In need of help! seedlings day 20??

Ok so here is what I got. Northern lights autoflower feminized seeds, LED grow light 250w (20/4) hanging about 2ft above, Organics Go Box for noots. grow room is temp controlled and stays between 76 to 80 F. Watering about every other day. Didn't add any noots till day 12 and I'm going very light on those. It has good ventilation. Humidity is a little high between 65 and 70%.

Here is the problem. Its day 20 since since i planted in the soil. They are in normal type solo cups with drain holes. They are only about an inch and a half tall. They look like healthy plants but from everything I read and see online seems like they should be farther along! Could it be that the light is to much for them. I'm freaking out!

Oh yea I ph balance the water too.

A picture would help, but they sound fine. My last seedlings took a long time to grow up to, but the one female I got from the 2 seeds is flowering now and she looks marvelous, darling

highguy5 said:

Oh yea I ph balance the water too.

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Ok so it's not a yeast infection ...

Thanks for the advice. Here is a pic...

Perlite is what is needed looks like a very hard medium to penetrate for seedlings....once you get more leaves it will start to veg more rapidly...

The one on the left's leaves look odd because they got hung up in the seed shell and i finally helped it off!

highguy5 said:

Ok so here is what I got. Northern lights autoflower feminized seeds, LED grow light 250w (20/4) hanging about 2ft above, Organics Go Box for noots. grow room is temp controlled and stays between 76 to 80 F. Watering about every other day. Didn't add any noots till day 12 and I'm going very light on those. It has good ventilation. Humidity is a little high between 65 and 70%.

Here is the problem. Its day 20 since since i planted in the soil. They are in normal type solo cups with drain holes. They are only about an inch and a half tall. They look like healthy plants but from everything I read and see online seems like they should be farther along! Could it be that the light is to much for them. I'm freaking out!

Click to expand...

Your LED light is way to far away from your plants. You should be @10-12" or so away from your plants with the LED. 24" is really far.
a 1000w HID would be @20" away from the plant.

i run my leds at 18-20 inches for seedlings
led doesnt put off enough heat to dry your soil out i had the problem of them staying to wet and stunting growth when i first switched to led's

let it dry out a bit and water it with a few sprays from a spray bottle
ive grown for a while and i still start mine this way

topfuel29 said:

Your LED light is way to far away from your plants. You should be @10-12" or so away from your plants with the LED. 24" is really far.
a 1000w HID would be @20" away from the plant.

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But if lack of light was the problem, we'd be seeing spindly growth as the plant tries to reach for more light. I'm certainly no expert and I am not arguing the light change recommendation, I just don't think that's our main culprit.

It's also more difficult to Dx with the LED on as was said, but my hunch (based on a solid foundation of like 2 growing seasons lol) is that this is a soil issue. Seems like they're spending their energy rooting...or trying to root, because otherwise we'd see results of energy spent above the soil line. I'm not seein' it, so either the energy is being spent downstairs or these plants are JPL (just plain lazy)

it this point you can grow them in inert medium
they need no nutes the cotyledons are more than enough but if its to wet no oxygen to the roots if it was too compact it would get that short stunted runt look
leaf tips curled down is over watering

Perhaps dampening off!

Tha is for all the advice. I've got a few things to try now.

With LED unlink CFL you do still want some distance between the lights and the plants. Because LEDS use many small bulbs each with there own spectrum there needs to be a distance between the plant and the light for the lights to blend together before hitting the plant, to close to the light and you may not be getting light from all the bulbs hitting your leaves as they can be shaded from each other. 1 - 2 feet is a good distance for LEDS.
Autoflowering plants do not like to be transplanted because the stress of transplanting can slow there growth and you don't get to decide how long to veg the plant for since it will flower automaticly after its mature, transplanting can severly effect the size of the final plant so its best to start the seeds in the final size pot you want for the plant. I recommend 3 gallon pots for autos as they usually only live 3 months or so and don't get much taller then 3 feet indoors.
Your plants do look small for 20 days, ensure that you are using properly ph'd water and that your soil is of the correct ph as incorrect ph can cause stunted or slow growth. also frequent watering is not required and can do more harm then good, you want the soil to dry out nearly completely before watering again as this will encourage root growth and avoid problems such as root rot. Cannabis likes to dry out between waterings and keeping the soil to moist will cause problems. A small plant like that under LEDS probably only needs water once a week

They are short for 20 days. I'm betting you planted the germinated seedling way deep in the dirt. Next time take the sprouted seedling and place into dirt so that the top proto-leaves are actually at the surface, not buried deep. BigSteve.