Seedling in need of assistance!

[ipax91]

Hey guys,
my two week old seedling started having issues. I'm hoping somebody can diagnose and help.
At the time I was growing with 4 42watt 6500k cfl bubls, in a solo cup filled with FFOF and a little perlite. I'm not going to bother explaining how the plant looks, as I have a bunch of pics that will do a much better job.

I used poland springs bottled water, which I thought would have a good ph level (the one i tested, did). The problem started last friday when I used distilled (i mixed equal parts distilled/poland, because i figured distilled would have a better ph but no nutrients.)
I let it sit on saturday, hoping it would recover.
On Sunday I spiked the water with lemon juice, assuming the soils PH was too high (I tested it in the solo cup, high ~7's. the bag it came from ~8. Tested with a cheap-$10-soil tester from amazon).

I then created a folial spray, using a few drops of biocanna's vio vega, and a few ounces of distilled water. I started spraying the leaves last night hoping it would help.

I hope this isn't too much, but I'm realllly in need of some help here, hoping somebody knows better than I do.

Then, that night it looked like this

the next day this:

Sunday it looked like this.

images after spraying last night

 

[Fuzzy Duck]

FFOF is tad to hot for seedling germination as in to rich of nutrients which may may of caused nutrient burn on your young plants...


I would suggest a very good flush... e.g pour with lots of water through soil to remove as much nutrients as possible and allow to dry out, might be worth while doing it a 2nd time...


Seeds/seedlings do not require such heavy preloaded nutrient compost/soil !

 

[ipax91]

FFOF is tad to hot for seedling germination as in to rich of nutrients which may may of caused nutrient burn on your young plants...


I would suggest a very good flush... e.g pour with lots of water through soil to remove as much nutrients as possible and allow to dry out, might be worth while doing it a 2nd time...


Seeds/seedlings do not require such heavy preloaded nutrient compost/soil !

Thanks for responding! Not that I'm disagreeing (i'm really not) but why would it take so long for it to show symptoms?

I googled it and I think you might be right, it looks very similar to my plant. How much water would you classify as a "good flush" for my solo cup? and my soil is still very wet from the flush I did with lemon water yesterday, should I still go ahead with that?

again, thanks!
Edit: repped.

 

[oldman60]

Looks like the lemon juice and spray made it worse. I would repot into bigger pots with some soil that doesn't have time
released fertilizer in. It may too late they look like they are going down hill fast.

 

[shottafire]

In soil the changes happen a little slower than say a hydro setup. FFOF is definitely too hot for seedlings. I would cut it with Light warrior seed germinating mix. 3parts light warrior to 1 part FFOF. or even 2 and 2 would work.

 

[Fuzzy Duck]

Thanks for responding! Not that I'm disagreeing (i'm really not) but why would it take so long for it to show symptoms?

I googled it and I think you might be right, it looks very similar to my plant. How much water would you classify as a "good flush" for my solo cup? and my soil is still very wet from the flush I did with lemon water yesterday, should I still go ahead with that?

again, thanks!
Edit: repped.

A flush normally consists of 3 times the volume of the pot size !


The lemon juice is ok for a short term fix to adjust PH of water/nutrients but in the long term... nope i probable wouldn't bother.

I would be incline to do some home work on your water supple to find out PH value, this can be found out by viewing your water companys website with the PH some where listed on the site... takes a little bit of time to find it tho !

Most nutrients are PH buffering anyway, you can get a PH liquid test kit for a few dollars to check end results if so desired of nutrient laced water or even your water supply

 

[WizHigh]

IMO what happen was you sprayed your plants with lemon juice and lemon juice is easy to burn because of the acids in it. So when you did that the light burned the lemon juice as well as the plant.

Your plants may have been a little burned from the soil but you over thought it and sprayed the plants before doing some research. They were ok even with the little burn they wouldve grew into the soil and got used to it. Alot of new growers mistakes come from over thinking or fast reactions. Take your time do a little research and then act on it. The plants arent going any where and neither is the problem for the time being.

Try coco coir out. Theres no nutes in it and you have full control over what happens to your plants. You treat it the same as soil with watering. Alot less harmful then soil. Alot less problems as well.

As for the plant I would let it be and see if theres any signs of new growth and life in the plant. Dont repot or anything. You will further shock the plant if you do. Also raise the light alot.

 

[ipax91]

A flush normally consists of 3 times the volume of the pot size !


The lemon juice is ok for a short term fix to adjust PH of water/nutrients but in the long term... nope i probable wouldn't bother.

I would be incline to do some home work on your water supple to find out PH value, this can be found out by viewing your water companys website with the PH some where listed on the site... takes a little bit of time to find it tho !

