Will a fan cause a weak stem in a seedling?

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Soviet343

Active Member
Hey all,

One of my seedlings flopped on it's side this morning. Mind you, it's about 2" tall, so not stretching at all..

Seedling is Nirvana's snow white. Temps were about 75 with two 23w (100w equiv) CFL's overhead. Too much light maybe???

I had a small desk fan blowing on them and it would only blow on them lightly but I guess it was too much for a 5 day old seedling and weakened the stem?

I pulled the seedling and replanted it almost up to it's cotyledons.

They're in Coco and haven't yet had any nutes, so I did up about 2/3 of half-strength GH Flora to see if maybe that will help promote some more vigorous growth... I didn't see any weird spots on the roots either so I don't know what the hell is going on.

Any ideas?
 
vostok

vostok

Well-Known Member
Ensure one of your cfl bulbs is 2700 kelvin or warm white, the red light stimulates stem growth
 
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Soviet343

Active Member
vostok said:
Ensure one of your cfl bulbs is 2700 kelvin or warm white, the red light stimulates stem growth
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All three CFL's for the two plants were all 6500k. I now have them in the tent with the Blackstar 240 UV on.

Grrrr... Lost my last two seeds to damping off from over-watering and now this. If these two don't make it maybe I'm just not cut out for this?
 
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Jbone77

Well-Known Member
The fan or the 6500s arent your problem, if it keep happening its you, how often do you water and are they in a cup, a pot, or what? What ppm did you feed them? PH? How close were the 2 bulbs? RH?
 
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Soviet343

Active Member
Jbone77 said:
The fan or the 6500s arent your problem, if it keep happening its you, how often do you water and are they in a cup, a pot, or what? What ppm did you feed them? PH? How close were the 2 bulbs? RH?
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Water every other day about 1/4 to 1/3 oz of tap water PH'd at 6 give or take.

Water PPM = 28 from tap (well water). I do not know the PPM of the nutes but it will be low since I did even less than half-strength. This is their first feeding and only 1 plant fell over. The other one was tipped over, causing the cup to spill so it was already re-planted and looks to be doing ok.

They are in party cups until I know they'll live, then I have two 3-gallon smart pots.

Bulbs were about 1" from the tops.

It's also worth noting that while the seedling was drooping to one side, I knocked it over and it fell over when I was trying to prop it up, so I don't think it would have fallen over without my "assistance".
 
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SunshineBuds

Member
Soviet343 said:
Water every other day about 1/4 to 1/3 oz of tap water PH'd at 6 give or take.

Water PPM = 28 from tap (well water). I do not know the PPM of the nutes but it will be low since I did even less than half-strength. This is their first feeding and only 1 plant fell over. The other one was tipped over, causing the cup to spill so it was already re-planted and looks to be doing ok.

They are in party cups until I know they'll live, then I have two 3-gallon smart pots.

Bulbs were about 1" from the tops.

It's also worth noting that while the seedling was drooping to one side, I knocked it over and it fell over when I was trying to prop it up, so I don't think it would have fallen over without my "assistance".
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I dont think it needs nutes yet bro
 
C

CaretakerDad

Well-Known Member
Soviet343 said:
Water every other day about 1/4 to 1/3 oz of tap water PH'd at 6 give or take.

Water PPM = 28 from tap (well water). I do not know the PPM of the nutes but it will be low since I did even less than half-strength. This is their first feeding and only 1 plant fell over. The other one was tipped over, causing the cup to spill so it was already re-planted and looks to be doing ok.

They are in party cups until I know they'll live, then I have two 3-gallon smart pots.

