I have 2 seedlings that are 26 days old and they are way small for their age but they are using water fast with a good wet/dry cycle. They are drying out totally within 3 days so I have been watering them every 3 to 4 days to run off. They both look ok. They did stretch too much at first and one of them has red stems. They are in a Sungro peat based seed starting mix and I am feeding them the maintenance dosage of Dyna-Geo Foliage Pro at 1/4 the tsp per gallon with every water and I started that after their first 2 weeks. What could be the causes of this?
Seedlings not growing much but using water!
- Thread starter jokerlola
- Start date
Really need to see pictures to evaluate.
- Thread starter
- #3
Sorry, I thought I had posted pictures but they didn’t load for some reason. Posted them now
Get em transplanted into their final home, out of the seedling starter and into good quality soil, I think they’ll take off as soon as you do. They are leggy, what’s your light source? Might move it closer a few days after transplant.
- Thread starter
- #5
They are outside right now and then get supplemented with CF lights to give them a total of 16 hours of light. They got leggy at the very beginning because I had the CF lights a little too far away from them but they’ve stopped stretching. I’ve been debating whether to move them into their final 2 gal pots since they are so small.
They are very leggy but not really ready to be transplanted yet. It might help to butcher up the solo cups with more ventilation to help the soil dry out faster….. in addition to drilling holes I also cut half moon shapes out of the bottom / side rim of the cups
obviously yes they can be transplanted but I think they will do better if you can develop the rootball into a larger mass while still in the small cups. If you have read Emilyas watering pieces then you want the roots to use up the water in 24 hours before jumping up to bigger container.
Be careful - hold your hand over the soil turn it upside down and slip the cup off….. yeah soil is prolly wetter than you think. Photoperiods are ok to transplant multiple times, avoid transplant on autos, it can stunt the plant.
Last piece 2 gallons is small to flower in, good luck Jokerola! my 2 cents see what else comes in
obviously yes they can be transplanted but I think they will do better if you can develop the rootball into a larger mass while still in the small cups. If you have read Emilyas watering pieces then you want the roots to use up the water in 24 hours before jumping up to bigger container.
Be careful - hold your hand over the soil turn it upside down and slip the cup off….. yeah soil is prolly wetter than you think. Photoperiods are ok to transplant multiple times, avoid transplant on autos, it can stunt the plant.
Last piece 2 gallons is small to flower in, good luck Jokerola! my 2 cents see what else comes in
- Thread starter
- #7
Right now they are drying out the soil about every 3 days. I've been wanting to wait till they dry the soil out in 1 day before transplanting them. I do have good drainage holes on the bottoms. I hit the edges with a Bic lighter and burn 5 nice holes in the edges of the bottom of the cups. I mis-spoke, the 2 gallon pots won't be their final pots. 5 gallon Smart Pots will be their final pots but I planned on putting them into 2 gal nursery pots first before the 5 gal Smart Pots because I don't have anything smaller. I'm just trying to figure out why they are so small. They've been in full sun since they were 5 days old. I started feeding them nutrients when the second set of leaves emerged. Is it a good idea to pot most of those long stems under the soil when I do transplant them?
Low-wattage CFL bulbs (up to 23-watt, and probably 42-watt ones, too) should be positioned an inch from the top of the plants, oriented horizontally, parallel to the leaves. You can easily/cheaply make serviceable reflectors for them out of unlined aluminum beverage cans. Empty one and wash it out. Cut around the bottom, almost all the way. Do the same thing, just down from the top (you might not want to cut as much here). No cut vertically in a straight line to connect your first two cuts; this cut should begin and end at the middle of the "almost circle cuts" you made earlier, in other words, so that an equal amount of those cuts are on each side of your vertical cut. Now open up the can, like a pair of wings. Bend the bottom outward. Trim the top of the can so that it fits snugly into the base of your CFL bulb (or its socket). Congratulations, you've just made a reflector, lol. If you want to get fancy, you can try making a crease in the metal exactly opposite your vertical cut, and forming a slight "restrike bend" so that photons traveling straight up (when bulb is laying on its side) will not be reflected straight back down into the bulb. But it's not necessary.
Those plants need considerably more light than they have been receiving. Maybe forget about taking them outside; it must be awfully cloudy
.
It wouldn't surprise me to learn that those things are at least partially root bound. Regardless, you need to repot them into larger containers, so you can bury them to about halfway up the stem, or a little more.
After you've got them transplanted, and are giving them something approaching an adequate amount of light for 18 hours per day, increase the nutrient strength. They should quickly double in size.
Consider buying a cheap - but decent - LED panel, such as one of these:
Those plants need considerably more light than they have been receiving. Maybe forget about taking them outside; it must be awfully cloudy
.It wouldn't surprise me to learn that those things are at least partially root bound. Regardless, you need to repot them into larger containers, so you can bury them to about halfway up the stem, or a little more.
After you've got them transplanted, and are giving them something approaching an adequate amount of light for 18 hours per day, increase the nutrient strength. They should quickly double in size.
