So i made a big mistake.. any way to fix?

First grow and grow room... should have tested how hot it got before getting the plants into their pots and turning on both suspended 1000 watters.

My seedlings were all on average 3-4 inches tall and after 24 hours of having both lights on, a bunch completely fell over, stem and top. Some stems remained standing but the tops were completely wilted. Some stems/tops were still intact (no further growth), but with burns.

What can I revive here, and how? Also, should i be expecting a delay in growth for these since the ones still kicking are probably trying to fix themselves?

Oh, and in case anyone was curious, the room was 125 degrees when I came back!

I would suggest not putting your seedlings under those lights until they are bigger. I veg them under cfl's until they have at least their third set of leaves. Don't feel too bad I had my plants up to 115 for a while on my first outing under hps.

The Warlord said:

I would suggest not putting your seedlings under those lights until they are bigger. I veg them under cfl's until they have at least their third set of leaves. Don't feel too bad I had my plants up to 115 for a while on my first outing under hps.

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Hmm.. the ones that have completely fallen over.. can those actually be revived?

My flourescents were causing stretching... probably because it was only two 14 watt bulbs.. so the guy at the hydro store told me i should have transplanted at first set of leaves. He then was saying how keeping those lights about 2 feet away should be fine.

Can't really say without seeing them......maybe? probably not. i'm using 48 and 26 watt cfl's and I keep them almost touching the plants. No stretch.

seedlings don't need much light the first few weeks. a few 23w cfl's would give them enough light for the first few weeks and less heat.Two 1000w hps. why do you use hps for veg? how many plants are you trying to grow?

stumps said:

seedlings don't need much light the first few weeks. a few 23w cfl's would give them enough light for the first few weeks and less heat.Two 1000w hps. why do you use hps for veg? how many plants are you trying to grow?

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Stadium, 44 plants. The room is fine now and I have each bulb (its hortilux thats why, good for veg too) to switch off instead of being on at same time.

I can take pictures tomorrow but i thought i was pretty descriptive, you will see what i wrote.

I let them stretch, and then they suffered probably even more than 125 degrees (because the therm was at the far side of the room, and the plants were 2-3 feet away from bulbs. I had to readjust things to fix that. They were probably way underwatered for that kind of heat, when i found the room it was like a desert in each pot.

Made a few rookie mistakes, but live and learn right?

The ones that are still laying horizontal after 24 hours won't be revived. The rest may survive, but they're in shock, and should go back under the floro's until they recover. The last thing they need right now is strong light.

I always harden my seedlings-off by placing them under the HID lights for a few hours a day so they can get used to it, because the change from floro to HID light can be enough - in itself - to cause the plants to go into shock.

2 weeks to recover

Mist them once in a while, but water normally - letting the soil dry-out between watering's.

Cut off the dead growth in a day or 2

Green Cross said:

The ones that are still laying horizontal after 24 hours won't be revived. The rest may survive, but they're in shock, and should go back under the floro's until they recover. The last thing they need right now is strong light.

I always harden my seedlings-off by placing them under the HID lights for a few hours a day so they can get used to it, because the change from floro to HID light can be enough - in itself - to cause the plants to go into shock.

2 weeks to recover

Mist them once in a while, but water normally - letting the soil dry-out between watering's.

Cut off the dead growth in a day or 2

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This might be a stupid question, but what if, say 75% of the stem has fallen, can i cut that off and assume the stem will regrow eventually? There are plants that are completely collapsed and then theres ones that have stems standing about an inch or more.

well ive taken off anything thats been falling.. now almost all of them are just stems standing up from the soil.

Get new seeds u killed em. They need leaves to photosyntesize (sp?)By cutting off the tops and cotyledons u have officially harvested lol. What's the dry weight really tho its a nice to day.... Start again...

maogrow said:

This might be a stupid question, but what if, say 75% of the stem has fallen, can i cut that off and assume the stem will regrow eventually? There are plants that are completely collapsed and then theres ones that have stems standing about an inch or more.

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How are they looking today?

If the roots are still alive it will want to push new growth out somewhere; as long as there is a healthy node, you can cut back to.

Expect a lot of hermaphrodites, after that kind of stress.

Salvage what you can, and then when they show sex you can chop up the surviving females into clones. At least that's what I would do.