Should I just kill these and start over?

Hey all,

I just can't seem to get these two plants off the ground. Literally. Info:

1x Aurora Indica
1x Snow White

Coco coir medium
1x 23w 6500k CFL over each, tried adding two 2700k to cover the spectrum, but the plants looked like they were growing away from the 2700k's and towards the 6500k's? Then they flopped over.
Plain 6.0ph water.




I think I over-watered them when they were just breaking soil. The picture is 2 weeks from planting seed, 1 week from breaking ground and they don't even have the first set of true leaves yet. Now they are limp like the stem is much thinner about half way down. I just never know how much to water because my RH is around 25% in the grow tent which is in the basement.

Temps down there are around 55F so I've put a space heater down there for most of the day while the lights were on to up it to 73-75 in the tent.

Plus I used a Febreeze water bottle that apparently wasn't all the way clean to mist them before and there's just no signs of growth. I think I messed them up beyond help.

What do you all think? Pull them, toss the coco and start over with germing some new seeds?

Start over....

Any ideas where I went wrong?

Start over. I don't know what it is about coco and seedlings I know some have great success but ime they die or damp off. I'd rather start seeds in soil or rapid rooters then transplant into coco much better results

I would start over. No use in having problems this early in.

why start in coco when you can start in proven seed starting mixes

Or rock wool

Dont kill them!Start new seeds,but dont kill these.I know from bitter experience that the most shrivelled up,unhealthy looking mofo can come back to life.
Id check your temps with that space heater.Leave it on for a couple of hours then check.Also,if your thermometer is sitting on the ground and your plants are raised,thats not giving you a good indication of their actual temps.
Of course I may be talking shite but thats just my 2c worth
Good luck

Looks like the overwatering has rotted the stems.

Notice how the stem is much thinner at soil level, that's not a good sign. They will die.

i start my seedlings in coco coir and have no problems and i just water them with plain 5.5 ph water untill they are day over 1 week old then i add half of what my nutes calls for in gallon of water also you really cant over water coco coir. my thought is that you have under watered not over watered. how far away is your lights from your plants more infor could help

I pulled them from the soil and conducted a postmortem and here are my findings -

Stems appear black and rotted so lushgreen is correct. There was only one root, no other roots branched out.

Also I took my gallon jug of water and my misting bottle I was using to water them and re-PH'd everything. When I put water in, they were PH 6.0 give or take but they were in the yellow. I rechecked and today every bottled water I was using now tested PH 8.0+

What causes PH'd water to climb sitting in a gallon jug that water normally comes in? Is something leaching into the water upping the PH?

Just wondering, how far did you keep the light away?

stdaghost said:

i start my seedlings in coco coir and have no problems and i just water them with plain 5.5 ph water untill they are day over 1 week old then i add half of what my nutes calls for in gallon of water also you really cant over water coco coir. my thought is that you have under watered not over watered. how far away is your lights from your plants more infor could help

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I think I over-watered it to be honest. It would only go maybe a day, day and a half before I'd water them. Lights were about 2" - 3" above the soil with a fan blowing across to blow the heat away from their leaves.

Soviet343 said:

I think I over-watered it to be honest. It would only go maybe a day, day and a half before I'd water them. Lights were about 2" - 3" above the soil with a fan blowing across to blow the heat away from their leaves.

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Ahh gotcha. Personally for me, I grab a water bottle and poke a pin size hole in the top and squeeze the the water around the seedling... the pin size hole lets a small amount of water out and you can pretty much aim it where ever you like. I found this to be better than a spray bottle, like the frabreeze one you were using. Just an idea, if you want to try that.

So for you guys who start seedlings in party cups. How much do you water and how often (keeping in mind my medium which is coco)?

1/4 +- oz of water every day. Depending on how wet the soil is. Haven't had any problems with this.

FourZeroTwo said:

1/4 +- oz of water every day. Depending on how wet the soil is. Haven't had any problems with this.

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And you don't water near the sprout or over the sprout, you water around the edges of the cup so the roots seek out the water right?

I have always watered mine near the sprout. This has worked best for me.

I tend to water my seedlings when the cup feels light. Coco is really hydroscopic so the old leave it until it's dry to the first knuckle doesn't work. The plant would be way too dry by that stage.
A bit of trial and error but you'll start to feel the difference between the weight of a freshly watered cup and one that is light and needing water.