Newbie with question on seedlings

[Blimsa]

Hi everyone, been reading loads of posts on here and other forums for the last month or two leading up to me starting my first grow.

Have had a few problems but it's a learning curve, however one problem I am facing at the moment I am hoping to get some help with from those more experienced!

I germinated using jiffy pellets and for lack of having a incubator I put them straight into my tent I am using. Germination provided it's own setbacks, I have worked these problems out but that has now led me to the current situation.

The jiffys were drying out far to quickly as I'm using a 300w led light so providing heat using a small electric heater keeping the temperature constant between 26-29°c humidity in struggle maintain but have it around 35-40 which I know others have made work from what I've read.
To combat the jiffy drying to quickly, I have placed the jiffys inside my starting pots surrounded with Biobizz allmix. I know this soil is quite hot but people say they have germinated in this, and that seedlings usually grow out of any problems faced by the excess nutrients, also as my roots hadn't grown to quickly due to errors I made during germination, I felt that the jiffy mix between the root and the allmix wouldn't be to bad, but it would appear it has soaked up the nutrients regardless and my babys are turning yellow! I have attached a picture of the most mature seedling - blueberry. The other i started later is white widdow and is the same, and now the edges of leaves are crimping slightly to, so from what I have learnt it really appears to be nutrient burn! I am only giving water with a ph of around 7.5 as havent got any ph down yet but it's on the list to get asap. I'm watering at the same times each day, i went with a spray bottle.twice a day when they were germinating, I check them at the same times 12pm/8pm and give a little water if the soil underneath feels to dry.

This has not helped the yellowing so today i have tried to give them both a good watering until there was loads of runoff (which I collected so they are not sitting in it) in the hope it may flush some of the excess nutrients.

Can anyone give me any advice? I dont want to lose these, and as much as I look forward to reeping the rewards, I'm really enjoying the challenge and have definatly found a new hobby in this, but a little help along the way would definatly be appreciated! Thanks!!

 

[steve870]

ph 7.5 is way too high nutrients are probably locked. Maybe also lowering temperatures would help slowing everything down and make them recover but honestly it might be faster to start over and not overdo anything. I know it's hard but overcaring for plants is often making things worse especially in soil. I would suggest just planting seeds 1/4 inch in a hardware store type of soil like promix and watering it slightly every now and then. They should be able to grow on their own for a while before having to add nutrients

 

[Blimsa]

Thanks for the reply.
Surely if I am getting nutrient lockout, then I wouldn't have any trouble at the moment would I since they wouldn't be absorbing to much from the soil? The picture I should have added was pre-watered, the soil was dry and the leaves were drooping a little at the time of taking the picture.

I did try to leave them alone when I used the jiffy method but they dried up so quickly it was how I lost 3 seeds to begin with!

 

[Blimsa]

Anyone else any suggestions? Was tempted to try to transplant them into another pot with a lighter mix? Or should I just try to see if they adjust to nutrients and come out of it?

 

[steve870]

yes just wait, jiffy pellets are not good seeds prefer to germinate directly in the medium they will grow in.

 

[Gentlemencorpse]

Can you post a picture in normal light? Really hard to tell much under the blurple. I think you have a few issues going on but it will be easier to tell with a better picture.

 

[Blimsa]

Aside from them drying out little quicker than I'd have liked, the jiffy pellets were quite straightforward and simple to use for me as a newbie to this.

Looking at this one under normal lights it seems a lighter green rather than yellowing, but the brown curling at the end of the leaf is still unmissable.

Really appreciate any input you can give me on what you think may be wrong.
Also just to add, I have just switched them from 24/0 lights to 18/6 last night - this would have been done earlier but I stupidly left my timer in the on position rather than on timer.

 

[TreeFarmerCharlie]

You are over watering them and at too high of a pH. The reason your leaves look "puffy" is due tot eh over watering. Seedlings that size do not need to be watered daily so I would recommend not giving them any water for 2-3 days...or until the pots feel so light that you know the water is just about gone. When mine are that size I give them 10mL - 30mL at a time and often a couple of days apart.

 

[steve870]

now that we see better, i agree with the fact that they look overwatered too

 

[Blimsa]

Thank you guys, my problem was up until a few days ago i was giving them such small amounts of water for fear of overwatering, which would then obviously dry up very quickly! Meaning I would feel the pot the next day and it was bone dry all the way through!

I watered this one most recently until I had some run off underneath - is this ok for a seedling this small? I collected all of the run off.

Also I found having my extractor on a little more often seems to keep the air fresher and stops the soil drying as quickly.

Will i be ok continuing with this method?

Also do you guys think that the poor watering practice so far could have contributed to it's slow growth?

Thanks again! And sorry for all the questions!!

 

[steve870]

ideally it should dry out everyday

 

[Blimsa]

At the moment the top of the soil is dry but a inch or so down feels like there is a small amount of moisture so should I continue with watering them to run off every time they get dry all the way through which with this method would equate to around every 2 or 3 days?

 

[TreeFarmerCharlie]

When they are this young they are building out their roots. If the soil is too wet the roots basically suffocate and can rot. If you watered that pot until runoff then it’s going to take a long time for it to dry out.

 

[Blimsa]

So would you not advise this method then? The way I was watering before they were getting very dry by the evening and were then wiltering by the next morning!

 

[TreeFarmerCharlie]

So would you not advise this method then? The way I was watering before they were getting very dry by the evening and were then wiltering by the next morning!

If that’s the case then your grow are is too hot and dry.

 

[quirk]

Thank you guys, my problem was up until a few days ago i was giving them such small amounts of water for fear of overwatering, which would then obviously dry up very quickly! Meaning I would feel the pot the next day and it was bone dry all the way through!

I watered this one most recently until I had some run off underneath - is this ok for a seedling this small? I collected all of the run off.

Also I found having my extractor on a little more often seems to keep the air fresher and stops the soil drying as quickly.

Will i be ok continuing with this method?

Also do you guys think that the poor watering practice so far could have contributed to it's slow growth?

Thanks again! And sorry for all the questions!!

At that stage I water in drops/grams with a squeeze bottle for control and never, ever, saturate to run-off. Ever. Saturated Jiffy is 56 grams.

 

[Blimsa]

How much water did you use then in grams? Trying to guage a idea on how much I should water. It seemed before it was not enough, and now to much, I will try and run things a little cooler now and see if it can help. If I could increase the humidity it could help but I dont like the idea of hanging wet cloths in there for fear of mould! I have some water standing in there which increased it a little, perhaps more of these?