Seedlings aren't looking right

So its been about 20 days ago and had them under cfl lights for a day or two then put them under a 400w MH bulb.
The light was about 3 feet away for the first week, until I researched more and found that they could be closer.
So they have been a lot closer the last 3 or 4 days, about 18inches away. But I didnt put the walls up for the light to reflect off of until today.
So now I have 4 seedlings, 2 of the older ones are very bright green, with a bright yellow tint so Im getting scared that something is going wrong.
The are showing signs of too much humidity so Ive put a little fan blowing on the plants right now. It was about 78-80 degrees before I did that,I also raised the lights up since then.

My question is, why are my plants so bright green and aren't growing so fast?
Ive kept them watered a lot so Im going to let them dry out before I water them again.

Im not sure of the pH of the water but it should be around 6.8 or 7 since its bottled water.
Havent used any nutrients yet.

This is about all the info I can give. Ask me more if needed.

Not sure i'm really understanding what you're trying to say here. If your seeds sprouted 20 days ago, then you've done something wrong. Those are way too small to be 20 day old. My 5 day old seedlings looks bigger than that. 78-80 degrees is the perfect temperature and is where you want to be at during seedling/veg. Humidity is good for seedlings but not neccessary. Too much humidity too constantly leads to stem rot, mildew, etc. Move some air around, open the window or door from time to time. Don't water everyday (newbie mistake), water only as needed. Giving the seedling a regular wet and dry cycle encourages root growth, which = a bigger, stronger plant. Constant dripping wet soil leads to root rot. As far as the distance from light to plant goes, there is no 1 single correct answer. People will give you a million different answers. It all depends on type of lights, amount of heat bulb is putting out, etc. With standard florescent lights, you can place seedlings extremely close to the light as standard florescent bulbs usually don't put off alot of heat. A MH bulb puts off quite a bit of heat so be careful about placing your plant too close to a MH. The yellowing could be a number of things - lack of nutrient, overwatering, (if plant is really 20 days old) root bound, etc. I'm banking on lack of nutrient, considering you mentioned they've never been fed. Plants not growing fast usually means they are stunted.

Thanks 69 for giving me atleast something to go off of.
I forgot, I did feed them once with Big Bloom I believe, 3 tsp to the gallon.
I just put them under cfl. So Im going to let them dry out before feeding them. Once they get looking better Ill put them back under the MH.
I guess Ive probably been overwatering them. I thought it would never happen to me

Thanks

And I read that you didnt need to feed then until the second node grows.
But I guess with the mistakes Ive made and causing it to stunt growth would change things.

Does anyone else have anything to say?
I was told to just leave the under CFLs 24/7 and to feed a small amount of nutes.

Im just waiting for the soil to get really dry before feeding them.

The reason for this is the medium they are in, not suitable for seedlings that have just germinated, usually too hot and plants these size need little to no nutes just and an inert medium. Jiffy pellets are good at this stage.
I doubt they will improve so i would start again.

Knowing the ph if the water your plants are getting is very important. Never guess or assume you ph is in the correct range, soil 6.0 to 7.0 i shoot for 6.5 seems to be a sweet spot for all nute uptake. Using bottled or ro water you need to test the ppm of the water since a lot of bottled water is ro or distilled for purification which as a result remove needed trace minerals from the water. Buffering your water to 150-200 ppm with a calmg suppliment for normal watering is a must and should be used as a starting point for nute waterings.
Water a little less and let the soil dry out between watering. You dont want constanly wet soil its a crime all new growers commite i myself did it and ended up with soil gnatesand over all unhealthy plants. Poke a bunch if holes in the cups you have the seedlings in for drqinage and aeration. When you trans plant use a goid soil like Happy from with some added perlite 10-20%, Roots Orgaincs Original soil or Ocoean Forest also with added perlite. Find a good soil nute line lime Botanicare, Dyna Grow, General Hydroponics or Fox Farm.

Not sure if someone else mentioned this or not, but you should not be feeding them big bloom right now. That is a flowing nutrient, if you're using advanced nutrients, grow big is what you should be giving them during veg, but this plant looks a little too junior for nutrients.

I agree with an above post that these plants look way to small for 20 days. I could only speculate as to why and I'd probably be wrong, so I'll shut up.

For reference, this is my current plants at 5 days and 20 days

I'll be following this, keep updating with what works!

After about 18 hrs under cfl lights they have started to look a lot greener and a lot happier.
I cut a lot bigger holes at the bottom of the cups so they can dry out faster, one root was showing so I decided to make a lil invention. Ill post a pic.

Basically I just made huge holes and whenever the roots pop through they can still reach water.
I think I can save these bad boys

Purge said:

Does anyone else have anything to say?
I was told to just leave the under CFLs 24/7 and to feed a small amount of nutes.

Im just waiting for the soil to get really dry before feeding them.

Click to expand...

You don't want your soil to be "really" dry either. 1. It will kill off your roots, dried up roots WILL NOT recover. 2. Makes watering the plant harder. Really dry soil will not absorb water evenly and will leave pockets of dry spot. Let soil dry up just enough to where your cup feels light but has no problem instantly absorbing water. After a few watering, you'll see what i mean. Typical watering cycles are 2-3 days in room temp or warmer temperatures and 3-5 days in cooler to colder temperature. FYI, colder temperature is usually not ideal for vegging.

Also, everyone has their own opionion on feeding newly sprouted seedlings. Contrary to what everyone else believes, I feed my seedling the as soon as they sprout (if soil is dry enough) or the next watering cycle. I use a very diluted solution of Jack's bloom booster with Root Excelurator @ .35 EC to help with root growth/development. Been doing it this way for 15 years and it has always given me excelerated root/plant growth so why listen to people who say too young, don't feed.

Also, you mentioned you were going to move them back under metal halide. For future reference, plants grown under hid's like MH, HPS, etc requires higher level of nutrients than those grown in low light like cfl, florescent, etc. Plants grown outdoor (if you're going that route) requires an even higher level of nutrients than plant under hid's.

Also those can be saved no problem as long as there's no root rot or stem rot. It doesn't look too bad. I've revived friend's plant that looks worser than that, beat half to death and chopped to shit.

Guys, 69, everyone, I cant put in words how much I appreciate these responses!
Thanks so much, Im reading every word of it and keeping note of it all.

Once I get a few grows under my belt Ill be helping other out here too

Probably would hunt to flush with a bit of water just to get that bloom out of there