What in the world is wrong with my seedlings?

1. This one you can see curling up on the edges of the leaves and tips (one tip is also discolored).
A seed leaf is folded down.
New growth is a bit too dark.
There seems to be a white spot, small hole and black/red spot.


2. This one has strange marks on the seed leaves.

Is that coco?
Why didn't you fill the cups?

yep, fill them up to first set of true leaves if ya can, better root system will be the result

I am working with mostly WEDDING CAKE FEM seeds here for this.

Not coco, medium is a mix of:

super soil, regular store bought topsoil, a bit of: perlite, vermiculite, dolimite lime

Not sure why I didnt fill it to the top. I suppose I can just go now, and add more soil to fill it up, right? (It seems that as a result of not filling it up, the stems stretched a bit until reaching out of the pot.

My light is about 50-150 watts of LED 3000 K two feet away from tops -- have been playing with the dimmer to see if any responses).

For this grow, I am being careful not to water them too much since I thought that with too-hot super soil and bugs contributed to my previous 707 seedlings dying (I'm so sad).

I am still working out kinks in the grow room which is also my experiment with smart home automation/remote control/sensors. I am not 100% sure which variables are still a problem... but I think surely, it is not only the soil being too low in the pot. Right? Do they look humidity-stressed?

Fungus or bug infestation? What about those issues on the leaves?

I've got 3 hydrometers (1 next to pots on floor controlling environmental variables, 1 on back wall floor, and one on side wall in middle). I wonder which smart hydrometer should control the grow room variables as the main one?

I had sprayed the room with emulsified neem and eucolyptus oil and also some spray with pythium. Not really directly on the plants but they may have got a tiny tiny drop on them. I think I accidentally had a bit of silica in that bottle, I haven't thought that could hurt however.

Humidity is at around 70 to 80 with some high and low dips (my records show humidity was too high last night around 85! so I have dialed that back) and temps around 25-28 C at 78-82 F.

Just now, I've turned on C02 at 800 PPM. I thought all variables are pretty good and this could help or at least, not harm.

your soil may be too hot, i start mine off in multipurpose compost and add the seedling, well young plant into my multipurpose soil mixed with chicken manure pelets fish blood n bone and seaweed meal. that keeps them going for quite some time

I'm starting them mainly in just normal store-bought topsoil. About 1$ for a 5 lb. bag!

Sooo, I thought not too hot. Right? I've put 1 part that 1 part super-soil. And some neutral filler medium.
(A handful of the pert-lite/vermiculite/dolomite only) which I thought would make the soil nooot so hot for this attempt! Was I wrong about this? And if so how can I mitigate? (E.g. by slightly under-watering or something).

Do you really think that hot soil is the cause of this problem? Please see the attached photo. I've already topped up the soil to be much higher in the pot using cheap topsoil. (After which I added a tiny bit of water around the stem to help it integrate, hopefully for new roots to come soon, I guess).

However I hope it helps a lot and quick because as you can see in the photo from a couple hours later, this baby girl is deteriorating rapidly. Emergeny! Call 911! We need a specialist in here right away!

Especially it appears to be suffering on the leaf surrounding that damned tiny white dot which appeared magically, so what in the world could that damn thing be?

Could there be some problem alternatively or additionally with this kind of bug shown below that I have been finding in the room (have NOT seen on the plants) and been trying to exterminate? (I have not gotten a 100% positive ID on it yet, I've see it jumping and running and it's very very small).

The pest issue has been a real challenge for setting up this room which is in a storage shed on the side of my building, but is using a sliding aluminum door that is NOT FULLY SEALED yet in that it still lets light out. The door's light/heat seems to be attracting bugs to come through the small open part.

Last night I tried to fully seal it 100% with black duct tape. Almost ZERO light was coming out and I couldn't BELEIVE that this morning, I found a dead baby lizard (I am in tropics) in there under the light, and strange wormy kinda big mealy bug sliding along near the entrance inside the room! It was a sign!?!? (Am awaiting installing better weather stripping which can't arrive soon enough).

Mostly I've just seen and squashed this weird tiny little bugger below. Could this little fucker be the root of my life's woes right now?

I think you're stressing too early. The first few leaves can sometimes be a bit funky for no good reason. As long as they aren't totally brown or yellow!

Wait until you see more mature leaves before jumping the gun on a diagnosis.

I just noticed the CO2. Turn that off for now.

@MajorCoco Okay I've turned off CO2 at your advice, care to explain a bit about that? (I thought it could not hurt, maybe it could?)

Also it does seem like new growth is coming in almost brownish, lets watch carefully and see.

That funky leaf has already gotten more brown and yellow in the past hours as seen here:



Here is the lot of em:

The seedling are not consuming a lot of CO2. No need to supplement them yet.

