Seedlings Not Doing Well

[richard mongler]

well my friend got over-eager and went ahead and started his seeds in some miracle-gro moisture control potting mix.

of course this was too strong for the little babies and they quickly started to turn yellow and wilt.

now my other friend came over and attempted to save them by gently washing away what soil he could and re-potting them in ferry-morse seed-starting mix; it seems to be all coconut coir and perlite with only trace nutes, if any. he also put the lights on a timer and set it to keep the lights on (HPS + CFL) for only 18 hours a day instead of 24.

a few days later and they're not looking much better. of course they couldn't get all the miracle-gro off without hurting the roots, but there's only a little miracle-gro in there now and mostly the seed starting mix.

is there anything they can do to help the little plants, besides sit around and bite their nails?

it's not letting me upload the image here, so use this link if you want to see them: (link)

 

[asaph]

coco coir should be pre-washed with phed water and a weak nutrient solution. get an EC meter, and feed the cups with a weak solution, about 0.3-4EC (200ppm). That should fix it, I hope.

 

[richard mongler]

coco coir should be pre-washed with phed water and a weak nutrient solution. get an EC meter, and feed the cups with a weak solution, about 0.3-4EC (200ppm). That should fix it, I hope.

so the solution to nute burn is... more nutes??

 

[SCARHOLE]

The Miracal Gro soil has time release nutes in it, when you flush your also giving them nutes.
So transplanting em was a good idea

I would just wait an see now....

(I use MG fertz (half strength) from the 2nd week on, in Mg soil with no propblems.)

 

[asaph]

so the solution to nute burn is... more nutes??

way i see it, your problem isn't nute burn, and i doubt it was so in the first place. when growing in coco, this is a must. I've had plants looking like that. Seeing as he washed most or all of the soil from it and the mix only contains a fraction of it, it's not a problem now in any case. coco is a great medium if you know the basic way of handling it.

repotting them was probably a bad idea, a better idea would be (and still is, if possible) to start over in good soil and take better care of conditions (especially pH and wet-dry cycle).

 

[Ganjasism]

I've got some seedlilngs that are not doing so well either. I tested my ppm from the run-off last night and it was 333ppm and the pH was around 8. Is this bad in soil??? It's some sort of compost mix I bought. The pH of the water going in was 7.3 (rainwater), with a ppm of only 49. Any suggestions??? I've got some nute solution that would bring down the pH a little but would that put my ppm's too high for seedlings that are only two weeks old?

 

[asaph]

I've got some seedlilngs that are not doing so well either. I tested my ppm from the run-off last night and it was 333ppm and the pH was around 8. Is this bad in soil??? It's some sort of compost mix I bought. The pH of the water going in was 7.3 (rainwater), with a ppm of only 49. Any suggestions??? I've got some nute solution that would bring down the pH a little but would that put my ppm's too high for seedlings that are only two weeks old?

yes, it is too high pH, both in and out, and yes you shouldnt fertilize yet. so get some pH down, or use lemon juice if not available.

 

[nog]

babys need babyfood, not a big mac meal with large fries and strawberryshake, many proprietory composts are too rich for young plants

 

[richard mongler]

so do you think it's more likely that the pH is off, then?

 

[asaph]

no your problem is probably different. I told you what I think, you can see for yourself I had the same problem:

https://www.rollitup.org/hydroponics-aeroponics/415445-help-coco-not-looking-good.html

Originally Posted by Snow Crash
It is very important to keep the CEC of the coco balanced. If there is an electrical imbalance based on an element deficiency of the media then nutrients can be leached from the seedling to achieve equilibrium.
You are trying to create a harmony and bond of roots and media. If the seeding has a high concentration of nutrition when the media does not then the nutrition can flow out of the plant into the media to create this harmony. Maintaining this balance and harmonization is coco is arguably the most difficult part of using the media hydroponically.

 

[TDM]

Give them worm (1-0-0) casting jolt...should solve prob....be very careful too much worm casting will cause root lock and will turn soil to turn muddy.
I apply 1/4 cup worm casting in 32oz container, leave over night under lamp to get microbes going.
12-24 hours you have your fert and folage spray

Organic Insecticide Folage spray

5 gal water
2 cups worm casting
1/3 cup molassas
1/3 cup vegtable oil
1 Aquarium pump

Mix ingredients, let pump oxidate and get microbes goingl leave working 24hours.
Use as folage spray...good microbes will last 24-48 hours after removal from pump.
Insecticide works because molassas destroys exo-skeletons of insects, veg oil is sticking agent, plants love it.
Bad thing is mixture kills all insects both good and bad.

 

[richard mongler]

thanks for the advice. he hasn't added the worm castings yet, but he probably will soon. regardless of how they look, they're going outside at the beginning of june at the latest, into some good organic soil, so hopefully they'll perk up then. they're still not looking that good. when they got transplanted, they kind of stalled. they are still growing but very slowly because the roots got all messed up and aren't grown into the soil well, despite his best efforts.

what do y'all think? (death.jpg)

 

[asaph]

hmmm, so that's how my plants would look like if i didn't take care of them!

 

[Beansly]

I looked it up and the NPK vulue of MG Moisture Control is only 0.15 - 0.05 - 0.10 so I don't think it's too "hot" for seedling. Can you think of anything you might have left out of your process for growing?

They look over-watered to me. pH isn't a huge deal at this point in the game just yet. Yeah if it's way off the maybe, but pH only serves to make nutrients available to the plant and at this point nutrients aren't that.

 

[kadajett]

I am leaning towards the over watering idea, I read the previous page last night but I was half asleep. So did you say you have proper drainage in the seedling cups?

 

[richard mongler]

they're definitely not over-watered... the cups are cut out for drainage and he always lets the soil dry out to the point of pulling away from the sides of the cups before watering it again. i dunno, maybe the "moisture retaining" soil retains moisture a lot better than i would have imagined. but i don't think it's any more moist than if it was outdoors during this time of year. there's definitely no standing water or anything in there. they have been getting water about every three days.