Why won't seedlings grow?

Hi guys, New to posting, but I've been following this site for a few months.

I decided to grow, but I'm having a bit of a problem.

Quick Background.

I have a cabinet with 6 CFLs (2-2700K and 4-5000K)
temp is normally around 85-90 deg F
humidity is about 50-60% constant

I got my seeds from mariuana-seeds.nl
I germinated a few thai stick seeds and I got 2 that germinated.

I put one into a jiffy pellet and put it under 24 hour light. (I basically have it half in/half out of the jiffy pellet, but the tap root is pointing down). The Jiffy Pellets are in the little propogator thing that they came in, and the water is sitting about 1/2 high.

Problem is, after 2-3 days it grew about 1/4 an inch out of the soil, it was green, I was happy.

Fast forward to 9 days later and it hasn't grown much at all, and lost most of it's color.

I pulled it out and looked at the roots...looks as if they haven't really grown at all.

I'm using tap water that sat out overnight and I set the PH to just about 6.

I have another seed sitting in a jiffy pot that I just put in last night, but I'm worried it's going to die too. I noticed a little white substance on the outside of the jiffy pellets, have no idea what that is.

I attached 2 pics, pic 1 is the first time I noticed it breaking soil, pic 2 is yesterday (9 days later)


Does anyone have any idea what could be going wrong?

looks like it may be over watered.

those temperatures also aren't too favoable for your seedlings.

If possible, use only your 5k CFL's to try and lower ambient air temps.


as for the pellets.

They seem a little over-saturated with water, and after a couple weeks of only watering with plain water, the food energy is literally being pulled out of the leaves *discoloration and lack of growth*

Solutions
-Start your nutrient regiment (if doing hydro follow "seedling instructions")
-Transplant those seedlings into come larger containers, the roots do not like light
-Turn the additional lights on in a week or two after the plants health stabilizes

This is the time when I transplant into a 12 or 16oz cup. The roots need to grow, and those jiffy pots don't have the sufficient space for roots and they also take on lots of water. But 9 days is odd...at 9 days it should be starting its 3rd or 4th set of leaves. Put them in a bigger container and then at 3 weeks, transplant to an even bigger one. GL.

up your ph to about 6.5(it can go up to roughly 7 with no permanamt damage) my plants will wilt and die with a ph of 6. but at 6.8 they thrive. i even know people that put it at 7.5ish
and starting nutes????????? no way.... dont start nutes till atleast 3 weeks old, or if its about to literally die. just soil alone can and do everyday kill seedling from nute burn!! witch ur seedlings doesn look real unhealthy, just undergrown witch is probly from a ph imbalance(witch would explain discoloration as well) and i would transplant into something around the size of a 16 oz party cup. and how far away from the plants are your lights?

Wow, fast response.

It is a hydro setup, I will go ahead and bump the PH up a bit

also, the lights are about 8 inches from the propogator.

I'm at work now, but when I get home, I'll turn off the 2700K lights, and take the PH up.

I was thinking about nutrient solutions at an EXTREMELY low level, think that would work?

idk about nutes in hydro, i stick with wut i kno lol never tried hydro yet. but with cfls you want em about 3 1/2 to 5 inches above the plants, lumens dissapate with every inch when using cfls, tho they can grow great plants, just if you got em rigged up right ya kno. put ur hand right above the seedlings and lower the lights till you feel the heat off the cfl, if it doesnt get real hot on ur hand, it doesnt get real hot on the seedling. and with em closer you could get by with just one cfl per plant till they get a couple nodes.

and dont get discouraged on there slow start. mine did the same thing. heres a pic of my 2 plants on day 25!! then one of last night. there 3 months 2 weeks old now.
jus shown u these pics so you know u can still get some gorgeous plants. dont toss em out

Alright, I dropped down to the 4 5000K lights, the ambient temp is down to about 82 degrees, humidity is holding steady about 50%.

I didn't do any nutes because that kinda seems hazardous this early in the game, but if it gets any worse I might consider it.

I currently have the PH @ 6.5 so we'll see if that does anything.

also. I put the second germinated seed into the jiffy pot and into the propogator. I've got the humidity dome on it. I drained the water out of it, so the jiffy pots are no longer sitting/soaking in it.

as for the first plant that I thought was dead, I put it in the hydroton, with perlite on top to kill of the light to the roots. It however is not in any water or nutrients I'm just spraying it with water and letting it run out the bottom.

I think I have everything covered. Let me know if I'm missing something,

Thanks

Don't worry, bro. Everyone is giving you great advice.

I'm going to suggest ditching your tap watering, as well. There is no telling what sort of contaminants are hanging out in your H2O. Go to a local corner store, and get a cheap gallon of distilled water.


Letting the tap water sit out was a good precautionary measure, but you made need more.


Night temperatures @ 68 - 70 F
Day temperatures @ 72 - 75 F


Peace, and good luck!

royw176 said:

Don't worry, bro. Everyone is giving you great advice.

I'm going to suggest ditching your tap watering, as well. There is no telling what sort of contaminants are hanging out in your H2O. Go to a local corner store, and get a cheap gallon of distilled water.


Letting the tap water sit out was a good precautionary measure, but you made need more.


Night temperatures @ 68 - 70 F
Day temperatures @ 72 - 75 F


Peace, and good luck!

Click to expand...

I'm with you on that one. I think they were poisoned by the PH solution. Buy distilled and leave them alone. Maybe just a real weak, i mean REAL weak B-1 solution like Hormex.

so, not sure if this is because I'm new to posting, but I wrote out an update probably about 2 hours ago, and it's not showing up. Basically, ignore this post as I'm just trying to see if it WILL post.

Alright, apparently it does work

I dropped down to the 4-5000K lights, making my ambient temps about 82 during the "day" and 75 at "night".

I also put the pH to 6.5, but will get some distilled water tonight and use that instead.

The one that I think/thought was dying is now in the hydroton and all but the top is covered with perlite to keep the light off the roots. I watered it, and it's humid as hell, so we should see if that works out. The perlite has some ridiculously low nutrient levels in it, it's the MG stuff that they sell at like wal-mart.

Anything else I'm missing?