Calcium Deficiency In Week and 1/2 Old Seedlings?? Help??!!

Seedlings are about a week and 1/2 old now, and two of them are showing little brown/orangeish spots on the leaves. And some of the leaves are looking a lot lighter than others. Would this be calcium deficiency? I didn't think nutes were a huge necessity for seedlings but maybe I'm wrong here? All I have is some miracle grow plant food, should I add some at like 1/8 or 1/16 the normal dose??

I doubt it would be a calcium deficiency allready. The leaves looking a lot lighter is propably them wanting more nitrogen. It's really hard to say not knowing the soil you are useing. If the MG is what you plan on feeding them it propably wouldn't hurt to feed them a little. I'd start on a low dose than work up from there. You can always feed more the next day but once you over feed them you can't take it back.

Can't know for sure but when i see this happen to my babies i normally transplant. More often than not once you reveal the roots you'll notice very little to no side growth, all the roots will have grown straight to the bottom, probably root bound. Like i said, can't be sure, but its just my experience. A nice transplant normally fixes things. Did you start them in that pot? I found to rid myself of the issue your facing was to start my babies off in something smaller, like a plastic shot glass to allow the roots to establish when they're fragile little babies, then go into a party cup, and so on.

a week an a half an already root bound? I doubt thats the main issue but maybe..

Those look like almost the size of a solo cup? Thats what I start in and always keep them in for about 2 weeks ans they never have been root bound.

Seedlings dont need much so Id think the MG might be burning them but I dont knw what type of MG you have... I see no perlite and I assume you DO have holes in the bottom?

A transplant may be beneficial tho... but I wont every use MG for babies... just my opinion

Astral Zoom said:

a week an a half an already root bound? I doubt thats the main issue but maybe..

Those look like almost the size of a solo cup? Thats what I start in and always keep them in for about 2 weeks ans they never have been root bound.

Seedlings dont need much so Id think the MG might be burning them but I dont knw what type of MG you have... I see no perlite and I assume you DO have holes in the bottom?

A transplant may be beneficial tho... but I wont every use MG for babies... just my opinion

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Yea, most people do start in solo cups, so maybe i just suck at starting babies out but i pretty much have to use a smaller cup for the first little bit.

Back to the op, how warm is it in your box and like he said, what type of soil are you using.

sum182 said:

Yea, most people do start in solo cups, so maybe i just suck at starting babies out but i pretty much have to use a smaller cup for the first little bit.

Back to the op, how warm is it in your box and like he said, what type of soil are you using.

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Nah man, I doubt you suck at starting. smaller is probably better, to a certain degree, ie. more control on every variable and a denser root mass. I like to leave them in solo cups for a lot longer than most people on here. For the sole reason of having as much root mass per volume of soil. I an still experimenting but when I start with a larger pot, the roots tend to congregate on the perimeter of the pot and not so much in the middle where most of the soil resides.

But thats just me

as for the op, i think its nute burn due to the MG

sum182 said:

probably root bound. Like i said, can't be sure, but its just my experience.

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Rootbound! No f*****g way.

They are way too small to transplant without risk of damage. As long as your new leaves coming out look decent don't worry, and don't start screwing around trying to correct problems you don't have. You're sure to cause some.

I haven't fed them anything yet, they're just in regular hyponex potting soil, with a mix of perlite and wood chips. They haven't gotten any nutes, just water. I havent been planning on moving them to a new container for atleast another week or two... The other leaves look fine, I've just been seeing this on the primary leafs with two so far. Everything else is on point.

therollingj said:

Seedlings are about a week and 1/2 old now, and two of them are showing little brown/orangeish spots on the leaves. And some of the leaves are looking a lot lighter than others. Would this be calcium deficiency? I didn't think nutes were a huge necessity for seedlings but maybe I'm wrong here? All I have is some miracle grow plant food, should I add some at like 1/8 or 1/16 the normal dose??

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If anything, your soil looks dry. When you start seedlings or clones you want to make sure your having constant moisture in that soil. I would recommend CFL's if you are not all ready, and put them about 1" to 1/2" away, they will not burn. Another thing, make sure you don't transplant until you have at least 4 inches of growth in my opinion. What kind of light do you have them under? and are you using strait faucet water? I would pick up a cheap nutrient at your local garden center that contains minimal nitro and feed gently. Good luck

it looks like you might be getting too much runoff when watering and have leached your medium.

make sure to saturate the entire soil when you do water.
eg. If you only water the top of the soil, the roots will reach up towards the surface to get to the H2o.