Bent Seedling Stem...Please Help Diagnose!

Hi, I was wondering if some of you more experienced growers could help me diagnose whats wrong with this single feminized white widow seedling.

The seedling is exactly 5 days old...the seed was places into moistened rock wool at a pH of approximately 5.5. The solution used to wet the rock wool consisted of 500 ml distilled water with one drop of superthrive.

It was basically kept in a humidity dome with the lid on and on a heated mat in total darkness for the first 48 hrs and when the cotyledon breached the surface the mat and and cover was removed and the seedling was placed about 10 inches bellow a 42 Watt 2600 lumen 6500K CFL. The temperature is around 25 deg C (77F) at the surface of the rock wool. I felt with my hard the temperature at leaf level and it seemed fine and bare noticeable heat wise.

When the seedling was moved under the light a 1/4 strength nutrient regime was started using DNF early growth A,B formula again with a drop or two of superthrive mixed in. The seedling stands at about 1.5 inch at 5 days old.

Everything was going great until this morning when it was discovered the seedling stem was bent sort of like it was trying to avoid the light but can understand why that would happen.

Does it look ok? Does anyone have any suggestions as to whats going on or whether i should be concerned. BTW there seems to have been no new visible growth the last 24 hrs.

Please help as the is the only seed available to this individual...loosing this seedling would suck big time.

as long as it isnt completely severed a plant will grow. that bending isnt uncommon in plants, it is fine. what temp is that room? and alot of people say not to give them nuted until they are about 3-4 weeks old

The temp is around 25dec C (77F). DNF is dutch nutrient formula for vegetative growth. I used 1/4 stength. The rock wool isn't soaked it's just slightly moist so i'm sure its getting enough air.

The seedling is in rock wool...it should receive some nutes shouldn't it? or else how could it survive beyond germination? So the seedling doesn't look that sick? I have no experience so I wouldn't know. Thnx for your input

i dont think its sick at all. i have seen them fall over onto the ground then grow up while still bent to the ground

Its common. some plants just don't know which way is up. Kind of like a few people I know.............

GoldenGanja13 said:

Yeah you never want to give them nutes before at least 3 weeks, even tiny doses.

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That's not true if you are going to grow this hydro and keep it in rockwool cubes all it's life.

I start them with 50ppm of nutes during the germination. And from there it goes up. I wouldn't have used 1/4 strength that's for sure. 50ppm would be about 12th strength.

They will need a little something something to stay healthy. I would say leave them at 10th - 12th strength for about 2-3 weeks. Once it has a few leaf sets and isn't really a "seedling" anymore, I would then start upping the nutes slowly.

The thing to remember with nutes is that less is more. The plant really will get by with very little nutes and you are more likely to do damage than good by feeding aggressively.

Looking good though, and I wouldnt' worry much about the bending, but I would flush those cubes again with ph 5.5 water and lay off the nutes for a couple of days. Then water with 10th strength nutes and you will probably only be watering once a day if that for the first week or two.

Good luck, and welcome to the wonderful world of growing Marijuana.

GoldenGanja13 said:

My Bad, I am soil 100% don't care for hydro, never think about how the other half works.

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I am curious why you have chosen to be 100% soil? I have been fighting with this for a little while. Some of the best plants I've seen out there have been soil, but I can really only say that the biggest have been soil.

Is it a matter of size that makes people want to stick with soil? It seems like I can just get better "plant density" with hydro, but I am willing to grow some in soil if there's some kind of benefits to it.

Thanx for the input. I'm starting to feel a little better...being a little over protective maybe. But if I don't see any new growth or movement in the next 24hrs i will panic agian..LOL

GoldenGanja13, thnx for the reply bro but even though i'm a newb i'm pretty confident in saying there is no way a seedling will survive three weeks in rockwool with no nutes. That would defy the laws of physics. Matter is neither created nor destroyed....to get any growth the plant has to get energy and mass from somewhere. Remeber I'm in rockwool not soil. There r no nutrients in rockwool.

GoldenGanja13 said:

My Bad, I am soil 100% don't care for hydro, never think about how the other half works.

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same here

Thanks laserburn, maybe the nute stength is too high and its all locked up. She will get only Ph'ed H2O for the next couple of days. I'm hoping she will turn into a big strong mother. Once I get my grow cab built i will start a grow journal provided everything turns out well with my little girl.

BTW my lights are on 24/7.. hope thats cool for a seedling.

make sure you dont over-care for them. you will kill them

I can't help it....she's an only child.

babydaddy said:

I can't help it....she's an only child.

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i have a bunch of lil ones of my own but ive learned my lesson before so all i do is water and feed and move them around because they are growing like crazy

This is a first grow and i'm am a newb but I've seen many grows both big and small and it seems to me that the biggest yields by far are with hydro and CO2. I got this WW seed from a friend who averages 0.9 grams per watt and has gotten as high as 1.2. His set-up employs a 1000W HID with only 6 plants. He's my hero so naturaly i want to follow in his footsteps.

Lucky you....i hope mom will give me a litter soon. In about 16 weeks if all goes as planed.

babydaddy said:

This is a first grow and i'm am a newb but I've seen many grows both big and small and it seems to me that the biggest yields by far are with hydro and CO2. I got this WW seed from a friend who averages 0.9 grams per watt and has gotten as high as 1.2. His set-up employs a 1000W HID with only 6 plants. He's my hero so naturaly i want to follow in his footsteps.

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do you mean oz? and i got a friend in the same position as you, i gave him a clamplight for his 32-watt cfl. and i personally dont like dealing with hydro. you can grow great plants in both but hydro is more fun to some poeple because it takes more work and checking to make sure everything is going good.for soil its pretty simple, water and feed

babydaddy said:

Lucky you....i hope mom will give me a litter soon. In about 16 weeks if all goes as planed.

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and for motivation to get a hps, i can take multiple clones from my 1 month old plants