seedling stunted growth

Fish scale · 2025-02-23T06:45:19-0700

1 of my seedlings isn't drying out. It's got stunted growth and it's not growing. It's been soaking wet now for about a week and it's just not drying out. I'm trying to let it dry out so the roots can get established before i start feeding until run off daily. The temps are around 23-24c and the humidity is around 70% - 75%. It's in a 1 liter plant pot and It's being grown in Coco and it's totally waterlogged. It's been stuck like this for the last week and it's just not growing at all. I'm guessing the high humidity is stopping it from drying out? or maybe the roots aren't established enough for the amount of water I gave it? Should I just wait for it to dry out and water less next time? Or should I turn my humidifer off so the humidity drops and then in theory it should dry out faster? I am growing under a Lumatek zeus pro L.E.D Light and I never used to have these sorts of problems growing under a HPS due to the heat from the lamp drying things out a lot faster.

MickFoster · 2025-02-23T07:11:24-0700

Coco should never dry out.......it should stay saturated all the time. You might try adding perlite to your coco next time.......roots need oxygen for fast growth. I start daily feeding to run off around day 3 from sprout. Personally I would run a weak nute solution through it to pull in fresh oxygen.

Fish scale · 2025-02-23T07:12:52-0700

MickFoster said:
Coco should never dry out.......it should stay saturated all the time. You might try adding perlite to your coco next time.......roots need oxygen for fast growth. I start daily feeding to run off around day 3 from sprout. Personally I would run a weak nute solution through it to pull in fresh oxygen.

Ok thanks Mick. I will run a weak nutrient solution through it until I get a little bit of run off and start feeding it daily with a weak solution and see what happens.

MickFoster · 2025-02-23T07:14:44-0700

Here's what mine look like at one week being fed daily to run off.

Aristoned · 2025-02-23T07:37:30-0700

Nutrients will have an adverse effect at this stage, the seed has everything the plant needs right now. Reduce the humidity and allow the roots to breathe some air.

I recently used coco for three seeds, two didn’t pop and one is slow to root. I suspect, as it was mentioned earlier, the roots cannot breathe and I should have used perlite in the mix.

Just before this batch of three I sprouted a bag seed in just dirt and perlite with no issues what-so-ever. Super Skunk, Blueberry and Skywalker Haze do not like pure coco in the seedling stage.

Lesson learned.

Fish scale · 2025-02-23T07:48:28-0700

Aristoned said:
Nutrients will have an adverse effect at this stage, the seed has everything the plant needs right now. Reduce the humidity and allow the roots to breathe some air.

I recently used coco for three seeds, two didn’t pop and one is slow to root. I suspect, as it was mentioned earlier, the roots cannot breathe and I should have used perlite in the mix.

Just before this batch of three I sprouted a bag seed in just dirt and perlite with no issues what-so-ever. Super Skunk, Blueberry and Skywalker Haze do not like pure coco in the seedling stage.

Lesson learned.

Thanks for the advice but I am going to take Mick's advice and feed daily until run off and keep the coco saturated with water. I know that may sound crazy to you but what you must remember is coco is a hydroponic medium. Although it looks like soil it's not soil. Coco needs to be kept soaking wet. You have to feed them daily until run off. I will be feeding them 1 or 2 drops off A&B with a PH of 6.0 daily from now. When you feed daily until run off it brings in fresh oxygen and that's what they are lacking right now. The humidity is fine where it is. Seedlings love high humidity of around 70%

Aristoned · 2025-02-23T07:57:20-0700

Fish scale said:
Thanks for the advice but I am going to take Mick's advice and feed daily until run off and keep the coco saturated with water. I know that may sound crazy to you but what you must remember is coco is a hydroponic medium. Although it looks like soil it's not soil. Coco needs to be kept soaking wet. You have to feed them daily until run off. I will be feeding them 1 or 2 drops off A&B with a PH of 6.0 daily from now. When you feed daily until run off it brings in fresh oxygen and that's what they are lacking right now. The humidity is fine where it is. Seedlings love high humidity of around 70%

I’m having the exact same issue as you are, it will be interesting to see how this will turn out. I’ve never had a necessity for coco before, the bags of 12 qt. coco were on sale for $5 ea. labeled as “seed starters”.

