Sprouts falling over. what to do?

[LastBucsfan]

I realized I had my grow light too high and the sprouts stretched too tall and fell over. I have two fans blowing on them, one is oscillating, the other is stationary and only comes on for 18 hours with the light. Out of 9 sprouts I had to tie 3 of them up with string to hold them upright. Another is growing at kind of an angle and I worry it will fall too. On the ones I have hanging with string the bottom of the stem near the soil has thinned out to the point where it is almost non-existant after a few hours. What is causing this? Other than the fact they are stretched the sprouts seem healthy with nice green leaves.

 

[blackcoupe01]

The ones with the stem problem--sounds like damping off, google it, there good as dead
As for the others, get the light as close as possible without burning them, turn the plants so they lean away from the light a bit, they will naturally straighten towards the light. Good luck

 

[Islander]

Hi Lastbucsfan
I had exactly the same problem.
I proped them up, lowered the lights (CFL prior to Metal Halide for my sprouts) and they are all fine.
Good Luck.

 

[LastBucsfan]

The ones with the stem problem--sounds like damping off, google it, there good as dead
As for the others, get the light as close as possible without burning them, turn the plants so they lean away from the light a bit, they will naturally straighten towards the light. Good luck

Can the ones with the suspected damping off problem spread the problem to the other plants? Should I remove them immediately?

Thanks fo ryour help.

 

[LastBucsfan]

Also, when I googled damping out, it said that it is usually caused by the seeds being too damp during germination. Does that mean I'm going to have the same problem with all of them? I germinated all of them together. Is it also possible this condition was caused by over watering after they sprouted? I've been giving each plant about a cup of water every other day.

 

[LastBucsfan]

Hi Lastbucsfan
I had exactly the same problem.
I proped them up, lowered the lights (CFL prior to Metal Halide for my sprouts) and they are all fine.
Good Luck.

I've had the light about a foot away now for 12 hours and they're still just as weak. I'm really hoping they'll pull through. It would suck to lose that many right away.

 

[LastBucsfan]

Ok so I dug the ones with the thinning stems in a little deeper and two out of the three seem to be fine and are standing on their own. I hope they'll pull through. I turned the ones that were about to fall over away from the light as blackcoupe suggested and they seem to be straightening out. Thanks! Anyone have any other tips or ideas for me?

 

[blackcoupe01]

Most likely its from overwatering, the most common noob mistake. Sounds like you may have caught it in time. Anytime I see a plant starting to lean I turn it from the light, usually in 24hours its corrected itself. To keep this from happening, move the plants around daily(like musical chairs). I rotate mine every morning. I usually just kill any seedlings that aren't healthy, but I usually have more seedlings than I have room for so I only keep the healthiest and strongest plants.

 

[howhigh123]

a cup of water every other day??...dude u r overwatering them..thats part of the problem..

 

[blackcoupe01]

Wow I missed that cup a day part, thats more water than I give my 2 month old. Its better to water lightly and more often than to flood em less often

 

[LastBucsfan]

How much water should I be giving them then? I read that when you do water you should water until water flows out the drainage at the bottom of the pot. One cup doesn't even do that with mine. I'm going to go snap a pic real quick so you can see what my sprouts look like.

 

[blackcoupe01]

NO NO NO! What you are describing is called flushing the plant. You only do this when you suspect that you gave them too many nutes. Done too often creates problems in the root system. Its good to flush biggger plants like the mothers once a month but I dont even do that unless I have a good reason. When you water, water only enought to get the soil nice and moist, you dont want it wet, then let it dry out, almost bone dry then add more to moisten it back up. These plants do great without a lot of water. Stick your finger in the soil halfway, if its moist, it doesnt need water, trust me, its gonna look like the top of the soil is dry but theres still plenty left down below where the roots are. Also this encourages the roots to grow, the grow out seeking water and thus you end up with a better root system this way.

 

[LastBucsfan]

Ok I'm going to try and let them dry out some. I hope its not too late. Thanks for all the help. Here I snapped some pics of them so maybe you can tell me if I'm doing anything else wrong.

 

[mr west]

they look better than i was expecting dude most of them will be fine

 

[blackcoupe01]

Nice light, I love htgsupply.com, thats where I get all my stuff. One suggestion though, it appears your sensor wire is on the wall, move it under the light near the top of your plants(plant in the middle)You can stick a bamboo stick(or kabob stick) or really anything in the soil to hold your sensor in place. Or let it hang from the light if it can be done without burning the wire. Your about to find out its a few degrees hotter where your plants are and your gonna have to move that light up before you burn the plants. The light looks too low, what wattage is it? It a MH right?

 

[Twistyman]

I spray mist seedlings a couple times a day....no over watering that way....
You can bury them deeper or pile up soil...also move lights closer...3/4 - 1 " cfls..
side lights help against Sir Stretch a Lots. no nutes 1st month....luck

 

[blackcoupe01]

Im not a fan of misting personally, been there, done that, prefer to water the good old fashoined way. Now adding soil to help straighten a seedling I still do on occasion, but I add very little soil. And nutes are almost always a prob when the plant is too young

 

[LastBucsfan]

they look better than i was expecting dude most of them will be fine

That's good to hear.

Nice light, I love htgsupply.com, thats where I get all my stuff. One suggestion though, it appears your sensor wire is on the wall, move it under the light near the top of your plants(plant in the middle)You can stick a bamboo stick(or kabob stick) or really anything in the soil to hold your sensor in place. Or let it hang from the light if it can be done without burning the wire. Your about to find out its a few degrees hotter where your plants are and your gonna have to move that light up before you burn the plants. The light looks too low, what wattage is it? It a MH right?

Thanks, its a 600watt MH conversion. I will switch to HPS for flowering. HTGsupply was great. The first reflector had a stripped screw head, but they shipped me a new one right away. How much do I need to move it up? Should I just take the box out from underneath the tray? Or is that too much? I don't want them to stretch again.

I spray mist seedlings a couple times a day....no over watering that way....
You can bury them deeper or pile up soil...also move lights closer...3/4 - 1 " cfls..
side lights help against Sir Stretch a Lots. no nutes 1st month....luck

Its a MH Light. Are you sure I should move it closer?

 

[highwayman]

if you have any more streching problems just use a couple of cfl's on the side and lean a plastic fork on the seedling (the fork has to be to in the soil or secured to the cup) snd the stem will be suported so it will become bigger.. but keep the fans on it if you do this

 

[blackcoupe01]

Thats why I suggested moving your temp sensor, so youll know how hot it is at the top of the plants. Thus telling you whether or not your light needs to move. And good move picking the 600 over the 400