@phishfood Okay no c02 bouncing around the room then, Ive stopped it. The level maintains around 400 to 450 PPM and I will keep an eye on it. I have ZERO intake outake in this room.

soil’s too hot. too much fert. & im not sure u want to use anything but water for foliar spray either. in the seedling phase, they’re not ready for all that. wait until you have several sets of leaves before amending sprays or the soil. seems to me like you’re just over-thinking things, for seedlings. the seed has enough nutes in it to get started. i pop seeds in rapid-rooters or rockwool in a humidity dome, using plain RO water, with a cheap walmart LED light bar laying on top of the dome. works every time.

How far is your light my phone is junk but it looks like ligh bleaching to me as always thank you for your time and the best of luck

I am in the middle of a current grow right now of wedding cake and mine did the exact same thing!
Two things i changed were:

They didn't like wind blowing directly on them during the early stages. So I blew above them not on them

And

I started adding calmag early on. This strain is a calmag pig!!! I gave small doses of calmag early and they loved it.

Okay I've taken them out to transplant into the normal topsoil, getting rid of most the super soil. The super soil was Tum Din brand (I am in Asia, we dont have Fox Farm):

"18 Premium Ingredients : Mycorrhizae, Worm Castings, Blood Meal, Bat Guano, Fish Bone Meal, Kelp, Epsom Salt, Dolomite, Azomite, Humic Acid, Gypsum, Rice Hulls, Pumice, Oyster Shell, Soybean Meal, Alfalfa, Coco Coir, Fish Fertilizer"

Does that sound too hot??

Overnight this one's condition deteriorated further, so I removed the leaf which was about 50% sickly:









As you can see, the roots seemed to be perhaps okay and fine:










Here is a group photo after the delicate transplanting:






Following the transplant, I watered around the base of the stem with pH'd water that had a drop of Myco+ in it. After that I also put diatomaceous earth atop the soil to help with IPM.

Does this seem like we are getting back on track now?

@BurntByFire suggested I add some CalMag. Good idea for next watering? If so, any suggested dose for seedlings?

Overgrowtho said:

I am working with mostly WEDDING CAKE FEM seeds here for this.

Not coco, medium is a mix of:

super soil, regular store bought topsoil, a bit of: perlite, vermiculite, dolimite lime

Not sure why I didnt fill it to the top. I suppose I can just go now, and add more soil to fill it up, right? (It seems that as a result of not filling it up, the stems stretched a bit until reaching out of the pot.

My light is about 50-150 watts of LED 3000 K two feet away from tops -- have been playing with the dimmer to see if any responses).

For this grow, I am being careful not to water them too much since I thought that with too-hot super soil and bugs contributed to my previous 707 seedlings dying (I'm so sad).

I am still working out kinks in the grow room which is also my experiment with smart home automation/remote control/sensors. I am not 100% sure which variables are still a problem... but I think surely, it is not only the soil being too low in the pot. Right? Do they look humidity-stressed?

Fungus or bug infestation? What about those issues on the leaves?

I've got 3 hydrometers (1 next to pots on floor controlling environmental variables, 1 on back wall floor, and one on side wall in middle). I wonder which smart hydrometer should control the grow room variables as the main one?

I had sprayed the room with emulsified neem and eucolyptus oil and also some spray with pythium. Not really directly on the plants but they may have got a tiny tiny drop on them. I think I accidentally had a bit of silica in that bottle, I haven't thought that could hurt however.

Humidity is at around 70 to 80 with some high and low dips (my records show humidity was too high last night around 85! so I have dialed that back) and temps around 25-28 C at 78-82 F.

Just now, I've turned on C02 at 800 PPM. I thought all variables are pretty good and this could help or at least, not harm.

Click to expand...

6500k will help keep them from stretching.

Lol, non issues...just grow buds...like grow buds not leaves. Whatever problem your thinknyoubare chasing...your plants health naturally will overcome it.

@Samwell Seed Well
I would love to be so optimistic. However my last round of 707 headband seeds all died which is why I am being very vigilent and careful this round. I am hoping to have better conditions now, so my Wedding Cakes will not meet the same fate.

If you have any insightful ideas about the grow, please do let me know. I always look for helpful and specific feedback.

Chasing a non existent problem with a fix that was never needed can be much worse then any deficiencies, especially young...


Let your plants guide you.

For starters raise your light, these are seedlings not plants. Give your young seedlings a rest , they are not in a race.

Secondly 707, is that soil...if so...yiu should have a non ss top soil to start your seeds in. Ok re read that , 707 seeds...means nothing...stop feeding plants that are notnold enoubh to eat

Thirdly once you actually get plants...3rd set of real leaves. Feed low, water as media dries within 48 hours decreasing this incremental(while hopefully proportionally adding more food to your solution) to your preferred feeding rate and then uppot and repeat. I like day dry downs if hand feeding.

You have seedlings what are you feeling...they sre definitely not eating? Those are gigantic pots for tiny seedlings... plant should always be bigger then its pot... but if you low feed for a few weeks slowly increasing amounts as the plant grows amd needs more...should be fine

I am not feeding now. Had just put a pinch of Myco+ in the water after transplant only.

Lights are 2 feet from tops. Dimmer is set at only 50% (140 watts). Is that too much? I am running 18/6.

Lets see if they recover soon... feeling more confident having removed the hot soil.