Young plants struggling leaf curl and brown spot

[Zozohyland]

I'm growing in vermiculite in a very simple wet tray scenario. Aside from one, all of my seedlings are struggling after looking healthy for a few weeks. I'm giving them plenty of nutrients, magnesium and I'm making sure the ph is perfect.

I'm wondering if I should just repot in soil as it's my first time doing hydro. Is the issue being cause by a lack of oxygen to the roots, as I have no air pump yet.

The symptoms are brown spots, rapidly spreading, leaf curl and one plant being very pale. I thought I was doing everything right!

 

[Listersmeghead]

Hi zozohyland.
Do you have any pictures of your grow? So we can see how it's set up and the problem.

I've only used vermiculite once, I found it held alot of moisture. I mixed it with perlite for a hempy grow and had problems with the roots due to being kept wet. I changed to straight perlite and let the plants dry out for a day or two between waterings, that fixed my problem.

You could try letting the vermiculite dry a bit between watering to give the roots more oxygen.

 

[FelipeBlu]

I've only used vermiculite once, I found it held alot of moisture. I mixed it with perlite for a hempy grow and had problems with the roots due to being kept wet. I changed to straight perlite and let the plants dry out for a day or two between waterings, that fixed my problem.

^This is your problem^

Vermiculite holds too much water - which may be okay if you are growing in a very low humidity environment and want to water less often than every day.

If you’re interested in easy hydro, have you checked out the hempy method?

Hempy Headquarters

 

[Zozohyland]

Hi guys, I had issues uploading photos.

I think you are both totally correct. I did something rather rash last night as they were rapidly deteriorating, and potted them in some potting mix i had on my at the time. I wasn't sure if this was a complete faux pas or would shock them, but they seem to already be doing much better!

Thanks so much, definitely too wet. I have ordered myself a hydro set up with a pump and 4 pots - clearly vermiculite was a dumb idea for a first try!

I havent tried the hempy method - I would be very curious to see what that entails? I look forward to my hydro pots arriving, but will definitely be doing some experiments with my next lot of seeds.

 

[Listersmeghead]

Cool, great that it's on the mend.

If you start up a journal on here, there's loads of good people to follow along with your grow.