yellowing baby leafs - problem?

i don't really know if this is a problem, looking for some help. . .
i have 3 seedlings. the first (far left) picture shows what i think is my strongest plant. it is taller, has formed its second pair of "true" leafs faster and is all together more green and healthy looking than the other 2.

the other two plants seem to be a lot slower growing, and hopefully as you can see have started to yellow on their "baby" leafs. i understand that this could be a nutrient/soil/ph problem but would that not effect what i am calling their "true" leafs which by the way on both affected plants seem to healthy?

i know i have them in non-ideal soil and will be re-potting into much more preferable mix by the weekend. if it was the soil causing this yellowing i would have expected to see the same results in all three plants.

this is very small scale first time experiment using very low power lights (1x 20W blue spectrum fluorescent strip light and 2x 20W "warm" CFL)

so what i am asking is - is it a soil problem? possibly a light problem? heat/moisture?

i have no means of testing humidity or soil PH.

i am guessing the soil is to high/low PH

any help will be much appreciated.

newbie.

My guesses
1 - You are over watering.
2 - You have nutes in your soil so when you over water you also over nute.

thank you.
i have been very careful with watering- using a very small mist sprayer and just enough to keep surface damp, letting it dry before re-spraying.

i too am thinking its nutrients in the soil. if that was the case tho, would it not affect all 3 plant and all their leafs?

also, is it going to be much of a problem in the near future if i change soil in next few days?

You give the plants different amounts of water, and the nutes are prob not even throughout. At that age you should only be watering every 3-5 days. Misting the soil will not promote healthy root development. Your roots at this stage are 1-2x as long as the plant so you want them searching for water, same as the above ground searching for light, although one is good and one is most of the time bad.

thank you again. have some rep

in my mind keeping the surface soil moist would encourage the roots to move up in search of water causing more root growth. was i wrong in thinking this?

when you say watering every 3-5 days do you mean watering from surface till run off and letting the soil dry?

the soil i am using is all i could acquire at the time, it is a very dusty, lose and full of bark. i understand it is completely the wrong kind and was a mistake and i am currently trying to source the funds for a proper potting mix in the next few days. i am guessing this has the unwanted nutreints.

will re-potting the plants at such an early stage damage them? will they carry the unwanted nutrients with them?

should i try to give them as little water as possible till i get proper soil to avoid more nutrient intake? i realize now i have totally screwed this up.

im afraid i don't quite understand what you mean by above ground "searching" for light. i have light relatively close to plants, should i move them further away?

hey jord i understand its your first plant e have all been there, the first thing u should do is say no to nutes of any kind till about week 3 maybe even 4 the soil has enough in it for ya baby at that stage in its life and as far as your pics go it seem like the starter leave r just yellow really cant tell but if thats the case thats suppose to happen. from what i can see your doing ok so far cheers.In the first three weeks your gonna learn patients cuz what usaully happens is your gonna love it to much and probably burn it up plan and simple. as far a watering u can go bottled 37 cent a gallon a the fill station at your local mega store or u could go tap your choice even rain water if ya like but as far as watering goes its kinda as needed that being said keep in mind your gonna want your roots to dive so kinda let the soil dry a lil bit. and the light u might be able to get away with that for about 10 days maybe more hit the mega store and get a few packs of 23 watt cfls soft white or cool white either will do as that type of bulb helps promote veg.

hmm this thread gave me some ideas on my grow. reps for all of u

thank you so much bonzi light house, you words of wisdom filled me with confidence, and hell it seems to have paid off already! thank you too chuck - some rep for you and not forgetting iswaer.

im going to start putting my update's in this thread so its all in one place, how can i move/change the thread name


i have them in small soft fiber like pots, so they seem to dry up very quick, i think they will need watered between every 24 and 36 hours?

i also have them being heated from bellow. i read somewhere this could be good for them? could this be causing them to dry to quickly? is there such a thing as drying too quickly?

should i leave the soil dry for any amount of time before re-watering while under lights?

what would you recomend is the best time to do this? morning, "high-noon" or bed time? i have them on 18/6 ATM.

after one proper watering they seem to have burst into life over night! (pics to come)

the yellow baby leafs have almost gone and the new leafs seem greener and thicker already! they are the most beautiful shade of green at the moment

being new to this ridiculously amazing website i have been scanning the pages finding endless bits and bobs of info that suits my space/budget/resources - all 3 of which are basically ZERO.

i have decided to add more lights. 2 in fact. and another 3-5 by Friday.

i now have a 20W strip light (cool spectrum) and 1x20W CFL with 3x14W CFL
i roughly calculate this at 3400lumen on the CFL's alone.
is this sufficient at the moment? for the CFL i cant for the life of me find the spectrum rating (or whatever its called) they all seem to be a warm daylight effect tho . .

i honestly have next to no money for this sort of thing. . . i have plenty of 14 and 11watt bulbs, free in fact from the council haha! i just need to get some twin and earth and some fixings

i have also tried to completely cover the grow area with tinfoil, i have read it is not ideal but with such low watt/heat lights will i get away with it? it seems to make a big difference to the amount of light the plants get. . .

are these plants on a regular track for being 11days old?

i hope someone will learn from my very early mistakes
thank cheeba for this fantastic community

ok, has been almost a week since my last post so thought id give a wee update to anyone who cares. . .

first of all i finally managed to get my plants into some decent sized pots and some proper soil, its a mixture of3 parts soil and 1 part perlite. its all i could afford. although it does seem to be on the acidic side. will this harm my small plant immediately or do i have time? don't have access to any ph altering substances at the moment and most likely wont for another week or 2.View attachment 1064692View attachment 1064696View attachment 1064707View attachment 1064711View attachment 1064716View attachment 1064719View attachment 1064725View attachment 1064729

iv had some big problems with lights. first of all i managed to get 3 6400K blue CFL's and i have managed to brake all of them in 3 days! i blame i on cheap bulbs that became unnaturally fragile when hot. so i am now down to 5 CFl's which i have no idea what the K rating is. il post a pic of box and all available info and hopefully someone can shed some light View attachment 1064731View attachment 1064732View attachment 1064733

next problem my all my fault, with lazy light fixings. . . drawing pins to be precise, so embarrassing! one light had slid down and landed on top of my (at the time) best looking plant! burnt most of its leafs! does seem to be making a come back tho with new growth View attachment 1064734View attachment 1064735View attachment 1064736

one of the 3 hopefully sisters seems to be the runt. slow if any growth, crooked stem and now what seems to be drying of the leafs. i am now after some initial grieving, mentally prepared to loose this one. View attachment 1064737View attachment 1064738


which brings me to the new hopeful! after repotting under 24 hours ago this baby seems to love its new home. looking plump and strong with a perfect shade of green. lets just hope i don't do anything else stupid to jeopardize this little one's life!View attachment 1064740View attachment 1064741View attachment 1064742

i have put back to 24 hours of light in the hope this will give them a better chance at growing some roots in the new soil. watering will now take place once a week and im planning to veg for another 6-8 weeks.


bearing in mind i have the smallest of budgets to work with here any info/suggestions/tips will be met with rep and good karma. thanks you for reading!

im sorry, i just realized im a total tool. should have made a new thread in a different area of forum. doh!