New hydroponic grower, just lost 12 seedlings and would like some advice..

[Matches]

sup guys,, I jsut lost my seedlings and I have a few ideas what I could have done wrong but would like your advice and what to do next time before I cash out 200 bucks on some dead plants.. first off i'm using rockwool for the seeds and didnt check the PH levels when I dipped them in my water like an idiot , but they grew fairly tall after the second week before beginnning to die off one by one and that was AFTER I corrected the PH levels and sprayed them once a day.. right now i'm using just a dab of Humboldt Nutrients honey sweetener and Mayan Microzyme in my water.. the closet i'm using maintains a 75 degree temperature and I decided to keep the lights on 24/7... my QUESTION is am I using the good nutrients? and what else could I have done wrong or could do better in? I understand growing is a difficult process so I would like as much advice as possible, if you have any questions please let me know or MSG me and I can fill you in more and send you some pics... any help would be much appreciated! THANK YOU

 

[cannapits]

first let me say welcome to the farm. second let me say its frowned upon here to make multiple posts in different forums asking the same thing. PH is very important when it comes to rockwool. I always had to ph my water down when using them. Im sure you know this now. other than the 2 things you mentioned did you give them any base foods? I just add a little base nutes to the bucket while im soaking the cubes in ph'd water. you say you have pics of the seedlings before they died? if so post em up. im sure others will chime in.

 

[Matches]

Hey cannapits! Thanks man, I wasnt sure which forum had the most activity but i'll keep it in mind next time. here's a pic I took after week 2 (before they began to wilt.) As you can see I didnt geta chance to transfer em into the cups so I didnt add any nutes or have any other base food. I thought maybe it would grow a bit more before I should do that?

http://i59.invalid.com/2rdx9oo.png

edit: not sure how to post pics, I uploaded to imgur and tried posted here

 

[cannapits]

Not sure about adding the pics. I upload them from my computer with no issues. would help seeing them. I add some base nutes. not a lot but they need something after the first week IMO. what kinda light did you have them under?

 

[Ambre]

I got an error that the link to your pic is not valid.

Did the seedlings "choke" off at the soil level? If so, that would probably be damp-off; sterilize the seeds with a weak bleach or hydrogen peroxide solution before popping them and ditto the medium. Did they yellow before dying? Either you didn't have enough nutes in the mix or the pH was so far off that the plant couldn't absorb nutes.

I experimented with rockwool a few years ago and I didn't like it. It gets saturated too easily, the pH is difficult to maintain, and it's not really friendly to the environment. Hydroton works but cleaning it after each grow got to be a pain. I finally settled on large chunk perlite - it's cheap, the pH is easy to adjust, and I put it in the compost heap at the end of the grow (the soil here is heavy clay, so the perlite helps lighten the soil when I mix in the compost).

Seeds only have enough energy built in to get the cotelydon leaves & the first set of real leaves started, then they need nutes. Start off with a weak nute solution and gradually increase the strength as the plant grows. I use a mild nute solution, about 200ppm, to pre-soak the perlite (pH'd to about 5.0 to 5.5 to bring the perlite's pH down a bit).

You might experiment with some bag seeds to get your technique down before spending money on seeds again.

 

[devilrays]

Start seeds in soil and then clone into rock wool. Easy peasy.

 

[Minkus]

I got an error that the link to your pic is not valid.

Did the seedlings "choke" off at the soil level? If so, that would probably be damp-off; sterilize the seeds with a weak bleach or hydrogen peroxide solution before popping them and ditto the medium. Did they yellow before dying? Either you didn't have enough nutes in the mix or the pH was so far off that the plant couldn't absorb nutes.

I experimented with rockwool a few years ago and I didn't like it. It gets saturated too easily, the pH is difficult to maintain, and it's not really friendly to the environment. Hydroton works but cleaning it after each grow got to be a pain. I finally settled on large chunk perlite - it's cheap, the pH is easy to adjust, and I put it in the compost heap at the end of the grow (the soil here is heavy clay, so the perlite helps lighten the soil when I mix in the compost).

Seeds only have enough energy built in to get the cotelydon leaves & the first set of real leaves started, then they need nutes. Start off with a weak nute solution and gradually increase the strength as the plant grows. I use a mild nute solution, about 200ppm, to pre-soak the perlite (pH'd to about 5.0 to 5.5 to bring the perlite's pH down a bit).

You might experiment with some bag seeds to get your technique down before spending money on seeds again.

Ambre's got it right, there could be any number of reason why they're not working. Honestly if they're dying off after the second week, my guess would be nutrients. Honestly, I prefer stuff like rapid rooters (http://shop.gyostuff.com/Rapid-Rooter-Tray-with-50-plug-GH3254.htm?categoryId=-1) because they're pre-treated with rapidstart but I know there's some that come un-treated. I ended up switching over after too many moldy rockwool pads.