Here we go again! Seedling help plz!

I guess I'm talking with myself here again. Deet-de-dumb, Deet-de-dumb... (Whistling).. 50 views today, no replies. "Everyone's at work, bro!" Yeah, I know. Not 50 of ya though. Ha. Not hating, just saying! Ha. Patience must i learn!!

I'm a newbie here, this is my first post. I just started my first medical grow and I'm having the same issue as you. I have my soil with 40% coconut coir, 40% Foxfarm Ocean Forest, and 20% Growstone (Supposed to be better than perlite and retain more water and allow more aeration).

I had my fan osculating right up close to the plants and I don't know if that is one of the issues, along with possible over watering. I read that some people say you can get windburn, especially if you have the fan on too high, which I might have considering they are seedlings and in the direct fire of the fan. I only misted the plants a few times throughout the days and gave half ounce of water Every 2 to 3 days. It's day 10 and most of them look good, but a few of them look similar to your plants. Keep us posted on your result, I am thinking I might have overwater them last night. They looked very dry last night, my moisture reader said they were dry so i gave a few of them 1 ounce water, another few plans got 2 ounces, and another few plants got mist. So far none of them have died, so I'm going to let them dry out and keep track of how it affected them.

I always find the most stressful time is the germinating / seedling stage. Been through it loads of times now but at the start of each grow my brain seems to stop working and I always try something different, then get stressed and panic about what I've done. One of my most usual mistakes when seedlings are very young is actually not watering thoroughly, don't over water but when you do make sure you do it properly, then wait until it's almost dry before watering again, but not dry, seedlings do not like dry soil in my experience.

And now reading your post it's made me paranoid about how I've started my latest seedlings. Gonna go and check how moist the soil is. 2 out of 3 just popped up today. Hope third will be up by tomorrow.

Should the affected droopy leaves go back to normal or should I look to new growth?

And I hadn't considered wind burn. They aren't blowing around or anything. But I do have my inline fan on high as an outtake/passive intake. Think the air is being sucked out too fast?

I don't know, I'm still a newbie and learning. But I do think it was an issue with my seedlings, they were very close to the fan. My friend is an experience grower, he told me that I should let the air blow on them to mimic the outside environment, but I think I had it too close & too strong. I had the fan on high to try to lower the temperature of my grow box. I turned off the fan and I'm going to wait and see if that helps, hoping to see some kind of difference within the next day or two. But I'm not sure if this is irreversible damage. We'll have to wait and find out.

weedemart said:

if u didnt feed since the start then overwatering is confirmed. let dry for 5-7 day. they should recover quickly.

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Thanks for your help. Sorry, but I believe the over-watering thing is bull now. I trust my skills with that shit. I am no longer second guessing that. Like I said, this aint my first rodeo. I've watered at least a hundred seedlings before and none of this shit, not once! I've had other probs, yes. But i got the watering thing down i believe. Not confirmed!!!

808MMJ said:

I'm a newbie here, this is my first post. I just started my first medical grow and I'm having the same issue as you. I have my soil with 40% coconut coir, 40% Foxfarm Ocean Forest, and 20% Growstone (Supposed to be better than perlite and retain more water and allow more aeration).

I had my fan osculating right up close to the plants and I don't know if that is one of the issues, along with possible over watering. I read that some people say you can get windburn, especially if you have the fan on too high, which I might have considering they are seedlings and in the direct fire of the fan. I only misted the plants a few times throughout the days and gave half ounce of water Every 2 to 3 days. It's day 10 and most of them look good, but a few of them look similar to your plants. Keep us posted on your result, I am thinking I might have overwater them last night. They looked very dry last night, my moisture reader said they were dry so i gave a few of them 1 ounce water, another few plans got 2 ounces, and another few plants got mist. So far none of them have died, so I'm going to let them dry out and keep track of how it affected them.

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Where did u get those percentages to mix your soils at? I know coco retains water, and you say the growstone retains water as well. Maybe they retain too much? Idk. I think people usually mix coco in with their mixes at like 10-20%. could be wrong. There is all kinds of ratios that work, but im not familiar with them. i have 1/5 of my supersoil cut with coco for Sir Sticky's recipe.. But I do know that when you water, you need to water thoroughly. Let dry, repeat. Then again I am not sure cuz u have so much coco, and again I'm unfamiliar there too. Is it considered soil, soilless?.. And I always water slowly until I see a little runoff.

And I think I might've found the problem. At least A problem. I've been running my pH at 6.3-6.5. And promix bx is a soilless medium so the pH should be 5.8-6.2. Nute lockout?.. Hope this works!

