New Grower Seeking Help - Plant died and don't know why

First I apologize for the lack of pictures, I have a camera phone but have no idea how to get those pictures from my phone onto the internet, so I never took any. My goal here is to describe things as best as I can and see if anyone has any ideas what may have went wrong.

after several weeks researching online for the appropriate strain to be our first grow, we settled on white widow x big bud feminized seeds because at least according to the online description, it was supposed to be easy for a beginner to grow. on april 21st we purchased 4 white widow seeds online from herbies headshop and 7 days later we received those seeds plus the freebies with no problems. however upon opening the package to inspect our purchase, I was extremely confused by the size of the seeds, probably less than 1/10th of an inch in size. under a magnifying glass all 4 seeds looked like any viable seed of a normal size. we decided to just go ahead and germinate a couple seeds because we didn't know enough about the strain to determine if this was a problem or normal for the strain.

on may 5th, we decided to germinate only 2 of the white widow seeds using the standard paper towel method and around 5 days (may 10th) later the taproots for both seeds broke through the shell and were planted taproot down into a soilless mix. the soilless mix was a pre-watered (zero nutrients added) mix with a ratio of 2 parts peat moss, 1 part vermiculite and 1 part perlite. once the seeds were in their respective containers, both were placed under a single 300 watt 2700k cfl, which was kept 8 to 10 inches above the plants at all times.

at this point, we were barely watering both plants, keeping only the first couple of inches of the soil moist until the plants reached the seedling stage or when the plants grew their second set of leaves. unfortunately we couldn't afford a good pH meter, opting out of even spending the money on one of them crappy 10 dollar meters, so we didn't know what the pH of the soil or nutrient solution was. we also had been using tap (city) water instead of using distilled water which we had originally planned to use, due to monetary issues.

9 days (may 14th) after germinating both seeds, the first of the two seeds sprouted from the soil, took nearly another week before the second of the two seeds sprouted. by the time the second plant sprouted, the first had already grew its third set of leaves and seemed well on its way. about 17 days (may 22nd) in, we noticed the tips of its leaves were turning a little yellow and the plants height seemed a little short (less than 2 inches), so we decided to feed it a little with every other watering. this being our first grow, we decided to try and avoid nutrient burn by mixing only 1/3rd of the recommended amount of fertilizer (roots organic: buddha grow: 2 to 3 ml) into a gallon of tap water and ramp up the nutrient solution strength slowly.

after being fed the plant reacted well to the nutrient solution, losing the yellow and the green deepening a little more. we also decided to increase the frequency and the amount of water it was receiving but continued the practice of letting the soil dry out a bit to encourage root growth. unfortunately after about 22 days (may 27th), the second plant still had not even grown its second set of leaves, so we decided it was most likely a loss and pulled it from the soil. within the next week the plant grew its first node with leaf stalks and besides its short size (never growing higher than 3 1/2 inches), seemed to be growing nicely.

about 35 days in things changed for the worst, the leaves and leaf stalks on the first node began to turn yellow (some brown) and curl up (the entire leaf), the top of the plant remained green but the two largest leaves felt very dry. due its small size we were not sure if it was ready but according to any information we could find, the plant should have been ready for the vegetation stage, so we concluded its problem may have been that it was not receiving enough nutrients and lights. so we decided to hang the 600 watt HPS bulb (hung around 20 inches above the plant) and increase the strength of the nutrient solution to the strength recommended on the back of the bottle (25ml per gallon of water), as well as about 5 ml of CaMg+.

in the next 4 days later the plant began to droop some and then very abruptly turned very brown and died. not knowing exactly what happened is what brought me to these forums, looking for the wisdoms of this growing community to prevent this same problem from occurring a second time.

grow setup:
Earth Worth Grow Tent: Reflective Mylar 32" X 32" X 63" Hydroponics Plant Growing Room
Temperature: 79 °F
Relative Humidity: 60%
EcoSmart 300W (4200 lumens) Equivalent Soft White (2700k) Twister CFL Light Bulb (for seedling stage only)
Plusrite 2011 - 600 Watt - T15 - High Pressure Sodium with 600w digital ballast

please ask for any other information I may have left out if it helps you help me. thank you very much

couldn't read all of it. always take pics.

