downunder

G'day from Downunder.
Been a toker for a long time (70's) grown outdoors a fair bit but now stuck in a apartment and it sucks. i've had a small cupboard setup with three plants for a couple of years. it was just simple soil with a 400wt luca grow and auto water.
first two attempts were great but it has all gone square at every other attempt since then. as soon as i put them under the luca grow they just browned out and died. did nothing different to the first two crops.
so i've changed medium, coconut was recommended from the local store with a two part mix to feed them. so will just have to suck it and see what happens this time.

great site should be able to sort this out with so much experience here. can't belive you actually buy seeds ect. just don't have this sort of freedom here.

Not here either mate.

How far away are you keeping the 400 from the little seedlings and how hot is it getting in that cabinet?
(Don't guess, measure them both)
Are you ph'ing your water, using bottled water, and or letting the water air out before you use it to remove any additives?
Are you trying to fertilize seedlings?
Are you using a soil with nutrients built in?
How often do you water?


If seeds are that rare, you should look into starting them in an inert media like rapid rooters (peat pellets) not sure what you guys would call them... Kangaroo pucks?

I'm thinking you are just burning them with the light, or maybe with nutes, or both. Try starting your seedling under a cfl or flouro tube first in the roo cakes with just clean ph'd water for the first two weeks at least before trying to put under the 400 and don't ever give nutrients until it's an actual plant with some fully developed leaves.

And don't transplant without it having enough of a rootball to hold itself together.

And no funky nutrients... (homemade mixtures of random crap)

the 4 failures where just potting mix and water either rain water from out of town filtered. if i used tap water it sat in glass in sunlight to burn off clorides for at least two days, started in 10 inch pots under fluro plant grows. placed under the 400w higher than normal 4 ft when they were healthy little bushes. three days later they start to wilt and go brown die off put them back under the fluors they recover. plenty of air moving thru about 28 /32 deg . changed bulbs same changed ballast same checked power wirering ect. now going again with the shops recommendation. just got the second leaves under the fluors. just a wait and see when they are big enough to go under the other light. i must check the humidity might be a bit dry. the question is why did the first two crops turn out great. i just grab seeds come from good smoko from friends.
RG

coco can contain salt. Rinse the coco.

Rattlegun, I'm in Oz too and I've had no trouble ordering seeds through Nirvana, gets here every time. Just thought I'd let you know..

By your own admission it may be very dry and your high temp translates to 90f. Way too hot and the dryness just makes it worse. If your plants were hardened up to that environment it would probably get by, but growth would be heavily held back if not nearly stalled at your high temp.

You want 23c ideally, but nothing over 29c

And what is 4', you are keeping the light at 4' away from the tops of the new seedlings? That's too far, that's not enough light to live on.

LostInSpace... said:

Rattlegun, I'm in Oz too and I've had no trouble ordering seeds through Nirvana, gets here every time. Just thought I'd let you know..

Click to expand...

Same here I order from Nirvana a lot and im in nsw

how do they package the seeds? in unmarked packaging? if customs find it you will be charged under fed laws not state. do you just order and send to your home or take some sort of precautions.?

the fluros are right down on them few inches off. when they are bigger and i give them the 400watter i lift it till it is 4 foot and then let it down over a week or so.
as for the temp i have fans running but as it is summer and the ambiant is around 32 to 36 deg C at the moment. can't do much for outside ventilation as i am in a apartment.
RG

Mate I'm in the tropics so I have to run my split-system air-con 24/7. Those temps are way too high, with the air-con running flat out I get 26C. I know you guys are experiencing some hot temps at the moment so you may have to run air-con till it cools down again.

The seeds are very well hidden too, unmarked, just don't send it to the address your growing at for obvious reasons...

Yes
and
do
not
discuss
specific
packaging
details.