Help Please seedlings not growing going pale green/yellow

hello all

germinated seeds this past tuesday .... one seed popped the soil on friday the rest popped through yesterday.pots seemed dry yesterday morning but they looked good so gave them 50ml each of 6.8 ph mineral water yesterday morning....last night the pots were already dry but was telling myself there must be some moisture at the bottom so resisted from giving them some more water...had problems sleeping worrying about them all night....

so this morning had a look and the pots were bone dry and the seedlings leaves were looking dry as well turning a pale green going towards yellow i guess....one seedling which had problems cracking the shell off her back yesterday looked all deformed so i decided to sacrifice her for the greater good to see if there was any moisture in the pot and as i thought the pot was dry all the way down....

so i doubled the watering for the remainder of the plants this morning and gave them each 100ml of water, the pots each drained well

soil mix = 45% potting soil, 20%vermiculite 25% and 5% earthworm castings
temps are around 26 degrees or 81f
lights are 4x 36 w flourescent cool day light tubes
there is a small osciliating fan iside turning air...
here are some pics

any advice is much appreciated thanks

They don't look too bad. I can't really tell,(pics are a little fuzzy) but the color looks pretty decent too. I think you were wise to increase the watering, and even wiser to not get carried away with it. Sounds like a good soil mix you have, so you shouldn't have to worry about overwatering. My only recommendation is that you bring your lights down closer, really close. They're ready for some more intensity, to get their systems 'up and running', so to speak.

If you're worried about it being too much, have a look....



Those are all less than an inch away, and have been, since they were a little smaller than your plants, a couple days before I took the pics. They love it.

Have the light close to the little once. When I have seedlings I water them a lil' bit every day until they are strong and bigger. Take it easy man, they are strong....they do live out in nature too where no one ever care for them. And they starts out as seeds too

hey guys

thanks for the replies,

well the lights are acutally pretty close, they are at least an inch from 2 of the seedlings and maybe just a little more from the other two because they are just a little more shorter...i had just watered them prior to taking the pics so i keep them on that grill for a few moments afterwards so that the water can drain off into that large plastic lid below, just helps me keep things cleaner... but they back under the lights as close as i can get em...

as for the soil mix, it drains pretty well the top gets dry fast, its already dry actually...the problem with this light soil mix is once it dries up i got perlite and soil particles and shit flying all over the show due to the fan blowing around in there so every morning i have to vacuum the shit up to keep it clean...think i might place some small stones on the top of the soil to keep it from blowing off all over.....the fan is by no means blowing a strong wind or anything its actually just a nice breaze in there.

ok well i'll get more pics tomorrow
cheers

metroplex said:

hey guys

thanks for the replies,

well the lights are acutally pretty close, they are at least an inch from 2 of the seedlings and maybe just a little more from the other two because they are just a little more shorter...i had just watered them prior to taking the pics so i keep them on that grill for a few moments afterwards so that the water can drain off into that large plastic lid below, just helps me keep things cleaner... but they back under the lights as close as i can get em...

as for the soil mix, it drains pretty well the top gets dry fast, its already dry actually...the problem with this light soil mix is once it dries up i got perlite and soil particles and shit flying all over the show due to the fan blowing around in there so every morning i have to vacuum the shit up to keep it clean...think i might place some small stones on the top of the soil to keep it from blowing off all over.....the fan is by no means blowing a strong wind or anything its actually just a nice breaze in there.

ok well i'll get more pics tomorrow
cheers

Click to expand...

Put a small layer of hydroton or small stones, like you said, that should prevent light and heat from drying up your soil so fast!

SLB

Welcome SLB

well its day 4 since they popped through the soil and day 7 since germination day 1... there seems to be some change...I can see the 2nd set of true leaves beginning to grow

i have filed another spare pot with the same potting mix without any water and will use this a a measurement tool to judge how empty the other pots are, just to be sure getting my self one of those digital food scales to weigh the weight of the different plant pots and the measurement pot...taking this to a scientific level now as i am sure i got the watering wrong here, either underwatering or overwatering because i am use to faster growth than this...here are some pics of day 4

well got myself a nice digital kitchen scale....and the results are pretty interesting

just for intereset sake a 100ml of water measures in at around 113grams

my measurement pot measures in at 272 grams

my plant pots measure in at

pot1 = 348 grams (there should be roughly 66 ml of moisture in this pot)
po2 = 362 grams (there should be roughly 80ml of moisture in this pot)
pot3 = 354 grams (there should be roughly 72 ml of moisture in this pot)
pot4 = 361 grams (there should be roughly 79 ml of moisture in this pot)



here are pics with measurements as per digital scale
end result tells me no water is required for a day or two....

to any new guy out there like me who struggles with watering issues during the delicate seedling stage one of these digital kitchen scales is a great investment

That's a good idea measuring it, but you could just go by feel. I'm not sure about your, but the soil I use is very light. When it's saturated, I'd say the water takes up 80-90% of the pot weight, so with a little practice it becomes easy to tell when it need water because the pot will be extremely light. It's good thinking though as it is very important not to overwater seedlings. I've noticed, especially in the 1st month or so of growth (after the first week), they really like a wet/dry cycle.

yeah man intially was trying to go by the feel but after having to start over a couple of weeks ago by overwatering i've constantly been paranoid when it comes to watering my seelings, so now i'd rather be safe than sorry and know exactly whats the story there...