Seedling Advice Needed!! - Pictures Included - Super Lemon Haze, White Rhino

Hi all,

Firstly this is my first ever attempt at growing and decided it was best to fully invest as this is something I have been thinking about and researching for quite sometime now! I apologise in advance as I realise there is plenty material out there to help but I thought it was best to come directly to the pro's and see what help I could get specific to my plants!

At the moment I have successfully germinated 3 seeds, 2 super lemon haze feminised, and 1 white rhino feminised. After germination from my research I gathered that it was necessary to soak my rockwool cubes in water ( I also added some seedling growth nutrient to the water they were soaking in). I then squeezed out most of the excess water/nutrient solution and popped the seeds in and placed them in a propagator. The propagator so far has been stored in my 1x1x2 grow tent with a sunmaster fluroscent bulb hanging roughly an inch or 2 above the propagator. In order to keep the humidity up I have been lightly spraying the propagator lid with water (which is where i think my problem has started) -

Here are the pictures of the plants so far - (SLH#1, SLH#2, WR)



As you can see something doesn't quite look right with number one and the other two seem rather fragile also. These have been planted for aproximately 4-5 days now.

All help and suggestions on where to go from here would be greatly appreciated.

Peace out RIU

Those are stretching damn bad, they look about ready to fall over. You really want your light just a couple inches from the plants themselves if they are fluorescent. What is the wattage on that bulb? If it isn't extremely bright or hot then two inches from the plants would be fine and they shouldn't stretch like that if they get enough light.

They also look a bit shallow anyways, they'll definitely need some support and you might even want to pot them and cover some of that stem up (don't bury them totally though).
I don't start seeds or grow anything in rock wool; it's a tougher medium and you need to be extra careful with what you put into it. There is very little buffering with rock wool and you can upset the nutrient balance and/or burn the roots very easily due to this. But, I am pretty sure those cubes are supposed to be a lot wetter than that: pretty much sitting in a thin layer of irrigation water which the rockwool will draw up as needed.

The main reason behind starting in rockwool is because the growing medium to be transplanted to is clay pebbles (wilma 4 pot hydroponic kit). I thought the rockwool cubes would be a nice easy medium to place into the kit.

Do you suggest that I remove the propagator lid and lower the light to prevent any further stretching? Also if I intend to transplant these into clay pebbles later on, what on earth can I do in the mean time to help them out?

Help needed please RIU

Few things.

1. Never squeeze rockwool. When you squeeze it you smash the pours so the roots can't get as much air and it won't hold as much water. It's not a sponge it won't open back up. You should shake off the excess water. This is most likely why your leaves are all droopy looking. They are over watered aka the roots aren't getting enough air and there is no fixing that with these cubes now.

2. They are stretching like the first guy said due to the light being too far away. The humidity dome is probably unnecessary. 40% humidity is optimal but if it's lower you usually can't tell the difference other than having to water more often. I'm not sure why so many people think you need a dome over seedlings. It's not necessary, and in your case is causing the light to be too far away.

3. I'm not sure what nutes you used but that first pic looks like some plants I grew that I used a nute too high in nitrogen on and killed them. You can get away with no nutes for like two weeks after planting and probably should. Then start really weak and build up.

My opinion on what you should do is throw those away and start again. I know that's not what you want to hear since you bought the seeds and they're not cheap but in the long run it will be the best. Odds are those won't make it. They'll stay green for a while but won't keep growing and will just waist your time. Don't give up just be glad you fucked up 5 days in and not later and give it another shot.

azzno39 said:

Hi all,

Firstly this is my first ever attempt at growing and decided it was best to fully invest as this is something I have been thinking about and researching for quite sometime now! I apologise in advance as I realise there is plenty material out there to help but I thought it was best to come directly to the pro's and see what help I could get specific to my plants!

At the moment I have successfully germinated 3 seeds, 2 super lemon haze feminised, and 1 white rhino feminised. After germination from my research I gathered that it was necessary to soak my rockwool cubes in water ( I also added some seedling growth nutrient to the water they were soaking in). I then squeezed out most of the excess water/nutrient solution and popped the seeds in and placed them in a propagator. The propagator so far has been stored in my 1x1x2 grow tent with a sunmaster fluroscent bulb hanging roughly an inch or 2 above the propagator. In order to keep the humidity up I have been lightly spraying the propagator lid with water (which is where i think my problem has started) -

Here are the pictures of the plants so far - (SLH#1, SLH#2, WR)

View attachment 1052551View attachment 1052550View attachment 1052552

As you can see something doesn't quite look right with number one and the other two seem rather fragile also. These have been planted for aproximately 4-5 days now.

All help and suggestions on where to go from here would be greatly appreciated.

Peace out RIU

Click to expand...

mj320002 said:

Few things.

1. Never squeeze rockwool. When you squeeze it you smash the pours so the roots can't get as much air and it won't hold as much water. It's not a sponge it won't open back up. You should shake off the excess water. This is most likely why your leaves are all droopy looking. They are over watered aka the roots aren't getting enough air and there is no fixing that with these cubes now.

2. They are stretching like the first guy said due to the light being too far away. The humidity dome is probably unnecessary. 40% humidity is optimal but if it's lower you usually can't tell the difference other than having to water more often. I'm not sure why so many people think you need a dome over seedlings. It's not necessary, and in your case is causing the light to be too far away.

3. I'm not sure what nutes you used but that first pic looks like some plants I grew that I used a nute too high in nitrogen on and killed them. You can get away with no nutes for like two weeks after planting and probably should. Then start really weak and build up.

My opinion on what you should do is throw those away and start again. I know that's not what you want to hear since you bought the seeds and they're not cheap but in the long run it will be the best. Odds are those won't make it. They'll stay green for a while but won't keep growing and will just waist your time. Don't give up just be glad you fucked up 5 days in and not later and give it another shot.

Click to expand...

This is what i feared sadly, i was thinking about filling my hydro pots half way with the clay pebbles and putting the rockwool cubes with these miserable seedlings into it and then putting a few layers of the pebbles on top to cover some of the stretching. From here this would allow me to use the hydroponics flood dripper system and turn on my 600w hps light. Is it worth a shot?

Probably not. If the roots aren't coming out of the rockwool yet they will still be getting choked. If you want to try something desperate you could cut them off and use the same method you would to clone to reroot them in some new cubes. This may or may not work and will take longer then just starting new seeds.

mj320002 said:

Probably not. If the roots aren't coming out of the rockwool yet they will still be getting choked. If you want to try something desperate you could cut them off and use the same method you would to clone to reroot them in some new cubes. This may or may not work and will take longer then just starting new seeds.

Click to expand...

Iv just had a look and all 3 cubes have roots appearing out the bottom of the rockwool cubes, what you reckon?

Thanks

It can't hurt to try. Get some more ready for in case they die though

Iv decided to give it a shot!
So far they have now been transplanted into the hydroponic system and given a 15 minute watering with half strength hydro grow solution and now the 600watt hps light has been turned on and set for 18/6. The light is a good 3/4 foot above the seedlings.
Let's see what happens! If I see no improvement I do have several more seeds to try out, hopefully learn from my mistakes!
How often would recommend turning on the pump? I was just going to stick with 15min intervals every 3 hours?

Thanks again all

Anyone else have any advice?

ok if roots are coming out the bottom putting them in the new system could work. I would say go to like 1/4 strength nutes or none at all for like a week. Also try to water around the rockwool cube so it doesn't stay really wet. 15 minutes every 3 hours for watering sounds good.

so what was in the end? did they make it? how long did it take?