3 Week Seedling Root Is 4 Inches Long With No Side Root Dev, Is That Normal?

[kayciweed]

I had a sneaking suspicion that my soil was a bad mix of vermiculite, peat moss and soil. The soil itself had bark in it, fairly large amounts and at first i was none the wiser.

The leaves started to droop, and at first i thought it might be due to underwatering. I tend to water it every 5 days or so as the soil at the bottom of the pot to midway is alway wet.

Then i thought perhaps the wetness right at the bottom was the issue. And it could be root rot.

Anyway, i decided to move it to a more suitable pot, but when i pulled it out, it was just one long root (about 4 inches long). It had almost no outer growth, it was just one long root.

I suspect I was right about the soil being an issue.

Anyone know what this is about and whether it is normal? From what i see online, it should of had far more root development. This is my first grow.

 

[bluenoserjoe]

Now i don't grow in soil as yet but my understanding is that the pieces of bark will stop the roots dead. So maybe the tap root is looking for a more hospitable place before pushing out side roots. I had something similar happen in hydro. A seedling in a rockwool plug set on a half inch of pea gravel in a net pot. When the roots hit the pea gravel, searching for water, they stopped dead for a week . Didn't start growing again until the layer of gravel was removed.

 

[kayciweed]

Now i don't grow in soil as yet but my understanding is that the pieces of bark will stop the roots dead. So maybe the tap root is looking for a more hospitable place before pushing out side roots. I had something similar happen in hydro. A seedling in a rockwool plug set on a half inch of pea gravel in a net pot. When the roots hit the pea gravel, searching for water, they stopped dead for a week . Didn't start growing again until the layer of gravel was removed.

Interesting. Yeah, I think they could be the culprit. Atm fingers crossed.

Is it just me, or is growing a little tense at times? I feel like it is one thing after another, and I wonder how I would cope being a parent. Lol...

 

[bluenoserjoe]

I find the first three weeks to be stressful. So far I have an 80% success rate for seedlings, not too bad but at the price of good generics in seeds I will shoot for 100%. Once past this stage I can sit back and watch as they do their thing.

 

[kayciweed]

I find the first three weeks to be stressful. So far I have an 80% success rate for seedlings, not too bad but at the price of good generics in seeds I will shoot for 100%. Once past this stage I can sit back and watch as they do their thing.

That is pretty good. I lost one recently (Blue Dream) and ended up planting another Northern Lights. I find I am less worried about it than the 3 week old Durban Poison.

Got any idea how long it will be before i see if my replanting was successful.

 

[bluenoserjoe]

I would think in the first 24 hours you should see an improvement. If not then there could be another underlying problem. Don't think so though, you should be good to grow.

 

[SmokingWings]

I had a sneaking suspicion that my soil was a bad mix of vermiculite, peat moss and soil. The soil itself had bark in it, fairly large amounts and at first i was none the wiser.

Is it bark or just small pieces of wood? Or, is the soil actually shredded coco coir; that stuff, when it is wet will look like chipped wood and bark. As it is, all of my soil mixes have had small pieces of wood, as in sticks and stems of trees or shrubs, that came from the compost or mineral soils that I mixed with the peat and perlite.

I do not think that the wood is the problem with that short root. I am not using coco coir yet but thinking of experimenting with it.

The leaves started to droop, and at first i thought it might be due to underwatering. I tend to water it every 5 days or so as the soil at the bottom of the pot to midway is alway wet.

Then i thought perhaps the wetness right at the bottom was the issue. And it could be root rot.

I really think that the water is the problem or cause of the one short root. The bottom is staying wet and the root system will stall because it does not need to grow more roots to find water. It is always there and the one root is enough to keep the plant alive.

Just my thoughts. Have a great day.

 

[Bush Doctor 77]

Brand of media/soil, and composition? You should expect small pieces of wood in peat, but not a lot of bark. Bark sucks. Peat is plant material preserved in acid(anaerobic) conditions. It should mostly be preserved moss, but there are bushes in the peat bogs that add wood to the mix. Any peat based media should dry quite a bit between watering, as you want the roots to search the whole container for nutes.

BTW peat>lignite>bituminous coal>anthracite with temp>pressure>time