I’ll keep an eye on your progress and share my findings with the Skywalker Haze. I’ll be putting the Blueberry and Super Skunk into regular potting soil as the Wazabi Auto took off with no issues in December and has begun to flower.

Cheers!

MickFoster · 2025-02-23T07:59:40-0700

Coco holds 30% oxygen when saturated........add perlite and the oxygen level increases.

Aristoned · 2025-02-23T08:04:35-0700

MickFoster said:
Coco holds 30% oxygen when saturated........add perlite and the oxygen level increases.

This would be my first venture with coco, I didn’t expect it to be this difficult. The two seeds that didn’t pop were taken out and placed in paper towels inside of a dome with a heat mat.

I’ve never had this problem with germination before and all of these seeds came from reputable seed banks while the Wazabi was just a bag seed from some hemp.

I’ve moved the Skywalker Haze into potting soil with the coco starter in the center. I’m hoping the roots will get to the soil and I can go back to what I know until I build the hydroponic baskets.

I have almost 24 qts. of coco “seed starter” that I don’t want to throw away.

Cheers!

VaSmile · 2025-02-23T08:04:36-0700

You might just have a runt. I just grew out a runt. Production was not worth the time and space it took up but im glad i grew it out what lil flower it did produce was amazing

MickFoster · 2025-02-23T08:13:56-0700

Aristoned said:
This would be my first venture with coco, I didn’t expect it to be this difficult. The two seeds that didn’t pop were taken out and placed in paper towels inside of a dome with a heat mat.

I’ve never had this problem with germination before and all of these seeds came from reputable seed banks while the Wazabi was just a bag seed from some hemp.

I’ve moved the Skywalker Haze into potting soil with the coco starter in the center. I’m hoping the roots will get to the soil and I can go back to what I know until I build the hydroponic baskets.

I have almost 24 qts. of coco “seed starter” that I don’t want to throw away.

Cheers!

I find growing in coco to be extremely simple if done properly. I start in solo cups with coco and just drop the seed in a hole.......I can't remember the last time a seed didn't sprout. I place them in a drawer at room temperature and add a few drops of water a couple time a day to keep it moist.

Aristoned · 2025-02-23T08:24:59-0700

MickFoster said:
I find growing in coco to be extremely simple if done properly. I start in solo cups with coco and just drop the seed in a hole.......I can't remember the last time a seed didn't sprout. I place them in a drawer at room temperature and add a few drops of water a couple time a day to keep it moist.

I’ve been using the same procedure for over a decade with either soil or paper towels successfully. I’m eager to find a solution so I do not waste ~24 qts. of coco that could be utilized, or use it for the hydroponics baskets.

I’ve attached a photograph of what is currently being used. The “seed starter” is coco coir, the cups look like recycled cardboard (this may be my problem) and the potting soil is partially peat moss and perlite.

I’ll take a few photographs of their currents states when the lights come on after peak hours.

:leaf:

Cheers!

russ0r · 2025-02-23T08:33:02-0700

Coconut may be a type of hydroponic medium, but most hydro has some type of oxygen being pumped into the water one way or another. Waterlogged coco will still kill your plants the same as overwatering in soil. Watering daily is just replacing the oxygenated water... once. In hydro you'd replace that multiple times per day. Coco has its uses but it's certainly not the greatest hydroponic medium. I have watched many mj farmers and veg farmers alike annihilate their plants using coco and keeping it soaked. Coco does not magically hold 30% oxygen while waterlogged, and especially not if the plant uses it. Coco does dry out faster alowing air to enter.. but that isn't going to occur quickly enough in 75% humidity with what I assume is next to no air flow.

You get away with not having root rot in it often times because coco is inert and the bacteria simply isn't there. Combined with chemical nutes... not a great place for the bacteria that causes rot. But no oxygen to roots still hampers growth the same as no nutirents.. it ain't gonna do anything. And will eventually kill it. The die much more efficiently when they are bigger and I have watched this occur before my eyes many times over

Aristoned · 2025-02-23T08:38:34-0700

russ0r said:
Coconut may be a type of hydroponic medium, but most hydro has some type of oxygen being pumped into the water one way or another. Waterlogged coco will still kill your plants the same as overwatering in soil. Watering daily is just replacing the oxygenated water... once. In hydro you'd replace that multiple times per day. Coco has its uses but it's certainly not the greatest hydroponic medium. I have watched many mj farmers and veg farmers alike annihilate their plants using coco and keeping it soaked. Coco does not magically hold 30% oxygen while waterlogged, and especially not if the plant uses it. Coco does dry out faster alowing air to enter.. but that isn't going to occur quickly enough in 75% humidity with what I assume is next to no air flow.

