Help a girl out- Is this basic over/under-watering?

This is my second grow (the first grow I ended up with two beautiful girls that smoked like a dream! But I'm wanting to try a SCROG this time so I need more than 2 girls!) and I'm having a problem with a few of my seedlings. Some are looking great, and some are dying off. My set up right now is:

Lights: CFL, will be transferring to a 600 HPS soon
Soil: Fox Farm Ocean Forrest
Temp: 70
Cycle: 18/6

I try to water every other day or so, but I still haven't gotten the "hang" of just when to water.



Thanks for any advice you can give <3

Oh, and I started these seeds on October 20th, not sure if that will help or not

I'm a complete newbie but they really need a priest.

go to your local hydro shop or home improvement store and by the cheapest moisture meter you can find. Also, how much space is between your plants and your light? your ladies are looking like kate moss stretched and thin.

Well sadly, some seeds become casualties right off the bat. They were set up for failure from birth. As long as most of them are doing alright, there should be no worry.
Make a mental note of how much each pot weights when it is fully soaked with water, dont water it again until you can pick up that container and notice a large difference. You don't want it getting completely dry. So I usually wait until the pots have lost about 50-75% weight.

Remember not to nute them for the first couple weeks, they are growing off seed power for that duration.

MurshDawg said:

go to your local hydro shop or home improvement store and by the cheapest moisture meter you can find. Also, how much space is between your plants and your light? your ladies are looking like kate moss stretched and thin.

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I really do need to get a moisture meter, thank you for reminding me! I went ahead and put them under the HPS (at 50 percent), so they're still a little bit farther away than they should be I'm sure, but I'm hoping the extra light helps out.

kronic1989 said:

Well sadly, some seeds become casualties right off the bat. They were set up for failure from birth. As long as most of them are doing alright, there should be no worry.
Make a mental note of how much each pot weights when it is fully soaked with water, dont water it again until you can pick up that container and notice a large difference. You don't want it getting completely dry. So I usually wait until the pots have lost about 50-75% weight.

Remember not to nute them for the first couple weeks, they are growing off seed power for that duration.

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Thank you so much for the encouragement! I did notice after posting that most of the ones that weren't doing so good were ones I had put into smaller pots (meaning I hadn't thought they were looking so great to start with..)

I had been watering just a bit to avoid over watering, but next time I water I'll try soaking it down.

And no nutes yet, so at least I'm doing that right? Thanks for the help, I really appreciate it!

Do those decomposable pots have drainage holes at the bottom? or does excess water just come right through it?
Drainage holes are key,they also lets oxygen in which is essential in good root development and foliage growth.

How many seeds did you plant? where they fem or regulars?
I noticed you said you went ahead and put them under the HPS, Do you know if its a full red specrum output? or does it have some blue spectrum in it?
I use a HPS Blue/Red pulsing 450Watt Son Agro bulb. It is amazing for starting seedlings out.
Did you last grow work better than this one with the same CFL's?
Do you have a fan blowing on them?

kinda looks like some stretching going on there too. how close are the lights

kronic1989 said:

Do those decomposable pots have drainage holes at the bottom? or does excess water just come right through it?
Drainage holes are key,they also lets oxygen in which is essential in good root development and foliage growth.

How many seeds did you plant? where they fem or regulars?
I noticed you said you went ahead and put them under the HPS, Do you know if its a full red specrum output? or does it have some blue spectrum in it?
I use a HPS Blue/Red pulsing 450Watt Son Agro bulb. It is amazing for starting seedlings out.
Did you last grow work better than this one with the same CFL's?
Do you have a fan blowing on them?

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The pots have a whole in the bottom of them, but should I add a few more?

I started out with about 35-40 seeds, knowing that only the best would survive. I'm not positive if they are fem or regular-I'm *thinking* that they may be fem, since they came from a random hermie at the end of my last grow. It's only a guess from the random things I've read.

This is the new light and set up I did while waiting on opinons. I will be moving them to a grow tent in the next week or so....(I got them as close as I dared to the light, which is at 50 percent power now.)


The last grow I did so many things wrong that I'm betting it's pure luck that I had 3 full grown plants...haha....

And I do have a small fan blowing from the floor onto them now.


Thank you SO much for your help, it means a lot to me! <3

they look like they dont like your soil gb, dont think its overwatering they look burnt imo.

The bulb looks great, You seedlings should do fine! Setup looks good too!
Happy to help.

welshsmoker said:

they look like they dont like your soil gb, dont think its overwatering they look burnt imo.

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Really? I'm using FoxFarms Ocean Blend, I thought that'd be a good one....although I have noticed that the ones that look the worst are the ones in smaller cups...

Thank you for your input though!

kronic1989 said:

The bulb looks great, You seedlings should do fine! Setup looks good too!
Happy to help.

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Awesome, thank you! When should I turn the light up higher? Just a little at a time?

Thanks<3

Oh, do any of you have a simple, basic, (with photo preferably) reference on LST/SCROG? I think I'm supposed to start doing it soon, but I'm afraid to fuck stuff up....<3