Brown shriveled seed leaves and thinning stems

I have seedlings starting indoors to be planted outdoors after the frost date has passed. I have some experience growing other plants, but this is my first time with marijuana.
It started as more of a lark with a few seeds from a bag, but we've decided to put a little more effort into it to see what we get. To be honest, the first seeds we started had a tough go at life, without much for light. They grew tall and thin as you would expect and I felt bad so I went out and got them a light. But I've had a couple other problems other than their early light deficiency.

First: One of the plants started showing a little brown shriveling at the tip of one of the seed leaves. It had a couple small true leaves, though because of the light situation they were still small. This brown shriveling spread from just the tip of the seed leaf, all the way to the stem and down the stem a bit. This plant fif not survive of course, with a fully shriveled stem at the top. But now I have another plant with a seed leaf turning brown and shrively at the very tip. Is this an infection or something else? Can it be stopped or should I discard the plants?



Second: Another one of the early started seeds, again too tall and lanky, but still standing as were the rest, until one morning I woke up and the plant had fallen over. However, while I wouldn't have been suprised to see it toppled over from being top heavy, the plant had bent in the middle, about 3/4" above the soil. The stem was thin and floppy just in the middle, while the rest remained firm. I tried building up the soil around the plant, which held it upright for a few days, but then I got up one morning and found the whole thing toppled over again, this time with the whole stem being floppy and unable to support the plant. What might have caused this?

I'm learning about growing these particular plants as I go, and any help is greatly appreciated.

Wow that looks dead. The light is to far away and they are stretching. What type of light? temps? ph?

Leftyy2k4 said:

Wow that looks dead. The light is to far away and they are stretching. What type of light? temps? ph?

Click to expand...

That was the first one affected by the brown shriveling. I have certainly given it up for dead at this point. I do not know the pH levels, but the temperature is between 68 and 75 degrees, depending on the weather outside.

For light, they get some indirect sunlight via the window they are perched in, and now there is a 60 watt grow light in close proximaty which is kept on 12-18 hours a day. However this problem started before the grow light was in place.

We have started a few more seeds that have had the benefit of light from the time they came through the soil, and they are looking much healthier and stronger, however they are seeds from a poorer strain and I don't know where they came from or if they will survive well outdoors in the local climate (very northern New England) whereas the seeds I first started playing with are from a local crop of some very kind buds, but now another of those is begining to develop the brown shriveling at the tip of one of the seed leaves, the same way that sad little specimen first began it's decline.

What is a 60 watt grow light? Go get some cfls. You want them as close as the plants can take. They can burn if they touch. For veg use 26w cfl from lowes. Improper light will cause them to stretch and die as your plants are doing.

This was my setup when I started. Its this simple








Next watch the watering. Water when the medium gets dry. They are not a wet plant. Let the medium get dry than water with he same amount of water as the container they are in. You want the medium to all get wet. It might be 3 or 4 days between watering. Do not worry bout nutes till they are 3 weeks or older. The medium will have enough nutes till than. I suggest you find some veg nutes to prepare.

Make sure you get a ph meter or strips. Ph is important. If the ph is off the nutes in the medium will be locked out. Ph your water every watering to 6.5 and your good to go.

Growing is not hard but can be difficult if you do not get the proper tools and give the proper care. Get the cfls and get on the proper watering and they will flourish.

Good Luck.