Seedling leaves changed within hours

Hello Everyone,

Thanks in advance for your help, and I apologize for the low quality image, I only have my cell phone at the moment. And I apologize in advance also for the long post.

This seedling is 7 days old (from coming up after being planted), and earlier today around noon when I looked at it with a magnifying glass, it looked perfect except I thought the very tips of the two main leaves were getting lighter, not brown, but kind of whiter.

Well, now, eight hours later, they look like they do, not brown, but they're getting whiter from the edges inward.

Here's the exact sequence of events leading up to now:

- Once germinated, it was placed in a Jiffy Pellet moistened with plain water, which was Wal-Mart brand "drinking water" that I tested to be 0 PPM and a pH range of 6.0 to 6.5, perfectly yellow with pH test solution according to General Hydroponics pH test kit, I have a digital ppm meter but not a digital pH meter.

- Seedling was placed about 2 inches under a 6400K High Output Florescent

- Yesterday it was about 2 inches tall with a root coming out of the bottom, so I placed the whole Jiffy Pellet with seedling in a Jiffy Cup surrounded by the growing medium I plan to use, General Hydroponics CoCoTek Coir. The coir brick was "uncompressed" with a gallon of the same water with a light nutrient mixture of 0.4 ml each of GH FloraMicro, FloraGro, and FloraBloom (mixed in that order) along with 3 tablespoons of GH Rare Earth (which I'm using instead of lime). The GH feeding schedule recommends 1.5 ml of each.

- Once the seedling/Jiffy Pellet was placed in the coir, I did flush it with plain water to rinse off any excess Rare Earth.

- This morning, I did water the seedling with a mixture of 0.4 ml each of the three nutrients. I know you should not give nutrients to seedlings yet, but I was thinking since the coir has nothing, except what I originally used, it would need something.

What it looks like to me, according to pictures I've looked at before posting this, is a Zinc deficiency, but could that be possible yet? Or have I burned it with nutes, or something else?

BTW, I have another seedling which is perfect and shows no symptoms of anything, but it is slightly larger and perhaps healthier.

Any advise would be appreciated.

I feel real stupid to have to say this, but when I go in my grow tent to check on things, I wear sunglasses, which are Blue Blockers and they distort the color.

I said the leaves were getting "whiter" but they're getting yellower, actually.

And BTW, my temp is a constant 77 to 80 degrees, but my humidity is low at about 30% at the moment.

Thanks again for any and all advice.

SmokeMore said:

- This morning, I did water the seedling with a mixture of 0.4 ml each of the three nutrients. I know you should not give nutrients to seedlings yet, but I was thinking since the coir has nothing, except what I originally used, it would need something.
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You just answered your own question.

Seedlings need NO nutes for the first 2-4 weeks, those first 2 leaves supply all it needs.

You burnt them and may or may not survive, but use nothing but water and perhaps you'll get lucky.

Wet

Thanks for the reply Wet, I really appreciate it.

Again I admit I'm a noob and really don't know, and you may very well be right, but after a lot of research, the one with the yellowing leaves just looked "deficient" and not "burnt" to me, the leaves stayed perfectly in shape, they just started yellowing, but again, I don't really know.

And also, I do have another seedling in another pot that has been treated exactly the same, and it looks perfect.

As a noob would do, I did what I probably shouldn't and mixed up another gallon with a slight INCREASE in nutrients, I went to 0.5 ml of GH Flora Micro/Gro/Bloom as well as added 0.25 ml of Floralicious Plus. I lightly watered them with this last night, this morning the CoCo was dry so I lightly watered them again.

Well, I'm now home from work, and they look GREAT! The one with the yellowing leaves has stopped any further yellowing and is still green in the center of the leaves, it has new growth coming out, and is noticeably bigger, and the one that wasn't yellowing also has new growth and is noticeably bigger and is green with no color change.

I think perhaps now that I'm home from work I'll water lightly with plain water to make sure nothing builds up, and I'll check on them hourly.

