Stunted and Withering Seedlings on First Grow. Help Me not to Repeat My Mistakes

Hey guys, after reading through every get-started grow guide I could find, including the ones here, I decided to get started and planted four seeds in some coir. I filled a four part seedling tray with coir, one seed in each, and then stuck the whole tray in a 4 gallon bucket that will eventually serve as the pot for a plant. Left it under a 42w CFL on 24hrs (because I didn't know when they would sprout), loosely covered with saran wrap to simulate the cover on an actual seeding tray, and put it in my closet. I plan on building a growbox, but didn't realize I would be so efficient as to kill my plants before I had a chance to pick up materials.

The first seed sprouted a day later, and was about an inch tall by the end of the day. I was elated. The second seed sprouted the day after that and seemed to be doing ok, but a day or two later my first seedling withered and seemed to dry up, starting with a pinched area at the base of the stem, moving upwards. I immediately removed the plastic "cover" since I thought the plant might have been, essentially, roasted, but that made no difference. Tried adding circulation by opening the closet doors and the room windows, tried adding a little water, and even tried adding a little bit of a very dilute nute mix, none of it did any good. Today I added a second 42w CFL, which did nothing for the first plant and, after six hours or so, caused the second seedling to start withering in the same way (in solidarity, I assume). I'm pretty sure that there's no coming back from this point (see pictures), but I really would like to know where I went wrong so I can avoid making the same mistakes in the future. Thanks in advance for your help.

TL;DR - Think I killed my seedlings. Damn.

wo what soil is that that soil will not work use composted cow monoore idk how to spell that and get biger pots and get them out of the ground untill they are like 12 inch. big and wen u water them use a watering can and pour water over the tops so they are stronger wen they get biger and you might as well thro thoes seeds out and start fresh they look very un healthy

get a wash cloth warm with warm water and place your seeds inthe cloth and fold it up. put it in a plastic bag and set under light for two days. go to walmart and buy some miracle gro potting mix. just keep checking the warm cloth inside the plastic baggie until you have sprouts. then in small pots poke a pencil eraser down about 1/2 inch into dirt and place with the seed part up and the root part down. keep your lights very close to them so to promote bushyness and proper growth of your nodes. after they get bigger transplant and start with your nutes (about 1 month) lots of nitrogen but make sure you have the right NPK ratio for the different stages of growth...

It is unwise to start seeds in straight coir. Is it even good coir? Has it been washed a bunch? Coir sometimes has salts in it.
Start seeds in a rapid rooter plug or rockwool or soil...

Sorry for the bad seed luck..

tommy

Now I'm just disappointed that none of the guides I found said anything about not starting in coir :S I have some potting soil, I guess I'll try to move them into that and see if they survive, which I realize is doubtful. Looking into it now, I see that it needs to be washed if you're starting from a brick of coir, which is all that was available to me . Thanks for the input.

Hey man. Sorry about your loss. That sucks. I'll share what always works for me. I go to Home Depot and buy Miracle Grow seed starting mix. I then add 10% worm castings and 10% perlite. I've also used Fox Farm, Kellogg, SuperSoil, Jiffy Cube, cow pots, and a whole bunch of other mediums I'm to lazy to list. After trying all of those, I always go back to the MG w/ worm castings. Its cheap, readily available, drains well, and never seems to give me problems.

I germinate my seeds indoors using paper cups. I use a 125 watt CFL with a Hydrofarm Hood. I put my mix into the cups, push the seed into the soil (twice the depth of the seed), place my cup on top of the hoodie, run the lights 24/0, and in about 3-5 days they sprout. I then put them below the light, set the hood to be 3-5 inches away from the top of the soil. After two weeks I switch the lights to 18/6. Two weeks later I move them outside into a shady area for one week at which point I put them in their final home.

Well, thanks again for the input everyone, I ended up getting some jiffy cubes from my local hydro shop as well as a big bag of Canna Coco. The Canna Coco is WAY finer than the brick I started with, but I've washed out the brick anyways, so it shouldn't kill the next plant I put in it. I started two more seeds in the jiffy cubes, which are in larger pots (0.5l?) and under a little cover with my CFLs on them. I also added a thermo-/hygrometer so I can keep an eye on them. A quick question on ventilation, I'm planning on growing two plants in a box 46L x 16W x 27T, and ventilating it with two 120mm comp case fans. Would fans that get ~70cfm be enough for this size of a box? I figure that with one exhaust on the top and an intake on the bottom they should replace the air in the box 12 times/min. ( 140cfm/11.5cf = ~12). Is this more than enough? Can I get away with only one fan and a hole for intake? Is there such a thing as too much ventilation? Also, any advice on fan placement beyond "one end to the other, exhaust on top, intake on bottom" would be great. Thanks again for the input.

The pics look like they are streching to get light and getting weak at base try putting light 2"-3" away if CFL. Also when planting a sprouted seed you put the sprout facing up because it will natually turn 180 and grow down. If put in the way u said it can live but uses much needed growth strength to turning the root twice as it will grow up then turn again to avoid the light and gro down. try putting seed in pointed side up if not germinating and if sprouted put sproutside facing up before sprout gets 1\2 in long.