Seedling not growing. Completely stunted.

G

Gushers

Active Member
Hi, I am having a go at my first DWC run and I think I already ran into a problem. My lil guy just does not want to grow and I can't figure out why.

Germinated on 5/2, placed into dwc with a single tap root sticking out on 5/7.

At first I figured out my water temp is way too low, I had it at about 58. So got it up to 68 the past 2 days and no growth still. PH is dead on 5.8, it raises .1-.2 every day or two and I knock it down to 5.8. Room temp averages 77f and humidity 60-70%. Ppm is around 350, using GH flora full line. Two air stones giving plenty of bubbles.

Any tips? It was sitting in the below 58 water for about 5 days as I learned of my mistake Sunday morning. Thanks for any advice in advance!

The last photo is what it looked like on May 8th, the others are from 5 minutes ago.
 

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Airwalker16

Airwalker16

Well-Known Member
Seedlings aren't meant for DWC. The roots need to be much more established elsewhere before being submerged otherwise, just as you said, they just stop trying to grow. They become content with not having to search for water.
 
fragileassassin

fragileassassin

Well-Known Member
Germinated on 5/2, placed into dwc with thick 10" long roots sticking out on 5/23.

Thats more along the lines of what youd want to be saying there.
 
G

Gushers

Active Member
Airwalker16 said:
Seedlings aren't meant for DWC. The roots need to be much more established elsewhere before being submerged otherwise, just as you said, they just stop trying to grow. They become content with not having to search for water.
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I guess I read somewhere to put it in as soon as the tap root comes out. Must not be the case. The waterline is around 2" below the net pot and the root just barely touches it. Should I put it back on a tray covered by a dome for now? It's in a rockwool cube.
 
fragileassassin

fragileassassin

Well-Known Member
If you already have roots touching water, id just ride it out from here and not mess with it. Light top watering a bit longer only right at the plant as to not soak more hydroton than needed to prevent it from growing roots out into the pot and making sure to not soak your cube. If an oversoaked cube isnt already why youre seeing this.
You wont see much if any top growth until it gets roots grown to support that growth.
It can work this way its just far from ideal to do it this early.
 
G

Gushers

Active Member
fragileassassin said:
If you already have roots touching water, id just ride it out from here and not mess with it. Light top watering a bit longer only right at the plant as to not soak more hydroton than needed to prevent it from growing roots out into the pot and making sure to not soak your cube. If an oversoaked cube isnt already why youre seeing this.
You wont see much if any top growth until it gets roots grown to support that growth.
It can work this way its just far from ideal to do it this early.
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More like a root. Here's a pic I just grabbed. Should I lower the water to make it want to search for roots? I did place the rockwool cube on the bottom of the net pot, any issue with that? Its not submerged.

I have a seedsman order coming in with some nice genetics I'm excited to grow, so hopefully I can nail down what happened here and fix it so my next seeds
 

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fragileassassin

fragileassassin

Well-Known Member
This transition from seedling into the dwc system is the most tedious, pain in the ass parts of hydro imo. Ideally, you want the cube a bit higher in the pot so you can fill it to the top to block out all the light (if you must use rockwool that is), but there's not really anything you can do now to improve it short of starting over. I wouldnt risk pulling it out and moving it around right now.

What some of us have nailed down as the most effective way of doing it is letting them grow out for a few weeks until the roots would reach a couple inches out of the bottom of the pot and feeding roots through a small hole in the bottom so theyre in water right off.
Here's my shit. Its worth a read for a new hydro grower. May give you some ideas and youll learn stuff.

Fragile back at it. DIY RDWC with the things.

Rinsing the system out with fresh water tonight so figured I would share the process some this time. Goal is to transplant tonight. Build of the veg system is in the link in my signature. This is my 5x5 veg tent, will share progress of the flower setup as I start prepping it here in the next...
www.rollitup.org
 
G

Gushers

Active Member
fragileassassin said:
This transition from seedling into the dwc system is the most tedious, pain in the ass parts of hydro imo. Ideally, you want the cube a bit higher in the pot so you can fill it to the top to block out all the light (if you must use rockwool that is), but there's not really anything you can do now to improve it short of starting over. I wouldnt risk pulling it out and moving it around right now.

What some of us have nailed down as the most effective way of doing it is letting them grow out for a few weeks until the roots would reach a couple inches out of the bottom of the pot and feeding roots through a small hole in the bottom so theyre in water right off.
Here's my shit. Its worth a read for a new hydro grower. May give you some ideas and youll learn stuff.

Fragile back at it. DIY RDWC with the things.

