Young seedlings bending over! Please Help! (PICS INSIDE)

twiffy

Member
Seedling 1) seedling1.jpg
Seedling 2) seedling2.jpg

Hello all and thanks for even reading this!! These seedlings are about a week old, started germinating the seeds in paper towel on May 1st, cracked and planted in rockwool within 24-36 hours and here we are today. 'Seedling 1' had been bending a bit for a day earlier, but perked back up. Tonight they were looking fine when I got home from work around 5 PM, 'seedling 1' slightly bent and the rockwool maybe a tad dry. When I woke up from a nap and checked on them at 930 PM this was what they looked like. I have looked into "damping off", and do not think this is the case because of where the stem is bending (the base where it meets the rockwool looks to be strong and healthy??), when I search through on a similar issue all I keep seeing is over watering but this happened while they were dried out and needed water if anything. The only things I can think of are a heat or lighting issue, but lighting issues should only make them stretch and these don't appear to be stretching enough to bend unless I am mistaken. My hygrometer just broke on me and I am waiting on a new one in the mail, so I have no reading of heat / humidity in my cabinet. I understand this makes it difficult to help me out, does this look like it could be an over heating issue at all?? Thanks a bunch for all of your help, or for even looking at my poor little girls.

P.S. sorry about the poor quality cell phone pics btw, lost my digi camera usb cable :P
 

jamaica47

Active Member
I think the peat pots are drying out your rockwool..try bending them up use a toothpick to support them
 

iNDoorGrowBro

Active Member
What size cabinet are they kept in? Are they covered with a 'dome-like' object to help keep humidity up? What kind of light are you using?
 

twiffy

Member
They're being kept in a PC grow box, I haven't had a humidity domes on them for the last couple of days but since this happened I threw them on to see if that would help. They're under 4 x 26w 6500k CFL's, they were at a height of 4-5 inches away I lowered them another inch to see if it was too hot for them. The case is very well ventilated though 3x intake fans and 2x exhaust fans w/ a fan controller, I actually have the fans turned down a bit to try to keep the humidity up a bit in the case.
 

iNDoorGrowBro

Active Member
When I germinated my seedlings, I kept a large plastic dome over 10 of them to keep humidity around 55-65%. I made sure to spray the inside of the dome as well, ensuring the humidity was kept above 55%. Temps were kept around 75-83ºF. I removed the dome after my seedlings started to show their first/second set of true leaves (this was probably about 1 week and a couple days old). Since day one that I planted my seeds, they have been getting 18 hours of light, and 6 hours of complete dark. Also, I did not feed them nutrients cause from what I understand the cotyledon (the very first pair of leaves to show, the ones visible in your pic) actually provide the seedlings with what they need for their early stage of life. This is my first grow, but I made sure to do as much research as possible.. I am still learning as I grow..

How much light hours/dark hours per day are your seedlings getting? And yeah it sucks you can't tell what humidity level is =( Perhaps spraying the inside of the dome with some water, from time to time to keep it nice and humid.. Keep us updated!
 

monkeybones

Well-Known Member
detailed specs about your room are more useful than an analogue about how they showed stress. but i digress. i suggest getting them into some soil asap. cfl's give off such low-penetrating light that you can put them within an inch or less away from the plants so long as you have adequate circulation. plants won't necessarily stretch if there isn't enough light energy to stretch with
 

twiffy

Member
After watering them and putting humidity domes on for a day they are looking much better. Seedling 1 is almost completely straight up again, and Seedling 2 (which was lagging behind 1 in the first place) is starting to lift its top back up. Jamaica47 after your comment I looked into it and you're completely right about the peat pots - terrible idea. I've swapped them out for some plastic beer cups, hopefully that gives the rockwool a nicer environment. Monkeybones I am getting the feeling as well I should get them into soil sooner than later, I've read that you want a good amount of roots coming out of the bottom and lower sides to lower the risk of transplant shock. Currently what I'm guessing was the tap root has come through the bottom, with one or two other small roots poking through, should I try to wait it out a bit to let it develop a better root structure or get it in soil asap? Thanks a bunch.

Ill post pics later of the seedlings current progress / plastic cup setup
 
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