Bulbs were about 1" from the tops.
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It is a common mistake for new folks to fertilize seedlings and subsequently kill them. Don't give up we have all killed our share of plants. Seedlings generally wont require any nutrients until at least 3 weeks after transplanting them from your solo cup to a larger pot with potting soil. Damping off may also be an issue if you continue to water on a schedule. wait until your container feels light and then water, it will encourage the roots to grow deep into your container and it will help to prevent bug infestations in your soil as they prefer an evenly moist environment. Good luck, don't give up, and Happy Growing. :weed:
 
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Jbone77

Well-Known Member
Iv never seen well water at 28 ppm, thats impressive, id bottle that and sell it.lol Gh at about half strength is alot, I run nutes at half strength at week 4 of veg, starting out with distilled water and a 200-250 ppm nute mix for the first week and switch to tap after a few weeks. 2 cfls an inch away may be too close and ur drying the coco too quick, back em off a little for a couple days, cfls do kick out a lot of heat at 1", especially for a 2" seedling without a root structure. If ur coco dries at root level your seedling will fall over and die and a bulb that close to the coco will dry the top out real quick. Dont say give or take when you ph, get it right, im assuming you are using the dropper since you said that, order a cheap ph pen from ebay for $12 and some calibration solution for later, Do you know your humidity?
 
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Jbone77

Well-Known Member
Soil doesnt need fed for a few weeks because it has nutes, coco does not and needs fed right off the rip
 
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Soviet343

Active Member
Jbone77 said:
Iv never seen well water at 28 ppm, thats impressive, id bottle that and sell it.lol Gh at about half strength is alot, I run nutes at half strength at week 4 of veg, starting out with distilled water and a 200-250 ppm nute mix for the first week and switch to tap after a few weeks. 2 cfls an inch away may be too close and ur drying the coco too quick, back em off a little for a couple days, cfls do kick out a lot of heat at 1", especially for a 2" seedling without a root structure. If ur coco dries at root level your seedling will fall over and die and a bulb that close to the coco will dry the top out real quick. Dont say give or take when you ph, get it right, im assuming you are using the dropper since you said that, order a cheap ph pen from ebay for $12 and some calibration solution for later, Do you know your humidity?
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Can you link me to a PH pen that you know works? I just have the GH up/down kit with the drops.

RH is about 20-25% since it's so cold here.

I kept the bulbs closer because the fan blowing cooler air across them kept the heat away from the seedlings. I think it was just the motion of shaking back and forth weakened the stem.

Thanks for all your help man! +rep for ya.
 
CantGetWrite

CantGetWrite

New Member
Jbone77 said:
Soil doesnt need fed for a few weeks because it has nutes, coco does not and needs fed right off the rip
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Even coco shouldn't require any nutes for the first 7-10 days, IMO. Blue Dream is the only strain I've grown that started demanding N fairly quick and it was around day 10 but I'm in ocean forest which does run moderately hot out of the bag. I will say I am not familiar with the strain the Soviet is growing either, but first feeding should be between 1/16 and 1/8 strength IMO.

I like to starve mine a bit in attempt to force the roots to go in search of nutrients also.
 
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Jbone77

Well-Known Member
I have a cheap hm ppm pen that I ordered off there for $13 and I honestly dont even know what brand the ph pen is, its one of the $10 black n yellow ones they have, I just looked on ebay and dont remember where I ordered it from, just order the calibration solution so you can randomly check it, its cheap also, iv had mine for 2 years and it was only off a couple tenths once. Just remember not to drop it all the way in the water, they have a line that says where to stop, but hey, there $10 so thats ok with me
 
J

Jbone77

Well-Known Member
CantGetWrite said:
Even coco shouldn't require any nutes for the first 7-10 days, IMO. Blue Dream is the only strain I've grown that started demanding N fairly quick and it was around day 10 but I'm in ocean forest. I will say I am not familiar with the strain the Soviet is growing either.

I like to starve mine a bit in attempt to force the roots to go in search of nutrients also.
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Ocean forest is good for several weeks, ul start yellowing real quick in coco, im all for roots looking for food n water but when theres nothing fo em to find it just makes there life harder than it needs to be. 200-250 ppm isnt much but it keeps em green
 
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Jbone77

Well-Known Member
And your humidity sucks for a seedling, add a humidifier to the room if you can or a bowl of water on a heat mat or somethin
 
CantGetWrite

CantGetWrite

New Member
I'm still needing to pick up a ppm pen so I go light on the nutes so I don't have to flush a bunch of unused/build-up out later.
 
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