Rinsing the system out with fresh water tonight so figured I would share the process some this time. Goal is to transplant tonight. Build of the veg system is in the link in my signature. This is my 5x5 veg tent, will share progress of the flower setup as I start prepping it here in the next...
www.rollitup.org
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Thanks for the tips! Yeah I think I'll leave it for a week and see if it improves. Going to invest in one of those dwc cloners on Amazon and wait longer for more roots before transplanting next time. Your post is a good read!
 
D

Distortionist

Well-Known Member
I would try using UC roots on that. It looks like you have goo there and you don't want that. I also agree that plant is too small for DWC. I think you'll have a rough time and very slow start.
 
G

Gushers

Active Member
I agree definitely a slow start. Anything else I could do now besides wait? I don't want to change the nutes yet since I think it would just be a waste until it gets a little bigger. Yeah I did place the rockwool on the bottom of the net pot, this guy Inside Hydro on YouTube did it with good results, doesn't seem like that for me tho!
 
D

Distortionist

Well-Known Member
Gushers said:
I agree definitely a slow start. Anything else I could do now besides wait? I don't want to change the nutes yet since I think it would just be a waste until it gets a little bigger. Yeah I did place the rockwool on the bottom of the net pot, this guy Inside Hydro on YouTube did it with good results, doesn't seem like that for me tho!
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I think the problem you have is unrelated to that. I haven't started seeds in a long time but the less water they got the better they did (without killing them of thirst). I didn't have much luck with anything that didn't have roots in DWC. I always waited till I see a few roots hanging out of my clones or seeds. I wait till seedlings are about 3 inches tall. I have very little experience though. I get for a few years a single plant at a time and then stopped for 10 years.
 
G

Gushers

Active Member
Distortionist said:
I think the problem you have is unrelated to that. I haven't started seeds in a long time but the less water they got the better they did (without killing them of thirst). I didn't have much luck with anything that didn't have roots in DWC. I always waited till I see a few roots hanging out of my clones or seeds. I wait till seedlings are about 3 inches tall. I have very little experience though. I get for a few years a single plant at a time and then stopped for 10 years.
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For sure I had too much water at first too. I think my eagerness got the best of me and I put her in waaaay too early and once she was in at first I had the rockwoll basically on the water line. I lowered the water level a couple days ago and because of that I think is why I am starting to see the root growth. Glad I made these mistakes now though. First grow setup in about 3 years and first dwc! Lots to learn! I'm excited tho because I got a batch of some seedsmans seeds coming in so I feel like I'm okay with just calling this an "environment run" to nail it down. Which seems pretty solid. Hovers around 78 with the lights on and 68 light off. Humidity is 60-70%.
 
D

Distortionist

Well-Known Member
Gushers said:
For sure I had too much water at first too. I think my eagerness got the best of me and I put her in waaaay too early and once she was in at first I had the rockwoll basically on the water line. I lowered the water level a couple days ago and because of that I think is why I am starting to see the root growth. Glad I made these mistakes now though. First grow setup in about 3 years and first dwc! Lots to learn! I'm excited tho because I got a batch of some seedsmans seeds coming in so I feel like I'm okay with just calling this an "environment run" to nail it down. Which seems pretty solid. Hovers around 78 with the lights on and 68 light off. Humidity is 60-70%.
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Oh I am doing lots of mistakes too but you learn a lot. I have a battle with root rot currently and it is all my doing. I too was a bit too eager and jumped in making lots of mistakes lol.
 
Airwalker16

Airwalker16

Well-Known Member
Gushers said:
I agree definitely a slow start. Anything else I could do now besides wait? I don't want to change the nutes yet since I think it would just be a waste until it gets a little bigger. Yeah I did place the rockwool on the bottom of the net pot, this guy Inside Hydro on YouTube did it with good results, doesn't seem like that for me tho!
Click to expand...
Rockwool period in dwc is terrible if I were you, I'd take it out, cut the rockwool, and out the bare seedling Into the netpot. it will help a LOT. Rockwool just keeps sucking up water and logs the taproot
 
D

Distortionist

Well-Known Member
Airwalker16 said:
Rockwool period in dwc is terrible if I were you, I'd take it out, cut the rockwool, and out the bare seedling Into the netpot. it will help a LOT. Rockwool just keeps sucking up water and logs the taproot
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I remember doing that last time. I should have remembered but nope. I stopped buying it and went to peat moss or soaked soil in a cup for seeds or clones so I can wash the roots and stick it in the pot. I don't know if that's good but it didn't give me a hard time. I later moved to a cloner and stopped using seeds. I plan on cloning this plant before turning it over but I worry now that it will inherent any of the effects of the stress I put it through. I can easily just get another clone and just remove to rockwool.
 
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