Problems with seedlings 3 weeks in!

Hi

Right lets get started. I had some plants that turned out to be either male or hermie so I pulled them and started again. As I lost 6-7 weeks I was so impatient to get a new grow up and running (yeah I know I shouldn't be so impatient!). I am growing 2 x super lemon haze, 1 x pineapple express and 1 x kandy kush. I am using a NFT system so once the seeds had cracked and showed a little tap root I put into a rockwool cube and under a 400w hps light. Its the only light I have and I can't afford to buy more lights ie cfl's for the seedling stage. I used 1/4 strength nutrient solution, I have used 1/4 strength with a successful grow a few years back so assumed this shouldn't be a problem. The problem is these are taking just so damned long to grow. I am wondering whether there is a problem with them and I should sack them off and start again.

The only thing I did different with these seeds was the way I germinated them. I used the paper towel method previously but this time I put them into a glass of water and waited until they cracked and started showing the tap root. Was I wrong to do this? Should I have transferred them onto paper towel after 12 hours or so?

This morning the 3" cubes were a little on the dry side, there is also a little yellowing on one of the seedlings so I dipped the cubes into ph'd water with no nutes. Can I save my plants or should I start again. Attached are photo's taken 4 days ago and one taken just now (ignore the blueberry gum one, that was well and truly fucked up and has been binned) .



The pic on left is today and the one on the right was 4 days ago. This amount of growth (if you can call it that) is pathetic and suggest to me that something is wrong somewhere. Other than the way I germinated I have done nothing different to what I have done before. By the way, the Kandy Kush (back right in picture on the left) is 2 weeks old and has a bigger first leaf than the others that are a week older. Please help! Thanks.

hi mate ive had that problem before, u need to get them back in the propergator and mist the leafs untill u got a decent root on them.. hope this helps

Hi Dannlad. Well, I would tend to agree that the rooting is probably the problem so I will do that now. Any ideas why I am having this problem? Anything to do with my germination method. Cheers mate.

i wouldnt think its anything other than just the leafs drying out cus the roots not keeping the plant hydrated. it happend with mine twice and it took a week and they were twice the size, plenty of roots and popped them under the 600 watter. humidity is most important during seedling stage but not that important after. hope that helped mate.

oh and no nutrients untill they quite a bit bigger

You should grow in soil man...I've NEVER seen 3 week old plants which look that small, they look like they're only 1 week old! Bear in mind they look one week old and see what they look like in a fortnight - you should at least have a couple of sets of true leaves by now...

maybe get some autoflower if u want a harvest for crimbo?

i totally agree with the sims. I have had nothing but trouble messing around with mediums. I always go with just straight up soil and have always had luck. Soil is natural and what is pot natural but if you want to stick with your medium then i would just mist the plants couple times a day until they can develop roots for themselves. Once your leaves look healthy and maybe some root development be sure to not be stingy with nitrogen they are probably not feeling well after a bad start.

Thanks to you all for your replies. Agree with the soil, this will be the last time I grow this way. I had such a good grow the first time I grew a few years back and just went straight into this thinking I knew exactly what I was doing (how wrong am I?!!). Anyways, I have misted them and put them in the propogator and we'll see how they progress over the next few days / week or two. The humidity issue sounds spot on. My males/hermies a few weeks back were grown under much higher humidity and they growth was as you would expect. Wish I'd have asked for help a week or so back but I guess I have just been waiting for them to suddenly shoot up overnight. Cheers.

Hi. Just thought I'd post to say a big thanks to everyone especially Dannlad. There has been a notable growth in the last 24 hours and they are looking much much better. + rep to you all for your comments. If I hadn't have posted my question I would have probably binned them and started again (and then experienced the same problem!!!) as I thought it was something else I had done or was doing wrong that was causing this. Cheers.