Greenhouse White Widow seedling problems

Hey Guys,

First time grower/poster here. I built a DIY aero/hybrid system much like Earl's shuttle, and got a 10 pack of feminized Greenhouse White Widow. I plan to do an entire journal but right now I am focusing on keeping these babies alive!! I have done months of reading/saving/building and finally put the seeds in rapid rooters on tuesday 7/14. I am using RO water that is 0ppm, ph 5.6. Today they are 11 days old, and up to about 2 days ago were looking just fine. 2 days ago, I noticed the leaves looking a little wrinkled, and the tips starting to turn yellow/brown. I have a pioneer IV jr. fixture 2 inches above the seedlings, 96w t5, 6500k. temp at canopy is 77.0F, 47% humidity. Up until yesterday they were in rapid rooter plugs in the tray they came in, and I transplanted the plugs to 2" net baskets. Some have a few hydroton pellets around the edge to keep the plug in place, the others have neoprene caps right over the plugs. Since all the seedlings look the same (wrinkled, browning tips) I figured I'd try both to see if there was any improvement. The bubbler they are sitting in has 2 airstones in it running 24/7. There is a very light fan blowing across the seedlings, enough to make them shake a tiny bit and to keep the air circulating around them. The pictures don't show it, but there are tiny (almost microscopic) white specks on the top side of the fan leaves as well. I have inspected them top and bottom and they show no signs of spider mites. However, I don't have a magnifying glass...

So all was well till 2 days ago when growth seemed to stop, and these symptoms appeared. Please help!!!! These are very nice looking little babies and I will do whatever it takes to save them from whatever fate lies ahead the way they are going. Very dramatic but yeah... you guys know where I'm coming from.

If anyone would like specific pics let me know and I will post them right away. If I am simply overwatering or stressing for no reason please let me know!!

The rapid rooters are most likely your problem,
they are holding too much moisture, normally rockwool would be a better choice for your system, however, it's now too late.
Try cutting back on the watering schedule until they are a little more established.
Greenhouse seeds are the best I have tried so if you can manage to nurse them until they are bigger they should be OK then.
Good luck.

Thank you very much man. I had a feeling it was a moisture issue but since this is my first grow, I needed to hear it from someone with experience. How dry should I let the top of the rapid rooters get? The roots are growing out of the bottom of the net cups towards the res (like a mini 9-plant DWC) and are getting splashed by the bubbles.

Your lights are 2" off the top of your plants?

Are you running T5 HO? The bulbs will say High Output.

If it's the HO's RAISE THE LIGHT. Check out my current grow journal, I had the same problem. Those lights are too strong for seedlings at 2".

I think yours is a 4 bulb, I'm running a 6 bulb. Get your light up to about 18" and your plants will start to grow. I can see the burn on the very tips of your leaves. Those lights are AMAZING, but they don't warn you about the ability to burn seedlings. I raised mine to 24" and saw amazing results.

Ahhh... yes they are definitely High Output. I didn't even think of that because even at 2" they barely emit any heat with a small fan moving the air beneath them. I raised the lights to 18" so we'll see how that goes. Thank you very much for the input!!!

0re0 said:

Ahhh... yes they are definitely High Output. I didn't even think of that because even at 2" they barely emit any heat with a small fan moving the air beneath them. I raised the lights to 18" so we'll see how that goes. Thank you very much for the input!!!

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I know...I thought the same thing. My temps were just fine at a couple of inches. You can see on my lower leaves where the burn happened when they were much smaller. In the beginning they just refused to grow. This is what they look like now and the light is still about 10" from the tops. You will notice that I don't have any stretching problems.

Hey 0re0 u play tennis

nope.

i'll update/ start my journal in a few days for those interested. i'll have pics of my tent... its a growlab 120 with a 3'x3' scrog over a diy 9 plant hybrid/aero system... a spin off of earl's shuttle. all the credit goes to him because I referenced all his grows on all aero/hydro information, hardware, materials, pumps, etc. i have the all the plumbing running in and out of an 8" exhause hole at the bottom of the tent, so the 20 gal reservoir is remote on the outside of the tent. I a/c the room to 65.0F and that keeps my res at around 68.0F with the pumps running. For veg I have 192 watts of HO t5 6500K and 168 watts of 6400K CFL. For flower I'm using a Lumenaire 6 reflector with a 600w HiLux Gro HPS bulb and a Lumatek digital ballast. Humboldt Nutrients Master A&B program, and the only additive I'll be using is the new v.2 Stowstorm from Humboldt Nutrients. The screen will be 10" above the medium, 9 sq.ft.. So each plant will have 1 sq.ft. of screen to fill. Any comments/suggestions are welcome!

0re0 said:

nope.

i'll update/ start my journal in a few days for those interested. i'll have pics of my tent... its a growlab 120 with a 3'x3' scrog over a diy 9 plant hybrid/aero system... a spin off of earl's shuttle. all the credit goes to him because I referenced all his grows on all aero/hydro information, hardware, materials, pumps, etc. i have the all the plumbing running in and out of an 8" exhause hole at the bottom of the tent, so the 20 gal reservoir is remote on the outside of the tent. I a/c the room to 65.0F and that keeps my res at around 68.0F with the pumps running. For veg I have 192 watts of HO t5 6500K and 168 watts of 6400K CFL. For flower I'm using a Lumenaire 6 reflector with a 600w HiLux Gro HPS bulb and a Lumatek digital ballast. Humboldt Nutrients Master A&B program, and the only additive I'll be using is the new v.2 Stowstorm from Humboldt Nutrients. The screen will be 10" above the medium, 9 sq.ft.. So each plant will have 1 sq.ft. of screen to fill. Any comments/suggestions are welcome!

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Sounds like you've got it figured out. When you start is post the link in this thread so I can find it. I want to see hwo your scrog works out in that tent. I have a 4x4 tent with a 3x3 tray for flower and I've considered doing a scrog. I would like to see how your results/time works out.