Seedlings flopping over after 7 days ! First grow.. failing

View attachment 2414217View attachment 2414218View attachment 2414219View attachment 2414220View attachment 2414221View attachment 2414222View attachment 2414223View attachment 2414224

Hey there,
Im new to the site, I signed up when I was looking for info on small first grows.
I came across this site and it had great information and helpful people so I thought i might as well.

So to my plants and grow setup.
Budget CFL setup.
Random seeds I had sitting in my weed closet !

I germinated 6 seeds in some wet/moist guaze and left them to sit in a cool dark place.
48hrs later the root sprouts emerge, I let them sit for another day and they where ready to plant.
I mixed up some potting soil that was in a pot intended for lemon grass(had some bark and what not in it), with some organic cat litter 10-15%, ground up egg shells,
some rich soil i found in my garden it was dug up about 4foot down (help from my rabbit).
I mixed it all up and moistened it with room temp tap water that had about half the chlorine evaporated from it.
I planted them in plastic cups with drainage holes and the soil and put 4 outside and 2 of them under 2 lights in a white box.
1 light is a 24w daylight CFL @ 1550lm and the other is 20w cool white CFL @ 1200lm.

In the box:
One plant grew well got to about an inch tall with the 2 small leaves and 2 seedlings leaves and a healthy purple stem looking stem.
The other grew a bit side ways so i replanted it up to the foilage (it still has the seed attached its growing slow). It looks ok now from what i can see the leaves look green.
Wont be able to tell for sure until it grows an inch and the seed comes off and the leaves flare out.
I watered them very little as i thought the soil must be moist enough and i didnt wanna kill them by over watering.
This morning i woke and the one plant that was doing well has drooped over. So i quickly saturated the soil with water as it felt really dry.
I researched on here a bit and thought it might be a nutrient deficiency.
Seeing as this is a budget grow also as organic as can be I gathered 500grams of my rabbits poo's and put them in a big tea bag.
Put them in about 5L of hot water (not boiling) and let them saturate. I knew i had to leave it for a week for it to get real strong but I didnt have time.
So basically I brewed it as much as I could and put about 200mls in a spray bottle alone with 100ml of room temp water.
I sprayed both plants in the box and have them under lights and with a small fan circulating air.

Its still drooped over and im not sure whether i should stand it back up or plant it deeper...

I hope this works !!!! Can anyone please help, I really want this grow to work, the little fella was going well !

cheers everyone,
jez

Well sounds like to me they are doing fine I wouldn't worry to much. Keep the soil kinda moist until there is some goods roots, dont feed them anything yet, although I don't think rabbit poop would hurt but idk? Just keep your cfls about 4 inches from the plant until they get a good root system then you can be at about 1 inch, 75 degrees is a good temp you should be doing an 18/6 light cycle plants do need rest that's when they repair them selfs. You need to make sure you keep your ph In check water/feed them with 6.5phed water same goes for soil you need your soil to be at 6.5 you should b doing lots of reading. I hope this helps but there will be some gadgets you need to buy to grow successfully. Ph meter, a good quality fertilizer, ph up and down. You will need a small fan to keep air moving along with bring fresh air in, stale air will make your plants stop growing because the lack of co2 and could contribute to mold and mildew which is dreaded in the medical cannabis growing community. Read read read then read some more good luck man I think you can do it

keep it real. said:

Well sounds like to me they are doing fine I wouldn't worry to much. Keep the soil kinda moist until there is some goods roots, dont feed them anything yet, although I don't think rabbit poop would hurt but idk? Just keep your cfls about 4 inches from the plant until they get a good root system then you can be at about 1 inch, 75 degrees is a good temp you should be doing an 18/6 light cycle plants do need rest that's when they repair them selfs. You need to make sure you keep your ph In check water/feed them with 6.5phed water same goes for soil you need your soil to be at 6.5 you should b doing lots of reading. I hope this helps but there will be some gadgets you need to buy to grow successfully. Ph meter, a good quality fertilizer, ph up and down. You will need a small fan to keep air moving along with bring fresh air in, stale air will make your plants stop growing because the lack of co2 and could contribute to mold and mildew which is dreaded in the medical cannabis growing community. Read read read then read some more good luck man I think you can do it

Click to expand...

