First grow help with seedlings



These are my first three seedlings, White widow, from ILGM. All Three sprouted taproots after 3-4 days in a cup of water. They were transplanted to General Hydrophobic rooting cubes. They started ok, but the middle one is acting puny, leaves turning brown. The other two look better but showing similar signs. You can see where they sit in the dome along with my tomatoes and peppers. The bottom plant with the smaller leaf on one side was caused by the seed “husk”? that took a while to come off. it is very moist in the dome. I have been keeping a little water in the trays to keep the plugs wet. Could i be overwatering them? They are also getting lots of light, between sunlight in the greenhouse, and the grow lights at night.

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Also, the top and bottom plants already have a couple of roots sticking out of the bottom or sides of the grow cubes, but none on the middle plant.

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Are you feeding them any nutrients whenever you water? How often do you water and how much at a time?

No, just tap water, and I have been keeping the plugs very moist, probably too moist. I had read somewhere here not to feed them anything for a couple of weeks?

The water sitting on top of the leaf with the LED light on can do alot of damage. The dome they are in seems a little to moist but the burning tips suggest some light burn. Try not to get any water on the actual plant itself

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I will also disagree on the not feeding weeks. Water only for the first week is cool but being in the rooting plugs means they aren’t getting access to nutrients. Are you planting them into soil after this? What soil or medium are you planning on using?

Thank You, should I cut back on the LED lights? They sit 24-28" from the plants and are running most of the night. They are only getting a couple of hours of darkness

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Ok, I have nutrients from ILGM, so I will start a light feeding. I am planning on putting them in the little cups you see on one of the other pictures, and have purchased Fox farm Happy Frog soil for them

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From the cups I plan to move them to Vivosun grow bags. The plan will be to put them outside once it warms up enough

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Why are the trays stained white ? That looks like dried nutrients.

When I do my seedlings I only add water under the tray into the lower tray and I make sure water cant touch the plugs. The humidity in the dome keeps them moist enough.
Here is empty tray holes in bottom to lower tray with minimal water.


Water stays below the holes. Works excellent. Also I keep a row of plugs out so water can get up and cause the moisture.

Oh I figured what I thought was staining. That’s moisture under clear trays.
To much water I think. And you dont have to feed them as they feed themselves until the feeder leaves are gone. Also I never spray the plants as the water burns them under lights.

I think what you are looking at is moisture on the trays, as they are clear plastic. All plants in the trays have received nothing but tap water so far. I have definitely been putting too much water in the lower trays, thank you, I will remedy that asap, lol. So what is your learned opinion of the leaves darkening? I forgot to add, the funky looking plant initially tried to pot completely out of the cube. It was suggested here to gently push back in and use a little piece of the cube material to hold it in. it did ok in the beginning and It looks like I have been overwatering. Also, ImSICKkid suggested I need to start feeding nutrients to them

Thank you, I will remedy the water problem. I will squeeze some water from the cubes and remove most of the water from the bottom trays. Totally disregarded the moisture in the dome. As far as lighting, they are staying under greenhouse sunlight or grow lights most of the time

I would go with a tiny amount of nutes. The cotylan ( spelled that wrong) leaves are browned out so yes add nutes.

Excellent, thank you

Be careful squeezing cubes you can damage the roots. Just tip the lid to side and drain water off lid a few times today and that can help.

I will, thank you

Drained most of the water from the tray bottoms to allow them to dry out some. I will keep the dome off for a while today to help . The sun is peeking out and the greenhouse is at 70F already. Also tried out my new Apera PH meter this morning, and Yickes!!, the tap water’s PH was at 8.5 and 8.3 the two times I tested it. On my way to Amazon for PH solutions.

Hi, sorry to intrude on the topic, but I have a seedling that has been stagnant for a week or more. Never seen anything like it. Curious what you all think. The cotyledons never opened all the way and look damaged or underdeveloped. No growth for a while, but the seedling is surprisingly sturdy. If anyone has any info or suggestions I’d appreciate it, thanks!

I dont know exactly what’s wrong but I would scrap that seedling and drop another one