Seedling Hell

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stickywicked

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Lot's of info on just about everything except seedlings. I had no idea how sensitive they are . This is going to be my first grow. Thank god I started with some trash seeds to work everything out. I germinated with the papertowel in the dark method, worked great. Put the germinated seed in 1in rockwool starter cube that had been soaked in 5.5 ph water. Put under humidity dome in the dark. First time I didn't get the sprouts under light soon enough and the sprouts became long and stringy. Useless.

Second shot as soon as the seeds started coming out of the starter plugs I took the humidity dome off and put under my T5's about 18 inches. I found out you really have to watch that the cubes don't dry out. Woke up and every thing had wilted over.. well re hydrated everything and they are looking better. Questions are: How high should my T5's be
When do I lower them and how low?
Should my starter cubes be sitting in some water, I've just been pouring water overthem.
I plan to switch to a 25% solution when the plants
have a couple of sets of nodes..is that right?
Plants shot up to about 4 inches very fast with small
first leaf set. Looks very spindly to me is this
normal?
 
T5's need to be much closer to your plants, like within a few inches. They are brighter than cfl's but are still flourescents. What you are experiencing is called stretch, which can be resolved by moving your lights closer; and yes it is normal if your lights are a bit far away. A good test is using the back of your hand to check the temperature in between the lights and your seedlings. If it's hot,then they are too close. Adjust accordingly. Also,in regards to your ph level of your water. 5.8 is appropriate for hydroponic, 6.5 for soil. If it is more than .2 in either direction you will experience problems quickly, this may be why your first batch of seedlings were a no go. There is a ton of info on this site including info on seedlings,so start picking through,it will save you lots of trouble.
 
I found rockwool cubes to be a pain to work with myself. you have to keep your lights close to prevent stretch but you have to watch constantly that they don't dry out, but at the same time you don't want to sit them in water as that will drown them. Rockwool is very absorbant so you have to be careful witht the amount of water that you use. Don't feed them at all until they are a couple weeks old and you see good root growth coming out of the cubes. When you see that root growth popping out of the cubes, it is time to move them to their permenant homes. The best way to tell when to feed them is to watch the little round "seedling leaves" for yellowing. When you see them begin to really yellow good then it is time to feed, which should be about 10-18days.

When you put them in their new homes, you can bury them a bit deeper (if possible) to take care of the initial stretch. They also will stiffen up as they grow. Once in their permenant homes, you can put a fan on them to make them sway a good bit. This will allow you to keep the lights right on them without the worry of overheating and will strengthen the stems by making them dance around enough to make micro-breakes in the stem, which the plant will repair by making the stem thicker and stiffer. Green mojo for your first grow :)
 
As usual great info...I only had the humidity dome on for about 3 days before I removed it and put everything under the T5's. Should I have left it on longer?
 
No you didn't need to leave it on any longer than that. For seedlings I don't even use a humidity dome. They want that sunlight as soon as they can get it so I don't put anything in the way of them and the lights. Cuttings are different where light is concerned. They need low light until they get some roots going, and they need the higher humidity as they aren't able to pull in water as efficiently as root systems are. :)
 
stickywicked said:
Lot's of info on just about everything except seedlings. I had no idea how sensitive they are . This is going to be my first grow. Thank god I started with some trash seeds to work everything out. I germinated with the papertowel in the dark method, worked great. Put the germinated seed in 1in rockwool starter cube that had been soaked in 5.5 ph water. Put under humidity dome in the dark. First time I didn't get the sprouts under light soon enough and the sprouts became long and stringy. Useless.

Second shot as soon as the seeds started coming out of the starter plugs I took the humidity dome off and put under my T5's about 18 inches. I found out you really have to watch that the cubes don't dry out. Woke up and every thing had wilted over.. well re hydrated everything and they are looking better. Questions are: How high should my T5's be
When do I lower them and how low?
Should my starter cubes be sitting in some water, I've just been pouring water overthem.
I plan to switch to a 25% solution when the plants
have a couple of sets of nodes..is that right?
Plants shot up to about 4 inches very fast with small
first leaf set. Looks very spindly to me is this
normal?

Hey sticky-yeah, seedlings are the one stage when you DO have to pay a LOT of attention to them-multiple times a day.

You can bury stretchy seedlings deep into the soil with no problems. You can practically bury them up to the leaves.

The thing with distance of light from plant is heat. If you have flouros that generate little heat, put those suckers right on the plants! With HID, you just have to make sure that the seedlings are a little further away from the light than for an established plant-excessive heat will damage a seedling pretty fast.

If you use a dome, take it off as soon as the sprout pops ground. Right now, too LITTLE water is as bad as too much. Just make sure the medium doesn't dry out. Leaving them sitting in water is too much in the other direction.

Just take it easy and enjoy the experience. You'll be learning a lot and growing good bud sooner than you think.

AG
 
Thanks for all the info. Just when I think I know what I'm doing. My hydro store guy tells me not to water my 2" starter by pouring water in it from the top but that I should put the water in the tray that the cubes are in and the rockwool will wick the water up to where it needs to go. Does that sound right to anyone?
 
Welcome to the MJ learning curve my Sticky friend. I have been doing this in earnest for a couple years and multiple grows now, and I think I am rounding the 4th or 5th turn at Watkin's Glen just now. Don't sweat it brosef you'll get there if you stay patient and diligent. :)
 

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