It took 4 days from germination for your seedling to break the soil surface? That is unusually long so I wonder how deep you are burying them? How big was the pot? Could be weak genetics or a shitty medium or you damaged during planting.

If you are going to grow hydro, do yourself a HUGE favor and get a decent ph test kit (the drops work great for low budget) and a EC or TDS meter. Without knowing what was going on with your ph and ppm, and without pics, it is really hard to help you.

answer to your first question is, because of how small the seeds were, we took special precaution not to bury them too deep, 1 to 2cm at most. the starting container was nothing more than a blue plastic drinking cup, that's fine for starting a plant as far as I know. the last question can be answer by telling you that because the seeds were so small we took special precaution when handling them after the taproot was visible, we lightly grabbed them with a pair of tweezers and lowered them taproot first into the soil. the medium was just as I wrote in my first post, 2 parts peat moss, 1 part vermiculite and 1 part perlite. I took precautions to make sure they were sterilized and had no time released nutrients, like I wouldn't buy miracle grow products. the peat moss I bought at home depot and the vermiculite and perlite I bought at a hydroponics store. my first thought was that the genetics could have just been bad, so we were planning to do a controlled test of a different strain under the same exact conditions and see if the result was the same. but all three types of seeds we got, white widow and the freebies, were all super small seeds. are some strains seeds just that small, like a 1/10th of an inch?

we will probably go hydro at some point but that's a more expensive operation than we could afford atm., however we were saving up for a good around $80 ph meter, which we can now afford and are picking up next week, but we didn't think anything would go wrong so fast because of the ph.

well if you cant help without pictures than I apologize, like I said I don't know how to move pictures from my camera phone to my computer, otherwise there would be

zealkai said:

answer to your first question is, because of how small the seeds were, we took special precaution not to bury them too deep, 1 to 2cm at most. the starting container was nothing more than a blue plastic drinking cup, that's fine for starting a plant as far as I know. the last question can be answer by telling you that because the seeds were so small we took special precaution when handling them after the taproot was visible, we lightly grabbed them with a pair of tweezers and lowered them taproot first into the soil. the medium was just as I wrote in my first post, 2 parts peat moss, 1 part vermiculite and 1 part perlite. I took precautions to make sure they were sterilized and had no time released nutrients, like I wouldn't buy miracle grow products. the peat moss I bought at home depot and the vermiculite and perlite I bought at a hydroponics store. my first thought was that the genetics could have just been bad, so we were planning to do a controlled test of a different strain under the same exact conditions and see if the result was the same. but all three types of seeds we got, white widow and the freebies, were all super small seeds. are some strains seeds just that small, like a 1/10th of an inch?

we will probably go hydro at some point but that's a more expensive operation than we could afford atm., however we were saving up for a good around $80 ph meter, which we can now afford and are picking up next week, but we didn't think anything would go wrong so fast because of the ph.

well if you cant help without pictures than I apologize, like I said I don't know how to move pictures from my camera phone to my computer, otherwise there would be

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IMO I'd say use soil and get something that has some nuet value generally the seed has enough food to last it self a couple weeks two may be three and even after that I won't hit with any nuets till week four by using soil with some nuet value u can no only giving water will b fine for first month then start at low dose feeding quarter strength but the soil I think will b a bit easier starting out but by the sounds u were feedn a bit much and prolly could have been fine with just ur 300 all in all I'd say get some soil mixed wit pearlite 60 40 soil pearlite and some thing to pH with the drops r OK and really less is more with nuets

Hey, sorry to hear about your plants. Reading your post it sounds like you know what your doing, I would say though make sure you dont overwater. But as Bugeye states its important to know the pH because a lot of problems stem from this. Also calcium issues are more common with hydro because liquid nutes rely on the plants to get calcium from the water, but since your using a supplement there should be enough of it I think. However for plants to absorb the calcium the pH should be around 6.2 & you won't know this until you test it unfortunately. Also note that different strains require different amounts of calcium. Anyway best of luck.