Thanks heaps for that man. You sure it will be fine? Its drooped over at the stem not just the leaves though. Yeah i know theres more to get but cant really afford it till next week and I dont want them dying on me now.
Ill upload some pictures so you can understand more of what im trying to say.
Lol im a noob i know, I have been reading without reading i would have failed to grow a seedling lol. Im still learning as we go but i just need some help to keep the 2 plants in my grow box alive.
Atleast till I can afford to buy the proper ferts n ph balancers n what not.

thanks again keep it real !

BUMP ! I really need help with this guys

They ALMOST sound OK... I've seen seedlings that were too top heavy fall over and stand right back up within a week. I'd watch out for over watering and over feeding, I know nothing about rabbit poo, almost sound a little fugazi to me... but good luck with that.
Personally, I go with the LESS IS MORE theory, when it comes to plants... Try just using some straight tap water (until the 2nd set of REAL saw-tooth leaves appear), keep an eye on your grow medium and make sure it stays good and moist (not too wet, not too dry, some should stick to your finger if you push it into the pot and pull it out)... I water every 2-3 days, sometimes longer if a seedling is in a larger pot.
And I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but, I know some people who have spent ALOT of money on their "budget first grow". You do need some equipment, and some is un-necessary... Some of the necessary stuff was mentioned above: pH pen, with calibration fluid and pH adjusters. A decent ventilation fan, to provide fresh air and keep the air in your box moving (that will help strengthen stems). Good nutes... try something thats not extremely expensive, maybe GenHydro or TechnaFlora, two good places to start your search... I have never used CFL's, but everyone around RIU seems to be using 6 or 8 bulbs, maybe add some more lights? That may or may not be necessary, again, I'm not sure. And on that note... I know that one bulb is for flowering and one for veg-ing (warm white and cool white), not sure which is which, but I'd look into more of the CFL's intended for veg-ing... And you may wanna pick up a small bag of good soil/medium. Bad soil/medium is like trying to build a high rise building on shaky dirt... maybe you could do it, but I wouldn't. Those bark chips and what-not are not usually present in quality mediums.

I've gone on for long enough... I hope this helps. I think you are on the way to finish line, you will make it there eventually... I'm just not sure you are on the easiest path.
Good Luck, and I hope everything works out.

PersonalJesus said:

They ALMOST sound OK... I've seen seedlings that were too top heavy fall over and stand right back up within a week. I'd watch out for over watering and over feeding, I know nothing about rabbit poo, almost sound a little fugazi to me... but good luck with that.
Personally, I go with the LESS IS MORE theory, when it comes to plants... Try just using some straight tap water (until the 2nd set of REAL saw-tooth leaves appear), keep an eye on your grow medium and make sure it stays good and moist (not too wet, not too dry, some should stick to your finger if you push it into the pot and pull it out)... I water every 2-3 days, sometimes longer if a seedling is in a larger pot.
And I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but, I know some people who have spent ALOT of money on their "budget first grow". You do need some equipment, and some is un-necessary... Some of the necessary stuff was mentioned above: pH pen, with calibration fluid and pH adjusters. A decent ventilation fan, to provide fresh air and keep the air in your box moving (that will help strengthen stems). Good nutes... try something thats not extremely expensive, maybe GenHydro or TechnaFlora, two good places to start your search... I have never used CFL's, but everyone around RIU seems to be using 6 or 8 bulbs, maybe add some more lights? That may or may not be necessary, again, I'm not sure. And on that note... I know that one bulb is for flowering and one for veg-ing (warm white and cool white), not sure which is which, but I'd look into more of the CFL's intended for veg-ing... And you may wanna pick up a small bag of good soil/medium. Bad soil/medium is like trying to build a high rise building on shaky dirt... maybe you could do it, but I wouldn't. Those bark chips and what-not are not usually present in quality mediums.

