Should I transplant my seedlings?

Hello. I have 5 sprouted seeds that came out of the dirt on the 17th, they are showing pretty slow growth. I used solo cups, I have never used them for seedlings before, I have only ever sprouted in final containers and outside the years I grew. As a result I have made a dumb mistake and I don't believe the slit's I cut in the bottom were sufficient, so overwatering seems to have occurred. It is very slight, but they should be growing a bit faster.

I made significantly bigger holes under the cup and just stopped watering, but I have noticed the bottom of my solo cups smell a bit rotten. Not overpowering, but it's still there towards the bottom. This worries me a lot of course. I am tempted to transplant them into 3 gallon smart pots with my roots organic original soil so they can have a more clean and safe home. Since my plants are so young, the roots haven't really formed so I am very cautious to transplant.

What do you guys think? Should ! let them be or transplant soon? Any help is greatly appreciated, do not want to lose these babies.

root rot can be survived. more difficult with the youngins though.
with wet soil empty the cup into your hand, dunk/rinse shake off infected area, easier if roots have not
reached yet. transplant into dirt, support while back filling, water the dry pot of 3 gal dirt with 3/4 gallon water and relax.
no nutrients, pray
best wishes

Here's the dirt that I used, I didn't have the roots soil by the time I germed so I used kelloggs soil which I thought id gibe a go as id never seen it and saw the ingredients. It's some lumpy stuff though.

My little ones are generally healthy, but I am very paranoid. Small containers and indoor growing is all new for me.

chemphlegm said:

root rot can be survived. more difficult with the youngins though.
with wet soil empty the cup into your hand, dunk/rinse shake off infected area, easier if roots have not
reached yet. transplant into dirt, support while back filling, water the dry pot of 3 gal dirt with 3/4 gallon water and relax.
no nutrients, pray
best wishes

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Wow thank you for the fast reply! Do I submerge half the plants with the soil in a cup of water and lightly shake it until some of the lower portions of the dirt come off?

Also, my lights are about to turn off (lights on 5 pm through 11 am)and I'm going to put them in my tent for 6 hours of darkness with air circulation. Should I transplant them now or later on in the evening?

I would wet only the area that need removal, outside of the cup, throw the cup in the trash do the work in a sink in bowl
until roots and bits loosen enough to sluff it away

seedlings need special soil and that isn't it, get some made for seedlings the stuff you have them in is water logged.

backtracker said:

seedlings need special soil and that isn't it, get some made for seedlings the stuff you have them in is water logged.

Click to expand...

Happy frog ,light warrior or original planting mix

Happy Leaf said:

Wow thank you for the fast reply! Do I submerge half the plants with the soil in a cup of water and lightly shake it until some of the lower portions of the dirt come off?

Also, my lights are about to turn off (lights on 5 pm through 11 am)and I'm going to put them in my tent for 6 hours of darkness with air circulation. Should I transplant them now or later on in the evening?

Click to expand...

Not for another 6 weeks at least, they would hardly even have roots so certainly not rootbound.

Around this time I move them from paper cups to 1gallon

My opinion. Let them dry a bit. Give them a week or 2. Get your final pot ready. I don't believe in several transplants. Only means several stress times for the plant. Dig a deep hole and bury the whole shabang up to there necks. Dirt and all.This will bring out more roots along the stem. Keep the lighting close. They look like they're stretching for light. The nutes that have been recommended by the bros are a good addition. I've been using Fox Farm but this is just personal preference. AND ABOVE ALL... it all adds to experience. You will get better.

Thank you all for the help! They are doing better now. I germed 6 seeds at first, 2 ww, 2 grape inferno, 2 Brian berry cough. All sprouted except 1 BBC. So I germed 1 more grape inferno and one more BBC one week after the first batch sprouted on the 17th of march. I accidentally screwed up my new grape inferno sprout and it died, but my BBC sprouted nicely.

So in other words, I have 6 plants, and just 1 is a week younger(bbc#2) But considering I stunted the growth of my first sprouts for a week, they are all roughly the same size. I transplanted the younger BBC sprout from the bad soil to roots organic in a tiny pot when I realized how bad the old soil was. I can easily see the huge difference in growth of the seedling starting in proper soil versus poor quality soil. I've never messed with roots organic or many brands really, I have to admit I've only used miracle grow or peat moss with local compost and perlite in my few outdoor grows. I kept things very simple for those grows. The free light and endless air surely helped lol. Indoors will take some practice for me for sure!

Over a week I transplanted all the sick seedlings into 3 gallon fabric pots with roots organic soil. I took the advice on here about removing as much contaminated soil during the transplant. I used Oregonism xl on the roots as well. I watered them in lightly. After a few days they finally started to perk up. I thought they were all going to die but they all surprised me! I've been watering them lightly. But I did give them a small dose of elemental and fed them all about 1 gallon of water each a couple days ago since the soil never really got too wet and I felt it needed to get up and going so to speak, I wanted to see how long it took to dry out and thankfully it only took 2 days for the soil to get noticeably dryer and the plants seemed to really like it. I will start feeding them with nutes at half strength next week as they seem to need it. Some newer leaves are yellow. I believe some of them have a calcium deficiency. I will be evaluating possible PH issues soon. I'll post some photos

WW#1. These WW are regular seeds from Seedsman

WW#2

Brian Berry Cough #1

Brian Berry Cough #2 this one is one week younger than the rest and in the small container, ready to be transplanted.

Grape Inferno #1

Grape Inferno #2. This one is my fastest grower despite it being stunted that first week. It already has a slightly skunky funk smell. I hope for as many females as possible. Wish me luck, thank you all for the help in getting these seedlings back on track!

Pot up to 2gal after couple weeks.