Please help me with my droopy 7 day seedlings!

What do you guys think? This is my first grow

It's been 7 days since I put the germinated seeds in the Root Riots and put them in this tray. I have maybe 4 days more max until my veg equipment arrives.

Temps range from 68f(20c) to 85f(30c).
Relative humidity ranges from 25% to 35%.
Water is RO from the home tap, untested(PH and EC meter on the way).
The light is 9" from the top of the tray sides.
I water the Root Riots when they get dry. A few of them seem to stay permanently wet.

A few of these have a pretty long root and side roots. I've moved them around, and a few were already getting slightly stuck to the hydroton. I didn't want them to get really stuck which is why I've kinda kept moving and checking them. I haven't broken any roots that I know of, and I'm careful when putting them back.

I can't say if it's too much water, or not enough. Some of the droopy ones seem to never dry, and some of the droopy ones have gotten really dry.

Thanks

I definitely think I moved some around too much, pulling them and their roots out. I don't think the roots liked to be pulled out and then put back.

Still unsure if its water or not....I made a new tray with fresh hydroton and buried as much of the pot as I can. I turned the lights off for 5hrs last night....they seem to be doing a little better already so hopefully I can figure them out.

No nutes yet, it's only been 7 days. Do some strains need nutes that early?

Ok I'm thinking humidity might be an issue? When the temp get to around 85f(30c) the relative humidity sometimes goes down to around 25%, but usually seems to hover just over 30%. I put some soaked towels in the tent and a couple of glasses of water. Didn't seem to do anything to the relative humidity.

Here are some pics I took tonight. There is some white stuff on a couple of the Root Riot cubes. Not sure what that is, only 2 have it, and it just showed up on the 2nd. Is it mold? I can't see how it could be mold at 30%RH??

I do have a 7" humidity dome, should I still be using that? I thought as soon as the cotyledons opened up I was supposed to take the dome off?

Wow .... please don't take this the wrong way but you are all over the place. I'll tell you what
I think is wrong with the current set up and then suggest another way.

The net cups your using are too high up and exposed to air and light. The air is going to dry up
your rapid rooters and the roots too.

Your light seems to be a bit high and could be very close to your plants. Depending on the light
of course.

Now I think you should place them back into the dome. If you have the little section sheet that
goes in the tray use it. You want the rapid rooters to be snug in the slots to prevent light from
getting to your roots. You want to get roots to grow out of the rooters about 2 inches or more.

Spray them down and add a small amount of water to the tray. Place the dome over the tray. I
use a short dome for seedlings and the 7" dome for clones or cuttings. If you have a fluorescent
light you want it extremely close to your seedlings so they DO NOT stretch. The 7" dome is too
far away. If you do not have an option you can deal with the tall dome for now.

Once you've sprayed them leave them alone for a few more days. Let the roots grow out a bit.
If your going to use hydro system them place the girls in the next growing container making sure
the roots are covered well in the hydroton. You may even want a root shield over the rooters.

I use clonex clone solution. This is NOT the rooting gel. This is a mild nute solution for cuttings. At
this stage you need very little, if any, nutes. Tap water with a 100-300 ppm is fine. If your using RO
I might add a lil cal mag, hydrogen peroxide (5-10 drops/ltr) and foliage feed until roots show. Once
the roots show do not foliage feed them any more. By stopping the spray feeding the plant will start
to use the roots only for consumption. You can actually grow out the roots in the tray so they can
reach the bottom of your net pots and be exposed to water in res. I've grown them out to 6" - 7" in
the tray. This is not normal but I did it to see.

I don't know enough about your set up or mediums etc to comment much more. One thing I would add
is to use a heat pad if you have one. But only until roots show then cut the heat and crack the dome.
You will need to graduate them off the high humidity in the dome slowly over 3-4 days. Then you can
uncover them just before you transplant them.

If your roots are long enough you can use a bubbler or air stone to veg. If the roots are not long
enough to clear the bottom of the net pot then you'll need to top water or drip until your roots are
exposed and can get water.

Man .... I'm rambling on. Sorry bout that. Hope this helps and feel free to ask Q: if you like.

Dude thanks for taking the time to type that! And nothing you said is taken the wrong way. This is my first grow...so what the fuck do I know?? haha

So yeah I've buried the cups a little more like in the last set of pics...not completely covered but none of the side roots are exposed.

The light is a HTG Tek 4 220w and it's about 9" from the top of the tray. The stretch was from the initial 3 or so day when they were all under a 27w CFL.

Most if not all of them have roots that are past the bottom of the net cup. Some are a few inches long! On other forums it's been suggested I've over watered.

If they have roots out the bottom of the cup, and I have water in the bottom of the tray...do I still need to water the plugs?

Thanks again man

Watering at this point is a risk. They need air (oxygen) and if they are completely submerged then they are not getting air.
But you can't expose them to direct light so make sure plenty of the roots are in the hydroton but not exposed to light. As
soon as you can you need to get them into a grow medium. Are you going to grown them in the tray with ebb and flow?

The roots want aerated water and zero light. Some of the roots can be submerged but they will be looking for air there too.
Please explain your set up so I know what you are planning to do.

Yes you want to take the dome off but do it gradually over a couple of days. Crack the dome and let a lil air in then increase
each day until the seedlings no longer need the humidity. This will mean the roots are at work.

If you are past that point and the seedlings can handle the open air and they have roots then it is time to grow em out. Put them into what ever container you are using and apply your system. I can't tell. from your pics, what you have them in. It looks like a clone tray. If this is the case you can not grow them in there. You want at least a 2 gal space for a 4 foot plant. (imo)

I still need to wait on my supplies for an Ebb and Flow system, that's why they are like this. I did make it better today I think, but you tell me.....this I'm hoping to buy me time until Monday or Tuesday. I just copied this response from my other thread somewhere else;

Received my pH tester today and the water I was feeding seemed to be 6.8, so that's too high right? I don't have any pH down, so can I use vinegar?

I also drilled drain holes in the cut tray(stacked 2 for better support) and it fit nice and snug across the top of the little Rubbermaid container. I'm going for manual feed to waste right now, until I can get a pump. I am however worried that the roots may go down the drain holes and might even get between the two cut trays. This seems like a nightmare to move the plants in the future?

I've been told I need to get my humidity above 30% and to use a humidity dome, but then I read that once they have sprouted to not use the dome anymore. What do I do? The RH goes as far down as 25% at times.

My order of Rhizotonic came in today....should I start feeding them this maybe at 1/4?

Thanks again

let the medium dry out, and yes dont tug rip pull the seedlings out, they are at a delicate stage and doing this reduces the size of harvest.