You get away with not having root rot in it often times because coco is inert and the bacteria simply isn't there. Combined with chemical nutes... not a great place for the bacteria that causes rot. But no oxygen to roots still hampers growth the same as no nutirents.. it ain't gonna do anything. And will eventually kill it. The die much more efficiently when they are bigger and I have watched this occur before my eyes many times over

@Thurston says he is using 30% perlite with 70% coco with positive results. My coco didn’t dry out like the soil does, which I’m assuming is the problem. With the soil medium I cover the sprout zone with a clear plastic cup and add a small amount of water once a day.

Everything I’m seeing leads me to believe the roots cannot breathe in the environment I have provided for them to grow.

Fish scale · 2025-02-23T08:39:59-0700

russ0r said:
Coconut may be a type of hydroponic medium, but most hydro has some type of oxygen being pumped into the water one way or another. Waterlogged coco will still kill your plants the same as overwatering in soil. Watering daily is just replacing the oxygenated water... once. In hydro you'd replace that multiple times per day. Coco has its uses but it's certainly not the greatest hydroponic medium. I have watched many mj farmers and veg farmers alike annihilate their plants using coco and keeping it soaked. Coco does not magically hold 30% oxygen while waterlogged, and especially not if the plant uses it. Coco does dry out faster alowing air to enter.. but that isn't going to occur quickly enough in 75% humidity with what I assume is next to no air flow.

You get away with not having root rot in it often times because coco is inert and the bacteria simply isn't there. Combined with chemical nutes... not a great place for the bacteria that causes rot. But no oxygen to roots still hampers growth the same as no nutirents.. it ain't gonna do anything. And will eventually kill it. The die much more efficiently when they are bigger and I have watched this occur before my eyes many times over

So are you saying let it dry out and don't feed daily?

russ0r · 2025-02-23T08:45:32-0700

Fish scale said:
So are you saying let it dry out and don't feed daily?

If I was in your position and I wanted to grow it exactly as you are now, get a fan on that thing and turn off the humidifier. And grow like your growing in soil. Let it dry. If your using led get the lights closer.

What's your end goal? If you wanna keep it wet, hit it with super oxygenated water like 10 times a day . Manual hydroponics... lol...

There's 1000 ways to do it.

russ0r · 2025-02-23T08:46:27-0700

Aristoned said:
@Thurston says he is using 30% perlite with 70% coco with positive results. My coco didn’t dry out like the soil does, which I’m assuming is the problem. With the soil medium I cover the sprout zone with a clear plastic cup and add a small amount of water once a day.

Everything I’m seeing leads me to believe the roots cannot breathe in the environment I have provided for them to grow.

Perlite good and he's also recirculating oxygenated solution you see

MickFoster · 2025-02-23T08:46:59-0700

I've been growing in coco for decades and I have never had root rot or had a seedling die due to over watering. Granted, if you start in large pots and saturated it, you could kill a seedling. But if you start in small pots like solo cups and feed to run off starting around day 3 or 4 from sprout, overwatering or root rot is not a problem. These seedlings are 1 week old in 100% coco and fed to run off every day........second pic is at three weeks fed every day.

russ0r · 2025-02-23T08:48:44-0700

MickFoster said:
I've been growing in coco for decades and I have never had root rot or had a seedling die due to over watering. Granted, if you start in large pots and saturated it, you could kill a seedling. But if you start in small pots like solo cups and feed to run off starting around day 3 or 4 from sprout, overwatering or root rot is not a problem. These seedlings are 1 week old in 100% coco and fed to run off every day........second pic is at three weeks fed every day.
View attachment 5453688 View attachment 5453689

Consider the circumstances here - 75% rh , lower temps and bad air flow. Didn't say you'd have rot I said the opposite and explained why they won't rot but still can die in many situations.

I could finish a grow in just about anything. Conditions are everything

Thurston · 2025-02-23T08:59:54-0700

I agree conditions can make or break a grow. In the past I have over complicated things and it didn't work out.

seedling stunted growth

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