Unhappy plants. cant figure em out

It has now been 22 days since I put the seeds in the soil. They are in FFOF and have been their entire lives. I planted 8 at first but recently had to get rid of 2 because they just wouldnt recover from pH/overwatering problems. I've had the plants under a 250w MH for the past 2 weeks and I've got a 400w on its way but its gonna be a few weeks. I flushed them over a week ago with water that I believed was a better pH, I got a liquid pH test kit with pH up and down. The first 2 weeks of their lives I was giving them my plain old tap water which turned out to be 8.5+ pH. So about 9 days ago I flushed them with water I believed to be in the 6.0-7.0 range, its very hard to tell with the liquid test and I only just ordered a test pen. The problem is.. they dont seem to wanna dry out, its been 9 days and the moisture meter I have says that are all still moist/wet in the pots about 3 inches down. Lately they have begun to droop. All of the plants have issues, one of em looks like it was eaten by something but I cant find any pests with a magnifying glass, it has small yellow holes in it, but there havent been any new ones yet. Lots of curled discolored, deformed leaves, and the healthier plants have small yellow tips. To add insult to injury, i accidently tore a chunk out of one of the leaves of my healthiest looking plant. I plan on feeding them pHed distilled water next time (if there is a next time) because my tap water is very hard. I cant get temps below 80.. they stay at 80-84 and humidity stays at 40-45. I am attaching pics of all my plants, mind you they look much greener in these dark pics than in reality.. is there anyway to save them?? any ideas?

What type of pot are those. Ceramic pots are not good for indoor growing. The glaze wont let them breath as well as they should. You need to have good drainage. If the holes are on the bottom and they sit on the floor the soil wont dry and your roots rot! Temps and humidity are good. Try setting those pots inside bigger pots that elevate the bottom and make sure there are lots of holes so the bottoms can get air. Your plants look pretty healthy but they are too small to transplant right now. Once they get a little bigger you should transplant to plastic pots with holes in the sides at the bottom so the soil can dry faster. Good Luck!

Bubba Kushman said:

What type of pot are those. Ceramic pots are not good for indoor growing. The glaze wont let them breath as well as they should. You need to have good drainage. If the holes are on the bottom and they sit on the floor the soil wont dry and your roots rot! Temps and humidity are good. Try setting those pots inside bigger pots that elevate the bottom and make sure there are lots of holes so the bottoms can get air. Your plants look pretty healthy but they are too small to transplant right now. Once they get a little bigger you should transplant to plastic pots with holes in the sides so the soil can dry faster. Good Luck!

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The pots are plastic and have drain holes in the bottom, there is plenty of run off when I water. I am afraid to transplant. I tried it on a plant about a week ago when soil was too wet and I killed it by destroying its root system. I wasn't planning on transplanting em, a buddy of mine has 4 foot tall healthy plants in the same pots. Im gonna try to figure out a way to get em off the floor..the drain holes arent against the floor though, the pots are grooved on the bottom so the holes are elevated off the ground. Any idea why they are drooping? are they gonna be ok?

Bubba Kushman said:

What type of pot are those. Ceramic pots are not good for indoor growing. The glaze wont let them breath as well as they should. You need to have good drainage. If the holes are on the bottom and they sit on the floor the soil wont dry and your roots rot! Temps and humidity are good. Try setting those pots inside bigger pots that elevate the bottom and make sure there are lots of holes so the bottoms can get air. Your plants look pretty healthy but they are too small to transplant right now. Once they get a little bigger you should transplant to plastic pots with holes in the sides at the bottom so the soil can dry faster. Good Luck!

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GLAD YOU MENTIONED THAT CUZ I WAS GONNA USE A CERAMIC POT TO PUT A SEEDLING IN.. GOOD INFO

Ok I got the pots off the ground.. how does this look? I also moved them since the pic so that they arent touching the wall. I'm sure they will run out of space soon though, I have another rack just like this one that i can add when that happens (if they get that far)

bumping my own thread =/ I also noticed that the leaves were extremely dry to the touch. I think my fan was blowing on them too much, I stuck a humidifier in the grow area and I'm gonna bring the humidity up a little bit. I also pointed the fan towards the light so it isnt blowing directly on the plants. Doesnt ANYONE have an answer as to why my plants are suffering?? I'm sick of doing so much guess work.