Stalled seedlings, what am I doing wrong?

[Scotty420]

1. Are you growing from seed or clones? - Seeds

2. How old are your plants? - 1-2.5 weeks

3. How tall are your plants? - About 1"

4. What size containers are they planted in? - Solo cups

5. What is your soil mix? - Happy Frog

6. How often do you water and what type of water do you use? - Been watering every couple days, water them to a decent amount of runoff then leave them until there is no water visibly on the sides of the cup. (I have clear cups inside colored ones) I have misted the tops a few times because it seems to get insanely dry at the top before the bottom gets dry. I use water ran through a Zerowater filter I haven't tested it in the last couple days but it's been consistently 6.5 PH about 3 PPM

7. What is the pH of your water? - 6.5

8. What kind of fertilizer do you use and what is its NPK ratio? - none

9. Do you foliar feed or spray your plants with anything? - none

10. What kind of lights do you use and how many watts combined? (HPS, MH, fluorescent, halogen, incandescent "plant lights") - So this is my suspect & I've been ramping it down. Started with 2 Vivosun VS1000's 18" set to 20%. In the last few days I've gone to only 1 light & raised it a few times. It's about 4 feet over the cups now at 10%

11. How close are your lights to the plants? - started at 18" have been moving up at almost 4' now

12. What size is your grow space in square feet? - 16 (4x4 tent)

13. What is the temperature and humidity in your grow space? 75-78 Degrees 70-72% RH

14. What is the pH of the soil? - Don't know

15. Have you noticed any insect activity in your grow space? - No

16. How much experience do you have growing? - Basically none

So as the title says I seem to be having trouble with the seedling stage. I seem to be able to get sprouts, but they all have just seemed to stall. My oldest plant was in a poorly put together pot at first so it got transplanted at a young age & I understood it's slow growth. 2nd one had a bad cotyledon & it's understandably struggled. The rest though have opened up OK but then just done almost nothing for a week. Just took a nice looking fresh sprout out of it's baggie humidity dome & when I checked on it this morning it's bent down. Lights have been at 30" 10% since it's been out.

 

[steamroller]

Pics of seedlings.
You did good raising the lights and reducing amount!
Are the cups on floor of tent?

 

[TSD]

Can we get some pictures? Could be too much light... I start seedlings under plain ol florescent shop lights. Are you letting fresh air in the dome periodically, they still need fresh air. Also, a week isn't really that long, are they photos or autos? Seedlings work on thier roots before they start making leaves in earnest.

 

[Scotty420]

Pics of seedlings.
You did good raising the lights and reducing amount!
Are the cups on floor of tent?

Man you're fast. Pics are edited in the OP now.

Cups are on a table about 2' off the floor in a baking dish with some pebbles in the bottom to let air underneath the cups

 

[TSD]

Ok all that white stuff is mold? That means it's way too moist and you're not getting enough airflow.

 

[Aqua Man]

Those wont need watered every couple days. Combination of overwatering and to much light imo was the reason

 

[TSD]

This can result in "damping off" which is basically when a fungus takes hold due to being able to thrive in a too moist environment and kills the seedling... looks like that may be happening in the first pic.

 

[Scotty420]

Can we get some pictures? Could be too much light... I start seedlings under plain ol florescent shop lights. Are you letting fresh air in the dome periodically, they still need fresh air. Also, a week isn't really that long, are they photos or autos? Seedlings work on thier roots before they start making leaves in earnest.

Most of them are out of the domes at this point. When they're under them though I do go pull the domes a couple times a day to let fresh air in. Should I be leaving them in the domes longer I've been pulling them once they open and have some true leaves coming out.

They are photos

 

[steamroller]

Too wet as mentioned. NO DOMES once they sprout.
Is that mycelium you have added on purpose or just from the happy frog?
They look pretty dark also which is usually excess N.
Don't over mother them.

 

[Scotty420]

Those wont need watered every couple days. Combination of overwatering and to much light imo was the reason

OK I'll back off watering. That's been my biggest struggle is how to water, the tops just seem to get sooo dry & I get worried.

 

[Zen_Seeker]

Wow. Came to help and found the gangs all here!

 

[TSD]

OK I'll back off watering. That's been my biggest struggle is how to water, the tops just seem to get sooo dry & I get worried.

Yes the top dries way before the bottom. Lift a cup of almost dry soil, or weigh it... then a saturated cup. You don't water till the cup is back to being light. Roots need oxygen and you want babies to be searching for that lower water a bit so they make nice roots. Here's a good read on watering practices by Aquaman.

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Discuss different watering methods for growing your own weed from seeds. Our community members give helpful tips on how pot size and material, as well as environmental factors affect growing cannabis.

www.thcfarmer.com

 

[Scotty420]

Too wet as mentioned. NO DOMES once they sprout.
Is that mycelium you have added on purpose or just from the happy frog?
They look pretty dark also which is usually excess N.
Don't over mother them.

Yeah I am taking the domes off except the one with the bad coyledon, it bends over whenever I take it off & pops back up when I leave it on. I keep trying to harden it up, but it constantly wilts if not covered. I'll add a earlier picture of it for reference I wouldn't be surprised if it doesn't make it.

The mycelium is from happy frog I haven't added anything & am using filtered tap water with nothing added.

 

[TSD]

Mycelium is good... but that much on the top of the soil means it's consistently staying too wet... do the cups have drainage holes poked in them?

 

[Scotty420]

Mycelium is good... but that much on the top of the soil means it's consistently staying too wet... do the cups have drainage holes poked in them?

Yeah I drilled holes in the bottom & cut triangles out of the bottom corners

 

[Aqua Man]

Seeds, NO DOMES.

Clones, DOMES UNTIL ROOTED.

seeds have roots off the start they do not need domes and as seen if you do use domes it will usually cause issues.

lights need to be absolutely minimal with clones as it drives transpirational demands.

with seeds they can handle more light but your still best off giving minimal lights until the first true leaves.

 

[Madmax]

No take the plastic off them bro.you don’t need the domes for seedling.all of your problems can b avoided simply because of that.

 

[Madmax]

Seeds, NO DOMES.

Clones, DOMES UNTIL ROOTED.

seeds have roots off the start they do not need domes and as seen if you do use domes it will usually cause issues.

lights need to be absolutely minimal with clones as it drives transpirational demands.

with seeds they can handle more light but your still best off giving minimal lights until the first true leaves.

Lol bet me to it

 

[MEGA956]

Where did you get the seeds?

 

[Scotty420]

Seeds, NO DOMES.

Clones, DOMES UNTIL ROOTED.

seeds have roots off the start they do not need domes and as seen if you do use domes it will usually cause issues.

lights need to be absolutely minimal with clones as it drives transpirational demands.

with seeds they can handle more light but your still best off giving minimal lights until the first true leaves.

No take the plastic off them bro.you don’t need the domes for seedling.all of your problems can b avoided simply because of that.

OK I'll get rid of the domes. I have a couple more germinating I'll try them domeless from the start. It's something I wondered about anyway, my tent stays at optimal humidity, so I wondered why I needed them, but most places I read said to use them so I figured it couldn't hurt.

Where did you get the seeds?

Most of them I got from a local grow shop that came recommended to me by a couple local growers. The most recent came from Greenpoint.