Consider buying a cheap - but decent - LED panel, such as one of these:
- Thread starter
- #9
They are getting full sun outside and we are still in the 90's on most days. Very few clouds. So basically about 10 hours of direct sunlight and 12 hours of daylight and then about 5 hours of supplemental light from the CFL grow lights (just to keep them from flowering). I am using clamp on shop lights with the pan style reflectors. I really don't grow indoors but I'm planning on vegging these in my south facing basement window well which gets full sun from morning to evening like a green house with the supplemental light to keep them from vegging, then flipping them to flower in the window well by just eliminating the supplemental light.Low-wattage CFL bulbs (up to 23-watt, and probably 42-watt ones, too) should be positioned an inch from the top of the plants, oriented horizontally, parallel to the leaves. You can easily/cheaply make serviceable reflectors for them out of unlined aluminum beverage cans. Empty one and wash it out. Cut around the bottom, almost all the way. Do the same thing, just down from the top (you might not want to cut as much here). No cut vertically in a straight line to connect your first two cuts; this cut should begin and end at the middle of the "almost circle cuts" you made earlier, in other words, so that an equal amount of those cuts are on each side of your vertical cut. Now open up the can, like a pair of wings. Bend the bottom outward. Trim the top of the can so that it fits snugly into the base of your CFL bulb (or its socket). Congratulations, you've just made a reflector, lol. If you want to get fancy, you can try making a crease in the metal exactly opposite your vertical cut, and forming a slight "restrike bend" so that photons traveling straight up (when bulb is laying on its side) will not be reflected straight back down into the bulb. But it's not necessary.
Those plants need considerably more light than they have been receiving. Maybe forget about taking them outside; it must be awfully cloudy
It wouldn't surprise me to learn that those things are at least partially root bound. Regardless, you need to repot them into larger containers, so you can bury them to about halfway up the stem, or a little more.
After you've got them transplanted, and are giving them something approaching an adequate amount of light for 18 hours per day, increase the nutrient strength. They should quickly double in size.
Consider buying a cheap - but decent - LED panel, such as one of these:
So you think they could be small because they are root bound? They are drying out the cups every 3 days right now and I'm feeding them Dyna-Gro Foliage Pro 9-3-6 at maintenance (1/4th teaspoon per gal), plus Advanced Nutrients Ancient Earth and Primordial Solutions Sea Green. I have been waiting for them to get to the point of drying out the cups in 1 day to transplant them.
The drying is due more to the temperature than what the plant is uptaking. They are ready to transplant. You don't say if they're autos or photos, if autos, my suggestion is plant them in their final home now You have limited veg time with autos, so the fewer interuptions the better. But regarless, every time you transplant you lose a few days, why use an iterim pot?
- Thread starter
- #11
They are regular photos so one or both could turn out to be males. I had one of the earlier planted seeds turn out to be a male. Planting in interim pots because I’m not confident enough to not over water them in a bigger pot at their size. They were drying out the cups at a slower rate just a little over a week ago while we were in higher 90’s temps. I just watered/fed them and I’m expecting them to now dry out the cups in 2 days. When they dry out again in a day or 2, I will try to slide them out and check the roots to see if they are root bound. They will probably be ready then.
VanIslandConnoisseur
Well-Known Member
Heres my watering rule of thumb!
60ml when wilting for 3 inch plant
125ml for 6 " plant
250 for 12" plant and so on
250ml=1 cup per 12" of plant leaf mass when wilting(dehydrated)
do this and you will learn and never once regret it
60ml when wilting for 3 inch plant
125ml for 6 " plant
250 for 12" plant and so on
250ml=1 cup per 12" of plant leaf mass when wilting(dehydrated)
do this and you will learn and never once regret it
Sueet
Well-Known Member
It's nice for you that you have a system that works for you, but you need to understand we all have different situations (heat, rh, type of medium and those are just a few) - so in many or maybe even most cases your advice would not work at all.
At the very least you should list off your parameters so that someone could decide if your method might be helpful for them or not.
- Thread starter
- #14
This is for seedlings, correct? I usually transplant into their final 5 gl Smart Pots once they are around 12" and they get a full watering/feeding till run off as long as they dry out the pots within a week.
VanIslandConnoisseur
Well-Known Member
I suggest to use 30ml for seedling until there is a set or 2 of true leaves, if you have the right/good strength of light, they should be roughly 3" tall by then and then you would use 60ml to hydrate them for 24-48 hrs depending on temp and humidity.
VanIslandConnoisseur
Well-Known Member
LOWER your light, they are stretching because they dont have enough ppfd/par/strength, what light and wattage is it?
every time the plant starts to be dehydrated( starting to wilt) the roots naturally grow in search of water much faster than when plant is full hydrated, its natural, happens in nature constantly, and thats how it works.
More root, more fruit
Also removes chance of root rot and does the opposite, gets healthy white roots
If your in actual soil, the microbiology also benefit from the right amount of air in the soil as good aerboic microbiology need air to survive as well
lastly, respiration is growth in the plant, when the enzymes burn off stored sugar from the day from photosynthesis, these enzymes require air to make the plant and roots grow.
Now you can picture how this watering technique works so well
every time the plant starts to be dehydrated( starting to wilt) the roots naturally grow in search of water much faster than when plant is full hydrated, its natural, happens in nature constantly, and thats how it works.
More root, more fruit
Also removes chance of root rot and does the opposite, gets healthy white roots
If your in actual soil, the microbiology also benefit from the right amount of air in the soil as good aerboic microbiology need air to survive as well
lastly, respiration is growth in the plant, when the enzymes burn off stored sugar from the day from photosynthesis, these enzymes require air to make the plant and roots grow.
Now you can picture how this watering technique works so well
VanIslandConnoisseur
Well-Known Member
PLease post updated pics from today if possible!!!
Im super curious how they are lookin!! your off to a good start
Your seeding pictures up above on here, i would water them about 80ml when they are starting to wilt, (leaves will be angling more downwards rather than up or level) due to low water pressure in leaves.
Im super curious how they are lookin!! your off to a good start
Your seeding pictures up above on here, i would water them about 80ml when they are starting to wilt, (leaves will be angling more downwards rather than up or level) due to low water pressure in leaves.