Most nutrients are PH buffering anyway, you can get a PH liquid test kit for a few dollars to check end results if so desired of nutrient laced water or even your water supply

That's good info. Yeah, I only tested one of the poland spring bottles. I think the ph from the water was actually fine, I think the soil PH might have been bad from the get go.

IMO what happen was you sprayed your plants with lemon juice and lemon juice is easy to burn because of the acids in it. So when you did that the light burned the lemon juice as well as the plant.

Your plants may have been a little burned from the soil but you over thought it and sprayed the plants before doing some research. They were ok even with the little burn they wouldve grew into the soil and got used to it. Alot of new growers mistakes come from over thinking or fast reactions. Take your time do a little research and then act on it. The plants arent going any where and neither is the problem for the time being.

Try coco coir out. Theres no nutes in it and you have full control over what happens to your plants. You treat it the same as soil with watering. Alot less harmful then soil. Alot less problems as well.

As for the plant I would let it be and see if theres any signs of new growth and life in the plant. Dont repot or anything. You will further shock the plant if you do. Also raise the light alot.

Nononoo I didn't spray with lemon water. I poured lemon water into the soil, I sprayed with a few drops of bio vega + water. But thanks for the input. the leaves are even drier today, I'll up the light though :/ Any other plant-life saving ideas?

 

[shottafire]

I would scrap it and start fresh with some new beans if you have them. I toss things frequently from my garden only keeping the healthy plants around.

 

[ipax91]

So, I had a seedling that had struggled to take root, growing right next to this. it was developmentally behind by about 2 weeks. Since this one started dying (its really all but dead now) the seedling, which got less light, attention, and water has grown larger than the plant that is now almost dead. So i'm thinking I must have been over watering or over lighting to get the results seen above. How frequently should I be watering? (~50-60% full solo cups with FFOF and a little bit of perlite.)

I know the basics, every plant is different, when the top two inches dry out... but I did that with the other one. So like, water every X days with how much in comparison to the amount of soil I have? Sorry for the clueless questions and thanks in advance for your help

 

[WizHigh]

Depending on the temps if your plants are in a 8oz cup I would give less then half of an 8oz cup of water every other or 3rd day.

 

[oldman60]

Did you put any drain holes in the bottom of those cups?

I doubt the 160 watts you have on them is causing a problem. It's easy to over water and underwater in solo cups
especially if there are no drain holes. The bottom can actually become septic if it can't breath or stays wet.
Those cups are fine for sprouting. Once they develop a couple set of leaves it should be put in a bigger pot
with good drainage.

Repotting won't shock the plant much unless you disturb the ball. In fact repotting can make it perk up like the tomato
plants I put out day before yesterday. They loved their new home. Your plants will too. Keep in mind you don't need to
feed seedlings or very young plants anything especially if your soil has time released fertilizer. Keep in mind with soil
like that every time you water more fertilizer gets dissolved into the water. Watering less often is better. If you are
going to use bottled water use plain distilled or ro with nothing added.

 

[ipax91]

Did you put any drain holes in the bottom of those cups?

I doubt the 160 watts you have on them is causing a problem. It's easy to over water and underwater in solo cups
especially if there are no drain holes. The bottom can actually become septic if it can't breath or stays wet.
Those cups are fine for sprouting. Once they develop a couple set of leaves it should be put in a bigger pot
with good drainage.

Repotting won't shock the plant much unless you disturb the ball. In fact repotting can make it perk up like the tomato
plants I put out day before yesterday. They loved their new home. Your plants will too. Keep in mind you don't need to
feed seedlings or very young plants anything especially if your soil has time released fertilizer. Keep in mind with soil
like that every time you water more fertilizer gets dissolved into the water. Watering less often is better. If you are
going to use bottled water use plain distilled or ro with nothing added.

I used a knife to puncture a few drainage slits into the bottom when I first planted the seeds. I really think I must have over watered, because the other plant got less water and less attention, but is doing better. The original plant is preettyy much dead. no new leaves, they're all crispy and droopy :/

 

[ipax91]

okay, so here's the sibling of the deceased. I transplanted the entire core of the solo up (FFOF) to the pot shown, which contained happy frog with a little ffof mixed in. I noticed some yellowing on the leaves before the transplant. But since I swapped it over its gradually gotten worse (much more so gradually than the sibling, where things went from strange to BAD in like 18 hours).

So is there anything I can do to treat the problem? Was it a mistake to transplant the entire soil mass from the solo cup? (the roots had reached the sides/bottom of the cup so i just dropped the whole thing in... annnyyways lemme know whatcha think.
Thanks in advance!