I've gone on for long enough... I hope this helps. I think you are on the way to finish line, you will make it there eventually... I'm just not sure you are on the easiest path.
Good Luck, and I hope everything works out.

Click to expand...

Thanks mate for the help. I will invest in more of the stuff i do need in the coming weeks. For now i hope that this one plant survives the week and makes a speedy recovery.
As you can see from the pics its not looking well it has good colour but now looks like its dying (leaves are drying out and its still topled over).

If not i might have to re-invest in some seeds and a new setup plus new growing mediums etc etc !!!

Will keep you guys posted ! any more info is still greatly appreciated


cheers,
jezz

That looks over watered to me...jmo

Overwatered(your soil mix looks questionable to me)let it dry out!!!/ poor lighting(gonna need more cfls)/ add a fan to strengthen the stems(don't point it directly at them)/ don't add anything other than water(filtered if u have the $$) for at least two weeks/clear cups are a no-no, cover up(duct tape) or put them in another container ............good luck

that soil is weird, looks too wet, and main thing is that light is too close for babies.

Hey guys,

Yes i understand in the pics that the soil looks to moist, only reason being is because I watered them just before I took the pics. The only reason i did water them was because i let them dry out too much, In the 4 days ive had them in the pots I have barely watered them.
Maybe 60-70ml of water out of syringe but thats nothing. The soil was extremely dry and crumbled in my fingers so my guess was it needed water.
Now that ive watered them and had lights on them for a further 20hrs the toppled over plant still looks bad but my other plant seems to be growing leaves and looks very lush so that one hopefully will stay good.
Im currently running a 7-8inch 2 speed fan within my grow box also the grow box has 4 vents so cooling and fresh air wise im fine, considering this room gets alot of fresh air as it is.
Thanks for the tip about the clear cups, ill proof them up today with duct tape. I didnt think it would be much of an issue straight off the bat as the roots are small but cant be too careful.

Hmm so if u guys think i over watered and i think i under watered..... i dont know what to do lol, the poor guy in the is getting thin and the leaves look like there gonna fall off !!
Almost seems like from the 6 seeds i started only 1 MIGHT grow... so sad

extremely frustrated and annoyed,
jez

Pull the dirt up around the stem to prop it up. All the way to the cotes if needed. It will simply grow roots from the side you bury. So keep it buried!

hotrodharley said:

Pull the dirt up around the stem to prop it up. All the way to the cotes if needed. It will simply grow roots from the side you bury. So keep it buried!

Click to expand...

Thanks for that I had a feeling I had to do something or the sort. Well thats sorted out now and also make sences it will grow extra roots.

Thanks for that buddy your a champ.

cheers,
jez

jezzystylez said:

Thanks for that I had a feeling I had to do something or the sort. Well thats sorted out now and also make sences it will grow extra roots.

Thanks for that buddy your a champ.

cheers,
jez

Click to expand...

I have had to do it way more than a few times. Good luck!

Ill keep ya updated on how I go ! Stressing even more now cause I'm at work n not sure how my babies are going at home ! I hit em with some rabbit poo and alfalfa leave enhanced water before I left this morning !

Cross fingers, toes legs arms and what ever else that this works!
Thanks for all the help so far people really appreciate it

Im keeping my eyes crossed for you, hope they recover allright

disk1able said:

Im keeping my eyes crossed for you, hope they recover allright

Click to expand...

Lol cheers mate ! yeah im she does too.. she not looking real well at the moment though.

Should i remove her leaves? They look pretty much dead and could only be doing her more harm than good.

Seedlings need plain water only. No nutrients including organics for about 2 weeks really. At least.

hotrodharley said:

Seedlings need plain water only. No nutrients including organics for about 2 weeks really. At least.

Click to expand...

Only reason i tried the tiniest bit of nutrients is because the soil i used was sitting in a pot plant from about May.
Its the only thing i had to put my seeds into at the time. Would potting soil be good after that many months ?