Hello! First time grower here and looking for some advice as several of my seedlings appear to be struggling. Everything is currently in FF Happy Frog and I have a mix of ak47 and blue dream autos. The grow tent is at 82 degrees for most most of the day and 60% humidity. The larger two seedlings are 8 days old since sprouting and the smaller two are 4 days. I’m noticing my younger two look unhealthy and are starting to curl. I’m trying to diagnose what may be causing it - potential overwatering? Light wise I’m around 26 inches above the seedlings using a Mars hydro tsw 2000w LED on a 20/4 cycle. Currently have used no nutes based on the soil selected and watering using spring water. Any help or advice would be
Yea you should be at like 25% power on that light if possible. Too much light can mess with photosynthesis, esp for younger plants.
I’m with Mr Blue how much do you water? Do you let them dry out a bit before watering or do they always have wet feet?
I have the lights at 100% as I noticed some stretching the first few days (also lowered from 30 inches to 24). I started with misting the soil, but have recently added a few ounces of water circling the stem every day. I have noticed the soil top not fully drying so I held off on any watering today.
If it were me, those autos need to put in their final size container asap 3 gallon seems to be pretty standard but some strains can use up to 5. Autos don’t respond to transplant very well and your gonna be best if u can do it before roots touch anywhere on the cup so it didn’t even notice it was put in something bigger. Soil on top looks dry but possibly what’s below has been soggy or if those cups are giving enough drainage
Don’t have to water every day my brother and turn your light all the way down. Not sure how low those go but I run 3 four board light all the way down in my revegging room they love it.
I personally see no point in dimmers, the further away u get the less intensity of the light why get a 2k ballast to only run it at 500 watt? Just get a 600 watt… I’d recommend anywhere between 20-24" would be the sweet spot for it on full blast, give those babies as much light as their physical limitations are willing to take in and with any changes just watch over the day for any negative impacts so it can be corrected right away
For Autos it is a good idea to plant them in their final pot. Esp in a soil grow. Def helps the younger plants have a more simulated rootzone since the moisture wont linger near the top of the soil where the younger plant starts.
I know its not very helpful but 80-200 ppfd is pretty good for clones. So maybe 2000W Led fixture at 24"+ at 25% then bring it to 50 then move up then 75+ as you go into flower maintaining at least 18"+ between the light and tops. More if its hot in your tent. It would be nice to have two different lights in your tent for younger and older plants but sometimes theres only space and budget for one. In that case dimming and lifting the light is the way to go.
They dont look too bad. Big thing is not to over worry and over react. Let the plants show you what they need or whats wrong slowly and make your corrections slowly, esp in the beginning. Youre in soil so you have a couple of good safety nets.
Good luck dude!
At this point I advise letting them grow out of their seedling phase before transplanting. Let them get a fan leaf or two and then let the media dry before transplanting. Then water through in the new media. They dont look sick, imo, maybe a bit shocked. FF Happy Frog is good stuff but its good for a reason. Its pretty high in nutrients and I’ve seen clones and seedlings need time to adjust. Hopefully its just that!
That or something to hot in the soil, fox farms hasnt really had a whole lot of consistency in the end product lately, when it’s ph’d with happy frog it may be perfect when it leaves but sitting in a nursery for 6 months could also have made that soil hotter letting it cook longer with a patch of raw amendments not thoroughly mix up in it, I pay close attention to batch dates specifically with that line to get a good idea if I should give it a light flush or not before using it
If they were photo periods, I’d agree. They are autos and they should be put in their final container as soon as the seedling opens up and turns green, roots are way more delicate and don’t want a bunch to form to only knock some off in a transplant and make the plant on its timer waste a couple days. Photoperiods don’t really matter cuz u control how long and big.
Only reason I went with dampening of i dont see any sign of nute burn. Even ffhf would burn the tips if it was to hot i would think (been there done that). When they dampening off the roots just stop uptakjng anything, shrivel and die if not caught soon enough.
Just trying to play it safe. Roots are delicate but breaking a few roots isnt as bad as squashing the taproot transplanting a seedling. Usually by the time they get a fan or two theres enough roots to hold onto the media to slide the media puck out when its dry and transplant.
I usually check the top or newest growth for damping off. If the tippy tops look good I try to not go to damping off. All the leaf surfaces looked wonky to me which in my mind is some kind of nutrient/pH
imbalance