Disastrous Tranplant, will my poor seedlings make it?

So I perhaps had the worst transplanting day of my life today. I used the method of flipping the container upside down with the seedling sticking out and a piece of paper catching the dirt wtih my hand under it.

First off, it was extremely windy out where i was doing my transplanting (shouldve timed it better). Second, when i went to transplant one of my babies (the most promising looking one) all of the dirt fell out, however, the rootball and seedling stayed attached to the pot. Then in my panic, when I went to water my seedlings in, I used straight tap water rather then the aged tap that I have been using before.

My question is, how resilient is a 3 inch tall seedling?? Will they be able to handle it? Also, can stress during veg also cause males/hermies?? Or is that only during flowering?

Thanks for any help, im extremely worried about these little ones. Let me know what you think.

They might die, but if they don't at least you will have lots of hermaphrodite seeds.

Montykoolaid said:

They might die, but if they don't at least you will have lots of hermaphrodite seeds.

Click to expand...

So that means they can be predetermined hermies before they flower? Just clarifying as that was a little vague.


Does anyone else have any opinions or suggestions?? let me know what you all think. Thanks.

Dont listen to that guy. I had some rough transplanting events myself but now I have three females no hermi. I was rough on them in the beginning turning the lights on and off and all sorts of things that I heard are bad and can cause hermi plants. I believe if it is going to be a female then it will be if it is a male then it is and if it has some issues and is a hermi then that is what was predetermined in the seed not what you do to it. If your little plant makes then sweet. Having the root ball exposed to the light is no good for plants in general so if that happens then get it in the dirt again quick. You will not be able to tell what sex your plants are until they flower so no you cannot predetermine the sex of the plant. You will know by tomorrow whether or not your plant will make it. Good luck. Pics always help if you have a question.

JeepGuy said:

Dont listen to that guy. I had some rough transplanting events myself but now I have three females no hermi. I was rough on them in the beginning turning the lights on and off and all sorts of things that I heard are bad and can cause hermi plants. I believe if it is going to be a female then it will be if it is a male then it is and if it has some issues and is a hermi then that is what was predetermined in the seed not what you do to it. If your little plant makes then sweet. Having the root ball exposed to the light is no good for plants in general so if that happens then get it in the dirt again quick. You will not be able to tell what sex your plants are until they flower so no you cannot predetermine the sex of the plant. You will know by tomorrow whether or not your plant will make it. Good luck. Pics always help if you have a question.

Click to expand...

Thanks for some great info (+rep). I would have posted a pic or two but I figured it was of no use seeing as the seedlings looked just like normal seedlings as I just transplanted them. Right now, about 6 hours after transplant, they are looking a little droopy so I guess I'll just hope that they recover.

Another thing is that planted them from straight potting soil into a mix that is as follows:

60% Scott's Potting Soil
15% Perlite
10% Sand
10% Worm Castings
5% Vigoro Premix

I did this on the logic that new seedlings probably couldnt handle the nutrients in the premix so I decided to plant them into it once they were better established. However, after watering the plants in I've notice a fairly strong chemical smell coming from the soil. Hopefully there isn't anything wrong with it. Do you or anyone have thoughts on this?? Right now my hopes for the babies arent too high. Thanks for any and all help.

When I first put my seeds into soil I used an african violet Miracle Grow soil, I believe that it had some nuts in it and they were able to sustain themselves. I dont know where you got that combo from and I am not going to lie to you and tell you that I know if that is good or bad. I also used some low end MG nutes in the beginning and gave them more than I should have and they were good they actually thrived. I think that a lot of people on hear see things that other people have done and take them as truths. All plants are different and will take things different from the next one. If you messed up with a plant you will notice something wrong with your plants within a day. If your plants turned yellow then maybe you should change the soil, if not then I would not worry about it. One thing that I did and I believe it helped it putting little rocks on the top of the soil. This helped to keep the moisture in and allow the plants to use all of the soil that was in the pots instead of just the bottom 2/3.