Unknown problem going on for almost a year. Help!

Hello, this is my first time posting here. I've had only two plants, Auto NL that grew big and yield a lot, but since those every time I plant a seed when its time for the 4th nodeto appear it just starts slowing down, gets sick and enventually die. I recognize i've been overwatering the whole time. I corrected this, also corrected ph soil with dolomyte cal. Soil is a little of this and the rest is perlite + sphagnum mix. Water ph is 6.5, I've been only watering with a very small quantity with a sprinkler. In another thread some guys told me that given the circumstances it should be Mildew. Plant is a Nirvana PPP, planted in august 1st. Its now trying to grow its 4th node, as always, when the problem occurs. What you guys think?

How dry is the environment? how close is your light? why did you decide to propagate with LED??

Hi, thanks for your attention. Humidity is around 60%. The led is about 50cm away, its a chinese 150W UFO, its the only "decent" light i have at the moment.

willy_walrus said:

Hi, thanks for your attention. Humidity is around 60%. The led is about 50cm away, its a chinese 150W UFO, its the only "decent" light i have at the moment.

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Those led can be pretty bright. I would raise another 15cm or so. I noticed some bleaching in my new sprouts using led. As for starting in soil, I just get a small bag of miracle grow starter soil and water till wet then don't water again till it's almost dry.

William1976 said:

Those led can be pretty bright. I would raise another 15cm or so. I noticed some bleaching in my new sprouts using led. As for starting in soil, I just get a small bag of miracle grow starter soil and water till wet then don't water again till it's almost dry.

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Once it's mature I transplant to soil it will be in till the end.

William1976 said:

Once it's mature I transplant to soil it will be in till the end.

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I've had best results sprouting with a 6500K CFL. Blue light and not to bright.

I see.... if it is really Mildew, does anyone think it can be saved? Or is it too young and damaged? Im tred of losing every single seed i plant! Itseems its also growing slow.... maybe too much light amd water?

willy_walrus said:

I see.... if it is really Mildew, does anyone think it can be saved? Or is it too young and damaged? Im tred of losing every single seed i plant! Itseems its also growing slow.... maybe too much light amd water?

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How much lime did u add? Have you checked the ph of your run off? May be a soil ph issue.

If its damping off, and i dont think it is. You could treat it with a soil drench fungicide. To me though it appears to be either ph of soil or light burn.

What kind of pot you using? Does it have adequate drainage holes?

It still looks salvageable to me. The new sprouts are green so that's good. I'd stick with it and if you have extra seeds go ahead and germinate one in wet paper towel just in case. Meanwhile while it's germinating go get u some starter mix for a couple bucks and some peat pellets, while your at it get you a 6500K cfl for a few bucks at Menards or Lowes or something. Once it cracks, put it in soaked peat pellet till roots come out bottom and then transplant into starter soil. No nutrients just plain water.

Its a 4L smart pot. Ok, I'll try and see if it recovers, if i germinate another it's my last ppp seed and I really don't want screw it up. I'll post updates with the solutions and results. Thanks!

Do you have room for 2 plants if it survives?

I have a Blackjack in the same setup next to this one, same age and all, looking good. I've done some research and it actually looks like mildew. I know they look healthy but I've seen this problem happening since last December.

I'm almost sure my soil is contaminated. Answering previous questions, i put two teaspoon of lime in 4l of soil... According to my soil ph meter its 6.5.... I haven't had a good runoff because I'm afraid of overwatering, since I started on this smart pot. However, I waited 25 days for the soil mixture to balance because I've read thats the time lime takes to stabilize, and it did, i had a runoff before planting anything and it was 6.5.. The soil was 5.5 when i bought it and mixed it.

I saw that the mildew gets installed easier when sprinkling water to the soil and that's how I was watering. I took a better look now and saw white powder on the leaves so i scrapped it off with a cotton stick with diluted h2o2... Since i already got the doubt i had yesterday sprayed some copper sulfate on the leaves (very toxic, I know, but the plant will metabolize it in at least 40 days)..... Now it seems the burning and cracked parts turned soft again! I also put the light away as recommend!

Thanks a lot and sorry for the big text. Tomorrow I'll look at her and post it here!

get a 20 dollar home depot shoplight. powdery mildew takes a bit after infecting to show its face. Ive never seen it on a seedling. Its more likely water residue. Dont use spray bottles or whatever sprinkler. Let it dry and then water fully, Ive been waiting around two weeks till I rewater from putting a seed in but it depends.

Interesting, I'll see to it! You think its overwatering after all? Before setting the soil with lime I was using the soil with ph 5.5.... Trying to adjust it flushing with ph'd water.... Only then I discovered what the lime was for... This caused me to overwater eventually and then those cracks appeared... But it got yellow first and the stem and veins went red earlier,... This plant now went to dark green to those spots in 42h... This is what I just can't figure out... I know I'm bad with it but I've got time to make and see a lot of mistakes, and this plant was looking so good!

This is my blackjack... Looking fine as was the ppp... The picture is not that good, just took it to compare as this sickness or whatever sneaks in fast... Both plants have very little internode space... I believe its from the light position as suggested.. Fixed that

This just looks like hot soil, the new leaves are nice and dark and unburnt yet. But dont just mist, you want it to dry and then fully rewet it so the roots grow down.

Hey so i gave so copper and sulfur to the plant thinking about the mildew but it looks like it didn't work. Do I keep giving it? Look at the spot that appeared on the upper leaf now. What is this? I've been having this problem for a year now, and it's gonna stun and kill my seedlings as always. The blackjack (last pic) is starting to get affected by it too. Maybe this soil i bought is contaminated, I don't know. I've had overwatered plants, N overdose, wrong ph, etc they all showed signs but survive and grow out of it, those I've been planting now show this problems and simply die. Please help me!

Stop doing as much. You are killing them. I think they are fine, its just hot soil for a baby. They should grow out of it.