Stunted Seedling

So here's the rundown. Decided to use some seedling Jiffy Pod's, for a new batch of Purple Ryder's. From what I can tell these pods are made up of some kind of grounded up coco mix. They also seem to retain moisture very well. Usually my seed-popping rate in FFOF soil is 2.5-3 days. With these pods it turned out taking it about 4.5 days and has pretty much grown slower than molasses ever since. After the 2nd day of it popping out of the pod I placed pod and all into a gallon pot with FFOF. My lighting rig is 4 26W CFL's about 3-5 inches away from the seedling. As of this post it is 8 days old and should be growing with vigor with nice flat leaves. Instead the leaves are heavily cupped down. My diagnosis, and please anyone correct me if I'm wrong, is that I'm having a major moisture problem. My question is what the hell do I do? Do I try to remove the pod from the soil and remove as much of the coco as I can with out harming the root? Or do I just sit and wait, and wait to see if it makes it or not?

thats why i dont plant straight to soil you should go 2 weeks in a seed starter mix or comparable product first. FFOF is mixed really hot. ph levels in the high 7s are common with it. next time use some seed starter mix and keep the npk out till then. id also try to dry those buckets out. set them in the sun or something just dont let the sun shine directly on the seedling .

btw did you remove the netting from around the jiffy pods?

Yes, I removed the netting from the bottom and 1/2 of the side. Since it was still moist I didn't want it falling apart completely so I left half the netting around the side. The last 3 grows I started with just straight FFOF with no issues. I was advised to use seed starter mix to have a higher female ratio, so I tried the pods. 1 seed didn't break soil, just popped out a root and stopped. This seedling has pretty much came to a halt or is just going very very slowly.

first id get those pots dryed out, you want the roots digging and searching for the water. another thing i would do would be raising the light up to about a ft till they sanp out of it. that might be a little much on the light at this early stage. thats about 10k lumens right? a t5 with only 2700 lumens is more then enough light for seedlings.

So then I need to pull the pod out of the soil and let it dry out completely and raise the lights. After the pod has dried, I want to keep it dry till i see roots I take it? Or after it's dry just go ahead and put the pod back in the soil?

not sure you could get the pods out without damaging them or the roots can you? they are already being stressed and are in some type of shock. i wouldnt want to press my luck if i was you. if you can set them in the sun the top soil will dry out pretty quick. you can take some cups, any kind really, and cut the bottoms out. then flip the cup over top of the sprout and use it to shelter the seedling from the sun. the sun is just the fastest and most effictive way to dry out the soil. just make sure the seedling doesnt get direct light.

I just went ahead and dug around the pod and was able to successfully remove the whole thing from the soil. After checking the bottom, there were no roots showing, so, it's obviously having some issues. Put the pod back in the mini-greenhouse the pods came in and put it back under the lights about a foot down.

sounds good.... how wet are they?

Still pretty moist, enough that it was holding together well enough that none fell off. I'm guessing about 2-4 days to dry out.

thats to long, pop that top off and get a fan going on them. a lil wind promotes stronger root growth too.

I left the lid off, and I always have a fan going inside the box to push the heat off the CFL's. So, that's good to know that it wont take that long. Thanks for all the help.

no problem bro, just make sure to get that dried out asap so your roots can breath again. if its to wet the roots are just stuck in mud with no oxygen available.

Hey Sev,

Been following your thread, having a similar problem with a stunted seedling but my setup's completely different. Anything new to report?

Thanks,

SL