OrangeCush, I hope you don't mind me asking a general humidity question in your thread. I figure all knowledge is good knowledge.
I'm two weeks into my first medical marijuana grow (100% legal). Quick set up description: 2'x4' veg tent with 4' 4-tube T5 fixture (6500k bulbs/20,000 lumen) about a foot from the seedlings. The seedlings were germinated in Jiffy pellets and dome and are now in clear party cups with Fox Farms Ocean Forest soil. One stationary fan at a vent for intake and air circulation. My temps range from 77-82 degrees and my humidity 30-34%.
My question is this, are my humidity levels too low? I know high humidity leads to mold and fungus, but what are the consequences of low humidity? If any? I seem to be watering every other day and I mist them daily. They seem to be growing well, but I'm new to this, so I'm not sure if they can possibly be doing better. I don't want to unknowingly hurt my babies. The last pic shows my one Querkle with funky leaf development.
Any advice is always appreciated. Cheers!
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first things first...
1.) lower your lights down to 4-8 inches from the tops your light is way too far away and your seedlings are stretching for the light not badly but still stretching...
2.) slow your roll on the watering deal as you are making the soil too moist and only stunting your growth and releasing too much fert for your seedlings to handle at this point as this time is crucial for the roots to have room to breath and also stretch out in search of water not be drowned in it
3.) try using light warrior for seedlings as most if not all seedlings do quite well in this mix and doesnt seem to be nearly as hot as ocean forest... then after a few weeks of growth or if they are gettin pretty big you can then simply pop them over to ocean forest and a much larger container and they should explode with growth and at that point there is no need to add any fertiliser as it has plenty in it for the plants next stage into vegetative growth for the next 3-4 weeks then you can add some feed into the mix
4.) not completely necessary here but better than clear cups so... next time try using the colored cups as they wont dry out faster like the clear ones you have(due to light radiation penetration) and if your roots grow out to meet the edge they will stop growing as well due to the exposure to the light... so it is best if youre gonna start out with solo cups or party cups to use the colored ones then poke holes or cut with scissors at the edge of the bottom of the cups in a small angle to the right then follow it back with a small angle to the left and it will form a small triangle hole which is much easier than poking as it tends to crack the cups rather than create an actual hole for drainage in the cups... hope that makes sense
5.) let the soil dry a bit... actually let them dry to where the cup feels light again... especially for the qwerkle that got over cooked by the nutes...
this will give the plants a chance to grow a strong and good starting root system and will also give it time to absorb the nutrients in the soil at a slower rate and thus the plant will grow faster and healthier at this stage in its life... actually the best way is to rinse thoroughly, let dry, and repeat... but that all depends on your grow room conditions and is completely subjective to it...
6.) the humidity and temps directly under fluorescent lighting systems or any other lighting systems is going to be "off" somewhat and will always read a bit lower for humidity and higher in temps than actual air temps and humidity really is around your plants...
30% humidity is not bad and will not have an adverse effect on your grow... in fact during flowering if you keep the humidity low it will make the plants produce more oils and resin to keep it from drying out and thus you have more of that sticky goodness
as long as you mist them a couple of times a day till they get a bit bigger say after 2 weeks... then ideally you'll want to keep it somewhere around 50-60% for the vegetative period and lower on flowering like around where you have it now but no more than 40%
just as a reminder let the querkle cup dry out as well as your other cups a bit... say dry down to the last couple inches of soil or until the cup feels significantly lighter than a wet cup does if that makes any sense lol
however... oddly enough some seedlings do quite well in ocean forest and some do not that is just the way it is so that is up to you on what soil to use for seedlings... fox farms is great soil...
the way to counteract this in the future or avoid over nuting your babies is altogether is stop watering the soil and just keep the same amount of moisture you had in the cup when you wet it before you put the seeds in it and dont water it for a week...
i know what your thinkin but i guarantee unless youre out in death valley during the peak of summer you dont need to water your seedlings every day or even every other day and they will do best if you just water once like when you first watered your cups to prepare the seed to sprout then thats just it once it sprouts and its cotyledon leaves have spread out and its first true serrated leaves pop out of the center and are about the same size as the coty leave then that is the same time you have to stop worrying about keeping the top inch of the soil wet...
and if your humidity is too low... like i mentioned to the OP in there just use a humidity dome for its first week or till second set of leaves show up... seedlings like it to be humid but not soggy wet soil
just remember that each time you water with brand new soil at this stage in the seedlings life you are releasing more and more nutrients out of it and it will only keep having an adverse affect on the plant even to a point causing the soil to become too hot and could ultimately lead to a nutrient lockout...
and you dont want to have that happen... even though fox farm is great soil and it is very hard to lock out a plant in that soil it can happen if you over water a seedling in that stage...
so be careful at that stage in your plants life as you want your meds to be finished in 3-4 months versus 6-8 after having them recuperate after having them be mucked up for a month till they get their roots or legs goin again... lol
where your at in your stage of growth you dont really need a humidity dome theyre big enough...
just keep misting the plant twice a day as that is plenty of water for its needs at this stage in its life till the cups dry out much more...
hope this helps
thanks, man! i'll be sure to get on that hydrometer!
