Stretching, slow growth

Hi Guys ... I've started my first grow (White Widow) after reading Cervantes' bible cover to cover and a few web site grow guides, and 5 days after sprouting I have long skinny stalks with almost no growth in the past two days. Photo attached.

Conditions are: 400W MH lamp 24" away (closest I can get to keep temp at seedlings at 79F ... room thermostatted at 72F); no nutes yet but using Schultz premium pottting soil (2/3 with 1/3 vermiculite, soil is 12-7-9) in peat pots; soil pH measures 6.7; moisture meter used to water (every other day); light schedule 18/6; small oscillating fan near top of room to avoid too much movement or drying out of seedlings; mist with distilled water about twice/day as humidity is low (40-45% typically).

Seedlings are about 3" tall now but look the same as 2 days ago, very whimpy stalks and very slow growth. Anything obvious to cause this? Thanks!

- Snake

what i think is best for seedlings ia fluroscent lights for 1 week, on 24/0, maybe the mh might be a bit strong at that early stage and maybe your potting soil if for seedlings that have developed a bit, get a light mix.....
keep trying to fix it, ul get it..
good luck

i wouldn't recomend prenuted soil (imo)

Thanks guys ... sounds like I may have gotten a little overzealous with the soil and the lighting. Is there any recovery from something like this (just let them continue?) or is it better to just write these little guys/girls off and start another batch?

if you plan to stay all soil I'd try to keep a pH near 6.3 if possible...

I,M no soil expert but I think the simple thing to do would be to just sink the stem deeper in the soil and use close floros or cfl's to get them to grow stalkier and use a neutral mix meaning nutes free imho that would be the thing I would do but I think there is no need to write these off

either air-cool the HID so you can move it closer (never saw stretching like that with an HID before btw - even as far away as you have it) or get a t5 fixture (or a bunch of CFLs) very close to the plant. and then you can re-bury it up to near the cotyledons. also a fan blowing pretty hard (they should quiver) on them would help.

Thanks, will do. I have the light in a Sun System "Yield Master II" reflector with 6" holes at each end, and a fan mounted on one side that just blows across the bulb and out the other hole. But I don't have my fan quivering the seedlings and will give that a try, as well as moving the light closer and repotting the plants up to the cotyledons. I'd love to save these guys if possible given the effort to get the seeds in hand. Thanks for the suggestions!

the reason they are stretching is because of how far your light is away from them. I recommend getting a flourscent light and put it a half inch away from those guys and once they become bigger put them under that light you have. i would also get little toothpicks and some string and tie those guys up so it will help support the stem. Also get a fan on there so that the stems can grow stronger and hold themselves up. If you dont have a fan just flick the stem for a minute each morning and night and that will make them stem stronger. (thats what i do at first) try to keep going with these and see if you can save them. My first grow was the same exact way but they turned out real nice until i put them outside and the deer ate them.

Snake said:

Thanks, will do. I have the light in a Sun System "Yield Master II" reflector with 6" holes at each end, and a fan mounted on one side that just blows across the bulb and out the other hole. But I don't have my fan quivering the seedlings and will give that a try, as well as moving the light closer and repotting the plants up to the cotyledons. I'd love to save these guys if possible given the effort to get the seeds in hand. Thanks for the suggestions!

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you should be able to salvage them. i use both a 600w HPS and a 400w MH throughout the whole grow and have to keep the light about 3.5 feet away from the plants - but they do not stretch which is why i find your plants odd that they are getting so stretchy with a 400w light.

email468 said:

you should be able to salvage them. i use both a 600w HPS and a 400w MH throughout the whole grow and have to keep the light about 3.5 feet away from the plants - but they do not stretch which is why i find your plants odd that they are getting so stretchy with a 400w light.

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Yeah ... I was bummed when I saw the stretching after being so careful with the germination (got 4/5 seeds to germinate) and planting, and I did keep a pair of 34W fluorescents over the sprouts until the cotyledons showed. But I was afraid I would get stretching due to insufficient light and moved to the 400W MH, and got exactly what I was trying to avoid! It sounds like I used the wrong soil and maybe moved to the MH light too soon, but will try to rescue these little soldiers with the tips given today.

Having it strech that much can be a bad thing unless you want to use it as a mom plant and later on it can be better when the stalk(is that the right word?) gets thicker from having wind blowing on them

is it true if you cut off the cotyledons the plant will grow faster?

all these answers are great but it could be as simple as older seeds.....and from what ive read dont cut the starter leaves the plant needs them to collect enough light to grow

intoblackwaterpark said:

all these answers are great but it could be as simple as older seeds.....and from what ive read dont cut the starter leaves the plant needs them to collect enough light to grow

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Could be the seeds, but I planted them within 2 days of receiving them from a reputable seed bank. I expect my inexperience with soil mix and lighting, temperature and humidity, are my main problems. I followed the suggestions here and replanted into larger containers with the stems buried nearly to the cotyledons. I also used no-nute soil and flushed with distilled water before replanting, and adjusted the light at 22" above the seedlings.

The little guys are growing but I think very slow. I don't have a feel for how big they should be at 7 days after sprouting (photo attached) but at least something is happening. Besides the slow growth, the leaves are pale green and starting to wrinkle on the edges (worse now ... 2 days after the attached photo). There are no spots, and the tips are fine ... but the leaves on all three plants are wrinkled.

Looking through Certantes book, the pale green could be Zn or Fe deficiency, but I'm afraid to add nutes at this stage. It could also be chlorophyll leaching from too many photons from the 400W MH light (even though there is no leaf burning and the temperature at the leaves is always around 79-81F). One consistent environmental problem is low humidity (35-45%). Could this also be responsible for wrinkling of the leaves?

- Snake

Whoops ... that should be Cervantes book (typo). Also, T and %RH are a little higher in the photo than normal because my face was down in the pots prior to the photo and I breathed too close to the sensor.

-Snake

they look fine - don't over-worry them. they'll get bigger.

dont freak yourself out my girls started slow than 1 night BOOOOOM they exploded i was like these are not the same plants all it takes is 1 night itll happen once the roots take hold

intoblackwaterpark said:

dont freak yourself out my girls started slow than 1 night BOOOOOM they exploded i was like these are not the same plants all it takes is 1 night itll happen once the roots take hold

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yea my girls doubled in size in 1 month and I thought that they are gona be small still