Hello fellow growers. I have lurked here for some time but have recently hit a roadblock and am in dire need of help. I do have a handful of successful runs, but that was when I was first getting started. It seems like the more experience I got, the worse grower I became. That's what it feels like anyways. It is immensely therapeutic for me to be able to care for these plants and see them thrive. It's killing me to see them slowly die to something I don't know how to fix. My hope is that someone here can point me in the right direction.
My issue is that my seedlings seemingly get "frozen in time". That's the best way I can describe it. After breaking ground, they seem to be okay for 3-4 days and then just slowly stop growing. They seem to really struggle just to develop their first set of true leaves, no vigor whatsoever. They'll be like that for another week or so, slowing growing, and then will eventually stop growing and start drooping like they need watering, and eventually yellow out and die.
The closest thing I've found to my issue is "damping off". If I understand it correctly, it's when fungus attacks a young seeding. The only issue is that my plants don't look like the pictures I see of damping, there's no breaking off of the stem at the base. I've read that it usually happens quickly.
After reading about it, and really inspecting my grow, I discovered some type of growth on the lines feeding oxygen into my reservoir. It was slimy, so I replaced the lines and cleaned everything with warm water and bleach. On this last run, I even inoculated the soil with Bukashi Earthworks Microbes +. I gave it a few days hoping it would give the beneficials an opportunity to colonize the soil before planting the seeds. Not sure if that's a thing or not but it seemed like a good idea. As you can tell, I'm desperate.
Seeds are autos from Mephisto, so I am reasonably confident the genetics are good. I'm growing in Fox Farm Light Warrior soil in typical, plastic starter seedling pots. Light Warrior has always seemed to drain well. I let the seeds soak 24 hours and then they go into the soil. The only nutes I gave this last time was a very low dose of Fox Farm Big Bloom, but on the prior run I didn't use any at all and got the same results. I water about every 4 days with pH balanced water between 6-7. I do completely drench the soil but it seems to drain out nicely. I'm using HLG Blackbird 600W (turned down to 25%). Temperature ranges from 68 - 76 F, average 73. Humidity ranges between 49-64%, average 59%. VPD measures between 0.8 - 1.4 kPa, averages 1.16.
I feel like I have a solid foundation for success and have tried to sterilize as much as I could... but it's just not enough. The issue may not even be damping but I don't have any better ideas. I have considered the possibility I'm watering too much, but every 4 days is how I've always watered seedlings, even in my early days when I didn't have this issue. The pots are very light after 4 days, I can't imagine that I'm drowning them.
Bear in mind that I had this issue around 3 years ago before I took a break from growing (because of the frustration from this very issue), so whatever was going on then has persisted in my grow this whole time. Other than my pH Up/Down, I bought everything new for this run. New nutes, lights, soil... but I am using the same seedling pots now that I think about it. However, I've washed them with warm bleach water, I would have thought that would been enough. I don't know if I still have contamination, or if I'm making some rookie mistake. Or both.
I'm at my wits end and hope that someone can guide me through this because it's been too long since I've seen my girls happy. I can't keep doing the same thing over and over expecting something different to happen. It's getting exhausting emotionally and financially. I need to methodically troubleshoot this because I'm just guessing at this point. This last run they made it 8 days from when they broke the surface to when they were dying.
Has anyone else experienced this issue or something similar? Let me know if I have been unclear or omitted any info. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
My issue is that my seedlings seemingly get "frozen in time". That's the best way I can describe it. After breaking ground, they seem to be okay for 3-4 days and then just slowly stop growing. They seem to really struggle just to develop their first set of true leaves, no vigor whatsoever. They'll be like that for another week or so, slowing growing, and then will eventually stop growing and start drooping like they need watering, and eventually yellow out and die.
The closest thing I've found to my issue is "damping off". If I understand it correctly, it's when fungus attacks a young seeding. The only issue is that my plants don't look like the pictures I see of damping, there's no breaking off of the stem at the base. I've read that it usually happens quickly.
After reading about it, and really inspecting my grow, I discovered some type of growth on the lines feeding oxygen into my reservoir. It was slimy, so I replaced the lines and cleaned everything with warm water and bleach. On this last run, I even inoculated the soil with Bukashi Earthworks Microbes +. I gave it a few days hoping it would give the beneficials an opportunity to colonize the soil before planting the seeds. Not sure if that's a thing or not but it seemed like a good idea. As you can tell, I'm desperate.
Seeds are autos from Mephisto, so I am reasonably confident the genetics are good. I'm growing in Fox Farm Light Warrior soil in typical, plastic starter seedling pots. Light Warrior has always seemed to drain well. I let the seeds soak 24 hours and then they go into the soil. The only nutes I gave this last time was a very low dose of Fox Farm Big Bloom, but on the prior run I didn't use any at all and got the same results. I water about every 4 days with pH balanced water between 6-7. I do completely drench the soil but it seems to drain out nicely. I'm using HLG Blackbird 600W (turned down to 25%). Temperature ranges from 68 - 76 F, average 73. Humidity ranges between 49-64%, average 59%. VPD measures between 0.8 - 1.4 kPa, averages 1.16.
I feel like I have a solid foundation for success and have tried to sterilize as much as I could... but it's just not enough. The issue may not even be damping but I don't have any better ideas. I have considered the possibility I'm watering too much, but every 4 days is how I've always watered seedlings, even in my early days when I didn't have this issue. The pots are very light after 4 days, I can't imagine that I'm drowning them.
Bear in mind that I had this issue around 3 years ago before I took a break from growing (because of the frustration from this very issue), so whatever was going on then has persisted in my grow this whole time. Other than my pH Up/Down, I bought everything new for this run. New nutes, lights, soil... but I am using the same seedling pots now that I think about it. However, I've washed them with warm bleach water, I would have thought that would been enough. I don't know if I still have contamination, or if I'm making some rookie mistake. Or both.
I'm at my wits end and hope that someone can guide me through this because it's been too long since I've seen my girls happy. I can't keep doing the same thing over and over expecting something different to happen. It's getting exhausting emotionally and financially. I need to methodically troubleshoot this because I'm just guessing at this point. This last run they made it 8 days from when they broke the surface to when they were dying.
Has anyone else experienced this issue or something similar? Let me know if I have been unclear or omitted any info. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
