dome, but it's more of an experimental substrate with 60% Light Mix (It already has 30% perlite), and 40% extra perlite. Just insanely airy substrate, my gutfeeling told me it's the correct decision for me right now.



I pretty much have every Biobizz product I could get my hands on, besides the microbes bottle. It's 70 bucks for 150ml, and that's.. a lot for me. Way too much to be honest. But I think it's only needed in normal soil, or? If I want to "revive" some noname product without any microbes in it. Otherwise I have every product of their line available.

is that one of those fans that moves in every direction?
i forget the name something like ____2000??

 

[LoveGrowingIt]

Watering is easily the #1 cause for problems for "new" cultivators. Seeds should be germinated in Pre-Moistened soil/coco (moist all the way thru - but not wet), they will not need any more water for 8-10 days after emergence, Understand, there is a single "tap root" coming out of the seedling (it can only drink maybe 1ml of water per day! Your 1st photo the pot is soaked. When the 1st 2 serrated leaves have a wingspan of about 1.5 inches, you can give them a shot glass(1 ounce) of water every other day, when they have the next set of "true" leaves and start to widen out, the will start to photosynthesize more rapidly but still only need a couple ounces of water every other day, at 3 nodes they will have a couple sets of true leaves (5 blade leaves), this is where you will think about it like this " falling rain falls on the leaves, the rain runs off of the leaves onto the ground" this is your dripline or drip-ring, now you start watering at the width of the leaves in a circle around the plant, this will cause forger roots to start expanding outward in search of water, by now (3rd or 4th node) you will still only be watering maybe 1-2 cups of water every other day. tips #1 seedlings dont need any nutrients for up to 2 weeks, #2 never water at the base of the stem (see damping-off) on seedlings. #3 Cannabis hates wet feet! also what is the wire for in your photo are you trying to train a seedling? (Please Don't!) Cannabis has grown for a millennia without human input, it knows what to do and grows best if we do very little especially at seedling stage, moistened soil and sunlight for the 1st 10 days....(some of us will pre charge our media (soil/coco) with a small amount of dry ferts, or stims but this is not necessary, advanced techniques are for later.) You need to just get through seedling stage first, hope this helps...? good luck

^ The best description I've ever seen.

 

[Shneex0338]

What ever small pot / cup you use you should be able to feel the weight of the water when the soil is fully saturated. Before you add the seedling to the soil the soil needs to be soaked completely so that water is leaking out the bottom side and over flowing if you must just make sure its as wet as it can get. When the soil is dry you should be able to feel the weight loss of the water. Roots won't grow into dry soil.

When ever you water or feed you need to make sure the soil gets saturated. I can't stress that enough they like wet and dry cycles in soil / Promix . If you water is an issue buy a couple of bottles of Spring water. $0.99 gal walmart stuff. Too much ph down isn't good either it builds up in the soil and causes more problems. Let your water sit for a day or 2 and read again to see if the ph drops at all

I wish I could support this, maybe my temperatures / climate just isn't made for stuff like this. I once soaked the peat substrate of my autos completely, and they almost died instantly in 2 days. Had to get them out the substrate and repot them. But I do know that many people literally soak their soil, that stuff SCARES me, yet it works for them, how ever that's possible.

Watering is easily the #1 cause for problems for "new" cultivators. Seeds should be germinated in Pre-Moistened soil/coco (moist all the way thru - but not wet), they will not need any more water for 8-10 days after emergence, Understand, there is a single "tap root" coming out of the seedling (it can only drink maybe 1ml of water per day! Your 1st photo the pot is soaked. When the 1st 2 serrated leaves have a wingspan of about 1.5 inches, you can give them a shot glass(1 ounce) of water every other day, when they have the next set of "true" leaves and start to widen out, the will start to photosynthesize more rapidly but still only need a couple ounces of water every other day, at 3 nodes they will have a couple sets of true leaves (5 blade leaves), this is where you will think about it like this " falling rain falls on the leaves, the rain runs off of the leaves onto the ground" this is your dripline or drip-ring, now you start watering at the width of the leaves in a circle around the plant, this will cause forger roots to start expanding outward in search of water, by now (3rd or 4th node) you will still only be watering maybe 1-2 cups of water every other day. tips #1 seedlings dont need any nutrients for up to 2 weeks, #2 never water at the base of the stem (see damping-off) on seedlings. #3 Cannabis hates wet feet! also what is the wire for in your photo are you trying to train a seedling? (Please Don't!) Cannabis has grown for a millennia without human input, it knows what to do and grows best if we do very little especially at seedling stage, moistened soil and sunlight for the 1st 10 days....(some of us will pre charge our media (soil/coco) with a small amount of dry ferts, or stims but this is not necessary, advanced techniques are for later.) You need to just get through seedling stage first, hope this helps...? good luck

