New closet grow

Hi everyone,

I recently moved and had to build a new grow closet. My new closet is in the basement and I've been having to run a humidifier 24/7 just to get the room to 45 rh. The temp of the room with the lights on is 75-80 F.

So conditions are OK, not great. However I have been having some trouble getting some seedlings going. These pictures are of my third attempt.. No nutrients, just soil and distilled water. Lights on a 18/6 schedule. The soil was really dense so I added a significant amount of perlite to try to aerate the soil.

This seedling is about 8 days old. There hasn't been any new growth in 3 days. The two newest leaves are getting larger.. but thats it. The soil seems to dry out really fast (possibly because its so dry in the basement) and I wait as long as possible to re-water.. about every 2 - 3 days.

Any thoughts? If you look at the close up picture, you can see the new leaves coming in are kind of dark around the edges. Is this a sign of over watering? I really cant imagine it is.. i put my finger in about 2 inches and it feels dry. Also, its got a lean to it, as you can see in the other picture. It seems top heavy.

Anyway, any suggestions are much appreciated.

Thanks,

Dusty

It looks ok for 8 days old from seed. It doesn't look overwatered....they leaves will get droopy when overwatered. It'll grow, just keep it up. If you ever do overwater a plant for future reference, add an H2O2 solution to it (2 teaspoons of 3%H2O2 per 500ml of water). The H2O2 gets oxygen to the roots and the plant recovers in says rather than weeks if you let it dry up on it's own.

cool thanks a lot. honestly the soil feels dry after only 24-30 hours.. i really want to avoid over watering but it is what it is right? Is it unlikely a dixie cup like that could dry out within only 24 hours?

I wouldn't water any more frequent than every 2-3 days if you are soaking the soil each time. I don't see how it is drying up in a day....unless you have a fan going. Another method to know if it's drying up is to get a soil moisture meter. I recently got one from true-value for like $8.99 that works pretty well. I agree, u want to avoid over-watering. What kind of soil do you have?