Seedlings dying!

Hey guys long time lurker first time poster. A friend of mine has had a couple of successful grows under his belt and all of a sudden has not been able to keep seedlings alive.

Starting seeds in papertowel till they pop a root then planting in rinsed coco. Ph around 6. Temp 75 good air flow.

The seeds sprout and look perfect for about a week then they suddenly fall over and die. The stems look pinched at the point where they bend. Looks like dampening off but he has tried all the fixes but nothing is working.

Made a weak bleach solution cleaned everything, watered with 5ml/g of peroxide. Tried mixing perlite in for better drainage but nothing is working.

The one on the left fell over today the other one was a couple days back.

Any other ideas?

Coco wants good drainage and seedlings don't want to dry out, nor do they want to drown or live in soppy coco. I had a lot of trouble with damping off in coco with seedlings. Established plants rock in coco for me though.

Another thing with coco, make sure it's fluffy. Get it wet, squeeze the shit out of it to remove the water, then BREAK IT UP, use the broken up coco for planting, and water 'til runoff.

Thing is, seedlings don't drink up a lot of water, and I found they end up sitting in soppy coco for too long. Take it for what it's worth.

That's pretty much how it was done. What would you recommend instead of starting them in coco? Those little green blocks or peat pellets?

Vermiculite (only moist enough so when you blow on it it doesn't "dust up"), domed until they break through then remove it, plenty of light, once established move them.

Straight vermiculite?

Yep, and another thing, let it dry some. If it's steady wet the vermiculite tends to hold together, but as it dries it "loosens" and it's during those brief "drier" states that they usually start to break through.

whatever happened to just straight up seedling mix? perlite and peat.

and those seeds are either damping off or too dry.

They look dry to me.
I got a spray bottle for seedlings, no regrets. I lov coco and spray.

That's part of it.. thought they were staying too wet and were dampening off the last time it happened so added perlite and watered them less same outcome.

If it is indeed dampening off...what else could help?

I read peroxide would help but it didn't...how much should be added per gallon.


Thanks for the input guys

I skip the little cups and go straight to the this size pot , as u can see the soil is around the nest where u will put ur seedlings to keeping germ. I use a sprayer bottle to keep the shit moist , soil and foliage. I grow in a attic which is more inclined to be dry than basements, so be careful w water. good luck


add perlite to coco or your favorite , spray w water and the nest it is done for the seedlings.

THis one went straight to a 5 gl, since seedling.

Seems to me that something has changed and it might be worth just going back to basics....Bury a seed in some moist potting soil in a seedling pot....keep it moist....watch it grow. My personal experience with starting seeds in coco has been....enh. I now do it one of three original ways, which unless I screw it up, usually works fine. Paper towel method, Jiffy peat pots, or straight into soil. I don't even bother with coco anymore. I'm not saying that coco isn't alright, I just don't use it anymore.