Fun thing is, I had no problems around 8 years ago with a HPS lamp and almost no grow equipment. Didn't check ph, only had tomato nutrients, basement soil, and.. a cabinet I painted white. I topped it, LST, literally everything, I just did whatever I felt like, and it was my first ever plant. The result was this (6 or 7oz dry in the end, it's been too long):

Now I kill seedlings the second I look at it. Oh god.

I will probably print your answer just out, and stick it in front of my tiny laboratory of madness. But what would count as wet but not moist? Maybe it's a language barrier as English isn't my first language, but I guess moist is when you squeeze the soil, and water will come out, right? And wet is hopefully what my current substrate is - It feels cold to the touch when I burrow my finger half an inch deep into the soil, I will notice the tiniest amount of moisture residue on my finger, but it'll go away in just a second too. If I take some soil and squeeze it very hard, I will have some tiny specks of water on my finger, but the substrate itself won't stay in one mass when I move it in my hand, it'll fall apart. Would that count as "perfectly saturated"? Or is that already too dry, too wet?

And about the wire - That was the plant that died a few days later, it's the big one that grew nicely for 14-16 days, and suddenly stopped and became all yellow. It's the plant that doesn't exist anymore. It wasn't a wire to train it, but to hold it in place. For some reason it didn't really like standing upwards anymore, so I supported it a bit. It was just a hooked garden wire giving some hold, so it stands upwards. It was one of my last tries to keep it alive, but later on that plant just yellowed completely, and the leaves turned into a grey-ish mush.

 

[Oldchucky]

Try distilled water and lose the pH up or down. Distilled is 7PH. It might help.

 

[Shneex0338]

Try distilled water and lose the pH up or down. Distilled is 7PH. It might help.

I may try to get my hands on some distilled water as a test run, but I think I'll have to add all the trace elements myself or? Cal, mag, that stuff.

And some good news:

I think I may or may not have 2 Gazzurples in the end. I actually only wanted one plant, but this may change. As I said, I have one "emergency" seed currently germinating, and this plant in the picture is the one I've posted in my first request for help. Someone told me to bite the bullet because it may die anyways, and wash the roots with fresh oxygen-rich water. I carefully removed the plant with its tiny rootball out the soil, and completely stirred the substrate in the now plant-less fabric pot around, so there's absolutely no stagnant extremely moist substrate anymore. I then slowly dunked the rootball in a bowl of water with some running water on the side of the bowl. I revealed all the roots (They looked fine), and re-transplanted it into the now slightly wet substrate without adding any water at all, just the really airy slightly wet soil around it.

It's been a few hours since then, and for whatever reason it grew slightly, with the green color coming back. The two first leaves were actually tilted slightly upwards, in the direction of the light. Did I just revive the plant by almost killing it with what I did?? It's slightly droopy in that image as it's sleepy-time now for the plant.

 

[Oldchucky]

All they need is a little water and a little light. If you’re in a halfway decent soil. I wouldn’t feed them anything until they had three or four nodes. But they have to dry back.

 

[Imone]

I guess I'm an ol curmudgeon
I hate leds and tents. I use cfls and a closet. Mix my soil with 40 percent perlite to lighten it. Don't give nutes until they are asking for em then only half the recommended amounts.
I don't grow the hugest buds in history. I don't care. They smoke good and taste good.

 

[Shneex0338]

I guess I'm an ol curmudgeon
I hate leds and tents. I use cfls and a closet. Mix my soil with 40 percent perlite to lighten it. Don't give nutes until they are asking for em then only half the recommended amounts.
I don't grow the hugest buds in history. I don't care. They smoke good and taste good.

My first plant 8 years ago grew the best when I vegged it with cheap old LED strips and a CFL in a cardboardbox which I furnished with aluminum foil. As the cardboard box became too small, I threw it in an old cupboard and cut 2 holes where I attached two PC fans with an overridden PC PSU. After that, I screwed 2 large cupboards together, painted them white with normal white paint from the inside, and stapled a flimsly cardboard door on it. I glued rescue foil on the cardboard door to reflect light, and threw the plant in there with a 200W HPS, some basement soil, all inside a bucket I found somewhere & then cut some holes in the bottom.