Hate to say it, but why would you think touse bloom ferts on seedlings. Haha. I remember last year trying to be perfect with everything, but let it grow, don't overdue it or you could kill it. OH well, you got other seeds if it dies right?

Also, is coco good,, I was thinking about adding it to clay to amend or using it as its own sole medium but....it has no nutes in it?!?! I'm not trying to add chemicals to my plant

Uvalax said:

Hate to say it, but why would you think touse bloom ferts on seedlings. Haha. I remember last year trying to be perfect with everything, but let it grow, don't overdue it or you could kill it. OH well, you got other seeds if it dies right?

Also, is coco good,, I was thinking about adding it to clay to amend or using it as its own sole medium but....it has no nutes in it?!?! I'm not trying to add chemicals to my plant

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Hey Uvalax,

Thanks for the reply.

And I know what you're saying. The only reason I used any ferts at all was because I thought it was showing a deficiancy, I started it in a Jiffy Pellet and then put the whole thing in CoCo, so I was thinking the roots were now in the CoCo, it now had no nutrients, so I felt I had to do something, and it looks like it worked, unless it does die on me! But at the moment, it's looking good.

And the reason I used any bloom ferts at all, is that according to the General Hydroponics feeding schedule, it says to use 1.5 ml per gallon each of Flora Micro/Gro/Bloom for SEEDLINGS, which according to everybody here, and I agree, would probably kill it with nute burn. So I went with a lite mixture. I thru in a little Floralicious Plus to make sure it had trace minerals.

And I've got two seedlings, the one that yellowed seems to be doing great, but the one that didn't is doing fantastic, it's third set of leaves are coming now, as opposed to the the second set on the yellowed one. I'm sure when the one got yellow, it took kind of a hit. But the new growth on the yellowed on looks real good.

And as far as CoCo, at this point, I myself don't know. I'm going with it based on everything I've read, but time will tell. They're both now in Jiffy Pots filled with CoCo, and as soon as I see roots at the bottom or edges of the cups, I'll put the whole thing in the final pot.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Word up man. I never read that hydro thing, so I wouldn'tknow boutit, but I've defently heard a lot about the coty's having the nutrients for the first little while of life. Are you using a hydro system? Cause hydro mediums defently don't have nutes, which would make since to give seedlings some.

Seems like your past your problem though, so this threads for the readers. Best of luck with 'em man.

Alex

PS: Last year I started my plants outside, moved them in due to cold, then moved 'em back out without hardening off. I know I did extreme stress. Don't get to worried but still defently look for answers, it's a plant though,it shouldn't die to easy. I still harvested my plants, they didn't get a lot of buds probably due to that stress and mold, but it was still some chron shit!!!

Wetdog said:

You just answered your own question.

Seedlings need NO nutes for the first 2-4 weeks, those first 2 leaves supply all it needs.

You burnt them and may or may not survive, but use nothing but water and perhaps you'll get lucky.

Wet

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Hate to bump but just got here through google. But, that is absolutely wrong. There is alot of growth that goes on the first 2-4 weeks, and they need nutrients. Especially in an almost inert medium like coco. If you have pictures of seedlings you grew 2-4 weeks with no nutrients, please share. I guarantee if you try and grow a seed with just water, in hydro (soil has nutes), that things just gonna stretch and shrivel and fall over within the first few days.

I don't know, maybe you meant clones? Anyway hate to nitpick, but that's some of the bad advice I followed while reading this site. If in coco, feed like half strength seedling formula as soon as they surface, some people pre-nute, also.

Hey dannydakota!

Thanks for the post, I appreciate it.

Believe it or not, this is a really old thread and my problem actually turned out to be a grow tent that had that toxic white vinyl that was going around a while back.

Once I got a new tent, and the problem was solved, I'm finding that you can practically grow these things blind folded!

And I DO give then nutes, full strength, right away. I'm finding that as long as your pH is correct and you don't over due anything to lock out anything, and don't over water, they'll explode with growth.

same problem man.. lookk http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBy1inNH6GU