DWC Startup Issues

I think I killed my 2 sprouts!!

Alright, here's what I did.

I soaked the seeds in water for a few days and finally saw sprouts.

I put them into pre-pH'd Rockwool and into some net cups with Hydroton. All of this was pre-soaked to pH'd water (~6.0) and the Hydroton was rinsed hella times.

Then I put them into my DWC res and the water level was just about 1cm above the bottom of the net cups. This kept the net cups and hydroton wet and the rockwool was also visibly wet even on top. It was not "soaked" but wet for sure.

I think at this point all would have been well.

But then I turned on my lights 24/0. I've got 2 x 23w CFL, 1 over each seedling, about 2-3" above the rockwool.

The tap roots were probably only 1cm when I did this.

I think now I screwed them up as my light was too close initially.. ??

10 days later the seedlings are still down there in the moist rockwool, tap roots elongated and thickened, but now they are not getting any bigger and the seedlings look like they haven't budged a bit.

One of the seedling's tap root is turning slightly brown now, the other is white still.

HELP!!!

I put some clear domes over to increase humidity, but I don't think it matters.

I turned off the lights too but I think it might be too late.

I'm now ~20 days behind schedule and have nothing to show. I have 2 more seedlings in water now and they should be craking tomorrow (I hope). I don't want to screw THEM up too. I only have 10 good seeds, well 8 more now.

Sounds like the medium got too wet and suffocated your seedlings.Just stick your new seeds in the rockwool but don't put it in your buckets (or whatever you use) keep them moist but not wet and wait until they pop up before your stick them in your bucket (or whatever you use) keep the light kinda far away until you see green

What are you using to control/monitor the PH? What nutrients at what concentration are you using? Do you have any photographs?

No nutes right now, silly!

pH is being tested with both my pool pH strips and the GH pH test kit I bought. I'm using GH pH Up/Down products as well. It is only taking a small squirt of pH Down to my ~2 gallons of water in order to get it from ~7 to ~6.

It cannot be the water, I've sprouted seedlings before in 7.0 pH water I know for a fact.

The rockwool was not sopping wet, it was moist though.

There was NOTHING on top of the seedlings, they were in the center of the rockwool (pre-drilled holes). I'm certain they weren't "suffocated". Maybe the roots if there was too much water but I can't believe there was too much water. I still think it was the light for sure. But anyways I guess next time I will just drop some water onto the seedling using a dropper vs. letting my res soak the bottom of rockwool netcups, huh?

Any further advice?? How will I know if my seedlings are indeed dead? At this point the lights are off and I'm just waiting until my 2 new seeds crack - so there is a small chance one of these will pull through but after 11 days now, I kind of doubt it.

If one turned brown it was rotting that was caused by the water you said yourself you could tell the rockwool was wet when rockwool is moist it appers dry on the outside...I am almost positive it was too wet.

this may sound dumb but do you have an airstone in the res? It sounds to me that haveing the water level up in the netcup saturated your seedlings and did not contain enough air for them to breathe.

I water with a medicine dropper until taproot shows through the bottom of the cube. Just a few drops a day is usually fine. And I would have some nutes in my water. Somewhere around 50 ppm should suffice.

OK, I guess this is where I'm mostly confused then.

Some folks are using these water tubes butted up agaisnt the rockwool. If I did that, it would be SOAKED. Mine was hardly soaked, as sometimes on top it looked kind of dry, but felt wet when I'd touch it.

And since nothing was on TOP of the seedling, it was able to get PLENTY of air, no?

I am using airstones yes, and I have a lot of bubbles..

I don't claim to know what the problem is but I doubt it is too much water unless your water level was higher than it sounds. I find that with my bubble level, which is prolific, my water level can be an inch below the bottom of the netpots and I get splashing and mist up halfay or a little more. That means the rockwool cube is receiving direct water halfway up (right where a feeder tube might be), and certainly above where the taproot is positioned. The tops of my cubes are damp but not real wet.

Unless the light was way too close and it got too hot,but with cfls i doubt it.I keep my seedlings in my propagation tray until the seedling is well established and shows it's first set of true leafs till then I mist them and water by hand which takes about a 3-7 days after it pops up.I think you should of waited before putting in your system.

Yeah I put them under light too quickly I think.

CRAP!

I put them under light right away but only 150 or so watts of cfl and I keep it 8 inches at least away to start.

Yeah they went from 100% humidity to 0% overnight and then add in 23w of CFL about 2-3" directly above the uncovered rock wool holes.

Just reading what you posted without pics, I would have to say I think the cfls were too close.

Did you even wait for the sprouts to come thru the rockwool before you put them in your system? I dont put them in the system with just taproots I wait till they come out and open their first set of "true" leaves before I put them in my tubs. I keep them in a hot house on a seedling mat so the heat speeds up the taproot goin thru the rockwool.