All that plant got in flower was intense heat of sometimes 34°C, only one tiny fan that moved a bit of air around, no exhaust, no intake, tomato nutrients I found in the basement, and a cheap $1 hygro / temperature meter. I posted that plant here on the second page I think. It was a beast to say the least.

I.. miss those simpler times LEDs are just hard to get used to because the heat penetration is just non existent, makes watering a lot more complicated for me. I wish I would've started with Grow LEDs already back then, but they were expensive as hell, and absolutely not efficient. I only had cheap LED strips. Those were the times where people did notice though that LEDs create way thicker icy buds than HPS did, but the yield was just lower. Heavy tiny rock-like icy nugs, but just way lower yield. They all started supplementing their HPS with LEDs then to grow crazy flowers.

 

[3cats]

I wish I could support this, maybe my temperatures / climate just isn't made for stuff like this. I once soaked the peat substrate of my autos completely, and they almost died instantly in 2 days. Had to get them out the substrate and repot them. But I do know that many people literally soak their soil, that stuff SCARES me, yet it works for them, how ever that's possible.



Fun thing is, I had no problems around 8 years ago with a HPS lamp and almost no grow equipment. Didn't check ph, only had tomato nutrients, basement soil, and.. a cabinet I painted white. I topped it, LST, literally everything, I just did whatever I felt like, and it was my first ever plant. The result was this (6 or 7oz dry in the end, it's been too long):

View attachment 2035615

Now I kill seedlings the second I look at it. Oh god.

I will probably print your answer just out, and stick it in front of my tiny laboratory of madness. But what would count as wet but not moist? Maybe it's a language barrier as English isn't my first language, but I guess moist is when you squeeze the soil, and water will come out, right? And wet is hopefully what my current substrate is - It feels cold to the touch when I burrow my finger half an inch deep into the soil, I will notice the tiniest amount of moisture residue on my finger, but it'll go away in just a second too. If I take some soil and squeeze it very hard, I will have some tiny specks of water on my finger, but the substrate itself won't stay in one mass when I move it in my hand, it'll fall apart. Would that count as "perfectly saturated"? Or is that already too dry, too wet?

And about the wire - That was the plant that died a few days later, it's the big one that grew nicely for 14-16 days, and suddenly stopped and became all yellow. It's the plant that doesn't exist anymore. It wasn't a wire to train it, but to hold it in place. For some reason it didn't really like standing upwards anymore, so I supported it a bit. It was just a hooked garden wire giving some hold, so it stands upwards. It was one of my last tries to keep it alive, but later on that plant just yellowed completely, and the leaves turned into a grey-ish mush.

Over watering isn't giving it too much all at once, its giving water too frequently. Once your pots soil is wet you won't need any more until the pot is dry...solo cups 4, 5,6, days in a 1 quart it could take 10 days and for me that's too long. That's why I like to use small solo cups to start in.

At 78f they dry in 4-5 days then I saturate again. whether watering or feeding through out my grows the soil gets saturated each time. I like 3 gal pots and they take 1 gal of water / feed every 3-4 days

My current crop at 8.5 weeks in flower I have 5 in my 5x5. I had to pull one in the back right at 4 weeks it just wasn't performing and I needed the space

 

[sinse]

Over watering isn't giving it too much all at once, its giving water too frequently. Once your pots soil is wet you won't need any more until the pot is dry...solo cups 4, 5,6, days in a 1 quart it could take 10 days and for me that's too long. That's why I like to use small solo cups to start in.

At 78f they dry in 4-5 days then I saturate again. whether watering or feeding through out my grows the soil gets saturated each time. I like 3 gal pots and they take 1 gal of water / feed every 3-4 days

My current crop at 8.5 weeks in flower I have 5 in my 5x5. I had to pull one in the back right at 4 weeks it just wasn't performing and I needed the spaceView attachment 2035974

True to some degree, but I've found young plants and some soil cant take a full watering until the roots mature a bit. Watering Fox Farm Happy Frog thouroughly with seedlings did not work well for me, I had to water lightly or the plant couldnt breath for days. (taking way too long to dry out)

It also depends on your pot size, perlite added etc.... If you decide to start your seeding in a large container and thouroughly water, your might have problems.

