Nitrogen Deficiency?

Hi everyone this is my first post on RollitUp.
I’m growing(or attempting to) for my third time.
My plants are about 3.5 weeks old. They seem rather small for how old they are, but that’s probably because I had them in very small pots until this week.

Yesterday I noticed the cotyledons were dying off. Which I know is normal after 3 weeks. But then this morning I noticed the bottom set of true leaves were yellowing and curling upwards.
To me it looks like Nitrogen deficiency but I just wanted a second opinion. I watered them with a 1/4 strength dose of nutes today, and switched my CFLs out for my 250w HPS in hopes it will save the plants.
They’re so small they might die within a couple of days if I can’t fix this.
Please help lol

how often/much are you watering and what kind of pot is that/does it drain well?

What nutrients are you using? I would use what it suggests for starting veg. Do you have a ppm reader?

What temp is your room?

I’ve been watering every 5 days or so because they haven’t been drinking much.
And it’s about 23-24 degrees Celsius. I don’t have a ppm meter I just have Miracle Grow 3-1–2, but I’m going to be switching to Fox Farms because I just found out there’s a shop in my town that sells it

Update:
Since feeding them with a 1/4 strength dose of nutes, both plants are doing much better.
The bottom leaves stopped yellowing on both of them. Also the upper leaves have a much better colour, they were starting to look a little light before this feeding.

Those do look like they bouncing back - I suspect they were root bound since you mentioned them being in a too small container... Also combined with not enough light probably... Just guessing since you mentioned CFLs... That would explain the small size too...

Another update:
Not sure what’s going on with my plants. The bigger of the two seems to be showing signs of nitrogen toxicity after the feeding, and the smaller is still showing signs of deficiency.
I’ve flushed both plants with distilled water. I’m hoping that will remedy the issues

When you potted up, you should've had plenty of nutes in the soil. Enough for a couple of weeks at least. What kind of soil are they in, and why is there so much perlite on top? Is there at least some mixed in?
New soil + nutes could lead to a lockout.

My current soil is Half/half Miracle Grow Seed Starter with Miracle Grow Moisture Control soil and a cup of perlite mixed in.

I covered the top of the soil with perlite to try and keep fungus gnats and other pests out of the soil.

CanadianJim said:

When you potted up, you should've had plenty of nutes in the soil. Enough for a couple of weeks at least. What kind of soil are they in, and why is there so much perlite on top? Is there at least some mixed in?
New soil + nutes could lead to a lockout.

Click to expand...

They were bouncing back for a little over a week but now they’re displaying new issues and I have no idea what’s happening to them.
I’ve been watering more often (every 3-4 days) with just distilled water.

Update: (if anyone cares lol) I think I figured out how to fix all the ailments my plants have been experiencing.
I checked the bottom of the pots and the roots have reached the bottom and still look healthy. My last transplant was September 6 from shot glass sized starter pots into these 500ml pots. I’m going to use less perlite, and less of the Miracle Grow Moisture Control soil in my mixture this time. The Miracle Grow Seed Starter soil seems to work well for me because it’s not a hot soil.

As long as new growth is green and you feel you are progressing , then keep going

Herb & Suds said:

As long as new growth is green and you feel you are progressing , then keep going

Click to expand...

Thanks! The larger leaves are still showing some clawing, but the newer ones seem to be doing well, I cut off all the leaves that were more than half yellowed and so far no more have lost colour. I think when I transplant them today the clawing will stop