Hell yeah! I'm a Marijuana Toker now! Ha

Yeah, 808MMJ, I don't think you are watering right. You can't over-water them when they need it. Just too soon before they've had time to dry well. The only bad thing that comes from giving them too much water when they need it, would be this is flushing your nutes from your medium, which is wasting money. They need to dry ou in between waterings. After awhile you know how light to let them get before they need watering again. You have a moisture meter too, so use it to help judge along with feeling the weight of the container. Know what it feels like soaked and dry. Water thoroughly, let dry, repeat. This statement doesn't include drip systems and all that shit cuz i have no idea about that. If I'm wrong, plz correct me on this stuff.

And when you water til runoff, you are flushing salt builldups from chemical ferts too.

Thanks for the watering tips, I keep reading everyone say that you should not over water them, but I never really see a specific amount on how much you should give seedlings. I'm going to take your advice and go off of the weight difference and the dryness. I got a moisture/ph reader, but I don't know how accurate it is cause I read different reviews online about it. It's kind of tricky with this mix, it looks dry on top, even the first inch of mix looks & feels dry. But I knocked over one of the cups on accident and deep inside it looked moist, but the top 1 inch look dry.

I was originally going to go with a soilless mix with 50% coconut coir and 50% perlite, but when I went to the grow store the worker was telling me about growstone so I ended up picking that up instead. With growstone you can use less growstone (than perlite), but I decided to add Foxfarm Ocean Forest to the mix cause I was worried about using too much nutrients (1st time grower) so I decided to go with the Foxfarm so I wont have to worry about giving them any kind of nutes for the first couple weeks. I also put half a cup of dolomite lime for every cubic foot of mix that I made. I read that it is supposed to help the soil from going acidic. I think I messed up with the soil mix, next time I will probably go with Fox Farm Ocean Forest and a small part of growstones. Trial and error.

So much different information out there, and it is overwhelming for a newbie. I've watched hours of videos by high times with Niko Escondido and Jorge Cervantes, & many other videos on youtube, plus I read a book called Marijuana 101. My friend is an experienced grower so I picked his brain as much as I can, but I only talk to him on occasion. But I'm learning from reading forums & various site. Thank you for the advice!!!

Okay, your medium is staying over-saturated, i think. Your mix should be pretty loose and there are times it can compact and cause problems. Happened to me last grow. Root rot after 40 days of veg! But it was my fault i was using party cups and i was using this technique i learned to bury the cup in the medium when transplanted. U have a cup with the bottom cut off inside another party cup with holes in it for drainage. When ready to transplant, just slide inner cup out and transplant inner cup in soil. Well this can cause compaction. Not doing that anymore. I've had great success with it, but I probably got lucky. Also my g.o.nutes spoiled and molded on me w/o knowing at first, and I was using this Promix BX @ the wrong pH. Triple damn whammy! But listen to me on the watering! I just don't spout off like a lot prolly do. I will try to tell u the best i can. But if I were u i would go straight coco or soil. I have had great success with Fox Farm soils. Ocean Forest, Happy Frog, and Light Warrior! I mix either the LW or HF into OF at about: 25% OF and 75% LW or HF. This is the ratio i use to start them. Then I transplant into 75% OF and 25% HF or LW. And yeah, the OF is hot stuff! I think you don't really need any nutes w/it for like the first month. I fed micros every now and again during that time but that is about it. FF trio nutes. Didn't use much of the grow cuz of the nutes already in the soil. That's what I liked starting w/these soils if noob cuz it takes the guess work out a bit. And I always add a little extra perlite and lime too. Never hurt mine. Sry for the long reply. Here is a pic of the last autoflower I grew last year using what I just described with the FF stuff. She were a beast! I am now using Sub's Super Soil(soon) and the Promix to start them. Good luck, man! And hit me up if u ever need help! I'll try to help ya. Being a noob sucks sometimes! Haha.

Besides compaction, your medium just might hold too much water for whatever reason. I don't know all the possible reasons for water-retention. Maybe that is the only way? Dunno. But I would find you a good soil recipe off the net somewhere to best to suit ur grow methods. Go with something tried and true! Be weary of advice from people. Get multiple references. Look at their credentials, etc. Good luck!

I think I have found the source of my troubles here. Wind Stress, brought to my attention by a NOOB! Thank you, 808MMJ!!! And the other is pH is off, brought to my attention by ricky1lung. Thank you, ricky!!! pH for Promix is 5.8-6.2!!!!!!!!! It is a soilless medium! "Confirmed"!!! Case closed!!! Thank You!!!

And people need to watch out before they throw around words like "confirmed" when ain't a damn thang been confirmed!!!

Well, I fixed my air flow. I couldn't really see how the air was blowing around, because the air pattern changes when the box is fully sealed up. So I drilled a hole in the side of my grow box and I could see that the wind was being sucked up from the bottom of the plants. It was definitely too strong. I watered with correct pH last night. And I looked at the root system of one. Seems fine. No rot or discoloration. Time will tell, i guess.

Here are the ones I started in soil. Barely any water for the first two weeks.