So, I'm not arguing with you or saying your wrong, BUT--- it really depends on many factors. Sometimes watering lightly around the seedling is better than a full soak, especially when the plant is an infant. As my plants mature, I use the water to runoff techique which is a thorough soaking as you recommend--- I like the wet dry cycle to go 2-3 days until dry, if it goes 4 or more days to dry, I ease up on waterings.

Gorgeous plants by the way, your grow looks amazing. I love the cola tops equal distrance to the lights, nice job training !

 

[LoveGrowingIt]

I'm sure watering needs to change depending on the life stage of the plant. It also depends on the soil mixture and the type and size of the pot, not to mention temperature and humidity. So, while we're on the subject, I have a question. I think I've mostly solved it, but some opinions would be welcome. Here goes... When using dry nutrients, I sometimes have the dilemma that the plant doesn't need water, but it does need nutrients. This is usually an issue for younger, smaller plants. So, what I've done is spray the surface of the soil or just water slightly. That seems to work, but I'm wondering if there's a better (organic) way to feed a plant that doesn't need watering.

 

[sinse]

Watering is easily the #1 cause for problems for "new" cultivators. Seeds should be germinated in Pre-Moistened soil/coco (moist all the way thru - but not wet), they will not need any more water for 8-10 days after emergence, Understand, there is a single "tap root" coming out of the seedling (it can only drink maybe 1ml of water per day! Your 1st photo the pot is soaked. When the 1st 2 serrated leaves have a wingspan of about 1.5 inches, you can give them a shot glass(1 ounce) of water every other day, when they have the next set of "true" leaves and start to widen out, the will start to photosynthesize more rapidly but still only need a couple ounces of water every other day, at 3 nodes they will have a couple sets of true leaves (5 blade leaves), this is where you will think about it like this " falling rain falls on the leaves, the rain runs off of the leaves onto the ground" this is your dripline or drip-ring, now you start watering at the width of the leaves in a circle around the plant, this will cause forger roots to start expanding outward in search of water, by now (3rd or 4th node) you will still only be watering maybe 1-2 cups of water every other day. tips #1 seedlings dont need any nutrients for up to 2 weeks, #2 never water at the base of the stem (see damping-off) on seedlings. #3 Cannabis hates wet feet! also what is the wire for in your photo are you trying to train a seedling? (Please Don't!) Cannabis has grown for a millennia without human input, it knows what to do and grows best if we do very little especially at seedling stage, moistened soil and sunlight for the 1st 10 days....(some of us will pre charge our media (soil/coco) with a small amount of dry ferts, or stims but this is not necessary, advanced techniques are for later.) You need to just get through seedling stage first, hope this helps...? good luck

Yep ! On my 5th grow now an Im still f-ng up with my waterings, It's definately a learned skill and a little different for every situation.

I'd say Overwatering is by far the biggest newbie (and experieced grower screw up.--I'm still screwing up)

1. Overwatering
2 PH--Not watching Feed/Soil/Runoff PH---
3. Overfeeding, salt accumulation.

 

[Shneex0338]

So.. My auto seedling is now doing the exact same thing. I'm slowly losing my mind. It was the seedling I left untouched, because it was just a freebie and I felt like "whatever, let's just ignore it and let it do its thing". The leaves were completely green 2 days ago, but now they slowly yellow, with the new growth having that yellow hue, too. I know that new growth is usually lighter in color, yes yes I know, but these are the exact same symptoms that my other plant has. Substrate is the same, BioBizz Light Mix, slightly wet around 2 inches down, but not moist. I only pre-moistened the soil before using it, as recommended by BioBizz, to activate it. It sprouted on the 3rd of September, so around 4 days ago. Yesterday there was some slight yellowing, but I felt like it was just my imagination. Now it's the yellowing I'm cursed with. Temps are wonderful (78-80°F), humidity is wonderful (65-75%), why is this one now showing the same symptoms? I didn't water it yet, I didn't use nutrients, nothing, as the substrate apparently has enough for 2 weeks of growth.

I have some trauma from my first 2 autos that literally completely died because of these symptoms around 2 months ago, as these exact problems began with those 2 plants back when they got into early flower. They were as HEALTHY as they can be, even though they had the same watering practices that I used in my current plants (which now die as seedlings). The only problems these autos had in the veg state were some pests, but I killed them all real quick.

Here are my old autoflowers that died in early flowering, this is where it all began with my horror trip: