flimsy sprout

skate2him

Active Member
so i planted 5 seeds awhile ago and 3 of them germinated and sprouted about a week ago. The sprouts look pretty good except one of them seems kind of flimsy and weak. the stems on the 2 strong looking ones look normal. here is an example:



however, on the flimsy looking one, the bottom of the stem is kindof whiteish. this looks like the point where the stem is weak, causing the sprout to be flimsy:



do you guys have any ideas on what the problem might be?
 

pacman

Well-Known Member
it kinda looks like ur soil is too packed it happened to one of my babies and it fell over and died when it was like 6 in tall
 

skate2him

Active Member
Hmmmm. Its possible. I have been thinking about it and I think that maybe the plants roots are having a problem with the jiffy peat moss cups I planted them in. The plant just looks really weak right were it goes into the soil. My other 2 are completely fine and strong and healthy looking. Its just that one that is having the problem.
 

skate2him

Active Member
Wellll. I secured the sprout with a straw cut lengthwise wrapped around the stem as per some suggestions I've found on the forums here. Hopefully its just a temporary growth problem that will go away when it gets a little bigger cuz I can't figure out what else could be wrong with it.
 

laskabud

Well-Known Member
Looks like stem rot from keeping the soil right at the top too wet which is an all-too common problem at this stage of growth. Try mounding a little soil around the base of the plant to prop it up, and water away from this mound until the plant is sufficiently stronger at the base. Plus, you will get roots from any stem you bury but don't cover leaf nodes unless you snip off the leaves tight to the stem first. It also looks like they may be reaching for light but usually what you are experiencing is from too wet of soil early on when the stem is tender and soft and goes away when allowed to become more woody. Prop it up, let it dry around the base and water away from there for now. Once stem rot sets in, it is almost always fatal unless you can successfully prop the plant up and hopefully the stem grows and gets healthy again. As for jiffy peat pots, don't use them if you can help it. If you do, when you are ready for transplanting, carefully tear off the pot as roots really struggle to get through that stuff. If there are a few roots penetrating it already, no problem, you won't kill it by tearing off the pot as long as the root/soil mass is not broken apart. I doubt your roots have even reached the outside of a peat pot yet, judging by your pics. Before roots will break through a peat pot, they usually curl around inside it, making for a small plant until such time as you set it free of the peat pot and the roots have a chance to really spread out.
 

skate2him

Active Member
Looks like stem rot from keeping the soil right at the top too wet which is an all-too common problem at this stage of growth. Try mounding a little soil around the base of the plant to prop it up, and water away from this mound until the plant is sufficiently stronger at the base. Plus, you will get roots from any stem you bury but don't cover leaf nodes unless you snip off the leaves tight to the stem first. It also looks like they may be reaching for light but usually what you are experiencing is from too wet of soil early on when the stem is tender and soft and goes away when allowed to become more woody. Prop it up, let it dry around the base and water away from there for now. Once stem rot sets in, it is almost always fatal unless you can successfully prop the plant up and hopefully the stem grows and gets healthy again. As for jiffy peat pots, don't use them if you can help it. If you do, when you are ready for transplanting, carefully tear off the pot as roots really struggle to get through that stuff. If there are a few roots penetrating it already, no problem, you won't kill it by tearing off the pot as long as the root/soil mass is not broken apart. I doubt your roots have even reached the outside of a peat pot yet, judging by your pics. Before roots will break through a peat pot, they usually curl around inside it, making for a small plant until such time as you set it free of the peat pot and the roots have a chance to really spread out.
that is what i was thinking. i used the straw method that i mentioned above to prop the plant up. hopefully it will get stronger. the plant seems healthy enough aside from the flimsiness. ass for the peat cups. i was afraid that would happen. it does seem like the growth of the plants is stunted. perhaps not though. they sprouted around the 20th of may and this is what they look like now:



i actually already planted the peat moss cups in my pots, so if there is a problem with the roots getting out do you think it would be safe to dig them back up to remove the peat moss from the roots?
 

recvryjst42day

Well-Known Member
I planted the plant in my avatar directly outdoors in the soil while it was still in the peat cup. I didn't see any problems but it was my first grow and wasn't so observent, but as you can see she looked great by the end! Goodluck man!
 
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