1st time grow gone bad, need help.

Hello,

I am a first time grower. I started a batch of 10 seeds, germinated fine, planted fine, within a week they all came above soil, a few sprouted their leaves, and then suddenly, overnight, they all seemed to wither and die. I checked the soil for too much water/too dry, did not seem to be an issue. I am using Fox Farms Ocean soil, no added nutrients, just used bottled water for watering that I allowed to air out for 24 hours. Using a T5 2” light set a few inches above the pots, used peat pots to start the grow. Watered each with only a few squirts from a water bottle daily. The temperature does drop a bit at night where the plants are, but not below 60F, so I am not thinking that is the cause but not sure.

Looking for someone with more experience than myself, I have done a lot of research, but don’t have any personal grow or gardening experience, so no hands on experience except for now.

Through trying to research it, I am thinking possibly not enough humidity in my grow area, as they all look like they withered and died?

Thank you in advance.

I don,t know as a fact, but have read many posts stating the fox farm ocean forest is too hot for seedlings. I used happy frog with great success .

Read up on damping off.

Okay, through my research, I was thinking that as a possibility. I was thinking of trying Coco for round 2, then transplanting into the Ocean Forest once in veg. I will keep your Happy Frog suggestion in mind too. Thank you very much, I appreciate your time.

ronintank said:

I don,t know as a fact, but have read many posts stating the fox farm ocean forest is too hot for seedlings. I used happy frog with great success .

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Okay, through my research, I was thinking that as a possibility. I was thinking of trying Coco for round 2, then transplanting into the Ocean Forest once in veg. I will keep your Happy Frog suggestion in mind too. Thank you very much, I appreciate your time.

GamingIsMyO2 said:

they all look like they withered and died

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Yup, hard to tell from photos but it looks like the soil was either too try or you had some sort of pathogen. I use soilless so I can't speak to whether the soil is too hot, but I feed approximately 600ppm from day 1. I also don't know where the whole babying of seedlings came from. You can saturate a 1-3 gallon pot and plant a seed in it and walk away for 8-10 days before it needs watering, no fuss, no paper towels, no transplanting and no extra steps.

PagingMrHerman said:

Read up on damping off.

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Okay, I will research it. Thank you for your time.

TrippleDip said:

Yup, hard to tell from photos but it looks like the soil was either too try or you had some sort of pathogen. I use soilless so I can't speak to whether the soil is too hot, but I feed approximately 600ppm from day 1. I also don't know where the whole babying of seedlings came from. You can saturate a 1-3 gallon pot and plant a seed in it and walk away for 8-10 days before it needs watering, no fuss, no paper towels, no transplanting and no extra steps.

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So you think the soil was too dry, not enough watering? I did not pre-water the soil before planting, as like you said, fear and babying the seedling, was cautioned about too much watering and root rot.
Thank you for your time.

GamingIsMyO2 said:

I did not pre-water the soil before planting,

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Always pre saturate your soil. 1) it forces out dry spots - hydrophobic pockets where salts build (built?) up. 2) Roots are chemotaxic(sp), meaning they grow towards nutrients and water. 3) you can remove unwanted salt, eg if your bag of soil came from the bottom of a skid sitting next to the road all winter.

By saturating the soil and allowing the top to dry out first you can help drive the root growth downward. Good root growth equals a healthy plant. This is also why I don't transplant when using less than 3gal pots anymore, too much potential for damage. I think most growers do it only to save on soil if they cull some plants or expect have some clones not take.

GamingIsMyO2 said:

was cautioned about too much watering and root rot.

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To be fair, root rot is my number 1 killer of houseplants. I have yet to have this problem with cannabis because it drinks to fast. Root rot also doesn't happen overnight but over weeks of overwatering. It can also be corrected if you catch it early. It's all about learning to read your plants.

Its very easy to over water and I'm sure you'll get the hang of it very soon.
Adding a bit more perlite might help with the soil staying wet too long.
Raising the pots up allows air to dry the bottom soil areas also.
I try to keep seedlings above 70 until 2nd node.
Best of luck and happy growin'