over water or to much heat?

So my fan stopped working on me last night, so i said heh, ow well they should be alright for a couple days till i get a knew one. I come home and the box IS rather hot. its a 200w cfl. the light was pretty close to the plants. They are only seedlings but they were doing rather good till today. The one in the far left completely withered away and the one in the middle is on the fritz lol. the ones with leaves are completely curled upwards. My guess the high heat killed em or I over watered them. Alittle help on what I did wrong so I don't do it again lol?

is there any place for air to escape? otherwise thats the problem stale air kept in a confined area will make the plants crispy and they die from heat.

the soil does look rather dry...

Hard to say because seedlings are so delicate. But the top soil in the cups look dry enough to make me think you didnt overwater. My guess would be heat. Also make sure your fan is not rustling them. Do you have a temp reading?
Seedlings like higher humidity which is why I drop mine into rapid rooters and throw a dome on them for the first few days once they pop. Maybe this would help you next time.

Clearly your plants are dehydrated, the leaves are sticking upwards and the soil surface appears completely dessicated, a fully watered plant will have leaves that droop slightly. When the plants are seedlings you only need about 2 cups of water for the first week, but if the light drys the soil out then you may need to add some more later on, to test if its too dry place your finger directly under the top layer, if it looks and feels dusty and dry it needs water. Based on the pictures, your lighting is fine since those plants can grow under very harsh direct light as long as the soil is moist. Next time try watering your plants on a daily basis at the same time every day. You may also want to invest in automatic watering devices that do it for you, drip irrigation etc. I have used a cheap "as seen on tv" device called an aqua globe and it keeps the plants watered perfectly.

you should have raised the light and kept the door open.

high heat will kill seedlings if the air is not moving (And even then might have some trouble if you have high heat)

To me, it looks like underwatering, combined with the high heat = death.lol

Here is an update of my bad girls recovery, the one is curling down and inwards, anyone know why? maybe its my Ph. .I still need a meter.They are on day 13, starting on week one today with my schedule. Other than that I would love opinions! Thanks for the help!

Looking good dude! Imo is just stick with distilled water, if that's what your doing keep on trucking. If your using city water do a Google search for local water quality and it will tell you your ph, magnesium and calcium levels

secretweapon said:

Looking good dude! Imo is just stick with distilled water, if that's what your doing keep on trucking. If your using city water do a Google search for local water quality and it will tell you your ph, magnesium and calcium levels

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I live out in the country and the only way for a ph reading would be to send my water over to texas AM for something like that or spend but loads on good quality meters. I have been using distilled water of my own, got one of those tap filter things and i let my water sit out for a couple days. Maybe i can take it to a local well drilling company around here to get it tested. I will look into it. Other than that I have been on fox farm nutes, with a soiless medium. the seedlings really liked that big bloom. Can't wait to see when I start using big grow!

^Buy a couple meters off Ebay, they work fine, even the cheaper DIGITAL ones. You can buy a PPM/TDS meter for about $20, and a decent PH meter for about $30, and as long as you keep 'em calibrated, they work just fine. I've used mine for 2 years, without any problems.


The babies are looking pretty good, btw. The curling, could be due to the soil being a tad rich, or maybe the humidity a little low, but otherwise, look pretty good.

Moar perlite

there is perlite in it, i planned on using more tho when i transfer them into the bigger pots yes. so already on top of that thanks! they are growing fast in just one day you can tell the difference. The humidity is rather low 20-25 all the time. i mist them maybe twice a day i try to keep moisture in the air alittle. but its just dry in general in my place, hard to do. Thanks for the feed back I plan on getting some cheap meters soon enough!

you may have a ph problem or a mag deficiency coming along!

I was looking into that. Without a meter its hard to tell the ph but it does seem they are lacking something (MG in particular, they have the signs of MG deficiency) Good thing is my work sells dolomite lime, powder form. So I've read I should flush then add some dolomite to the last bit of water i am using to neutralize the PH/MG problem? but how much powder should i use for each plant maybe a table spoon, tea spoon? kinda confused on the dosage for just one plant.

hay wod i think ur panicing a little early. the plants are ok. by the way fox farm sucks. u are gonna need a nitrogen supplement for ur plants ff never has enough to support health green growth when they really get going. for the ph u just need a simple electronic ph meter get it online for about 40 bucks.give them a little nutes next water like quater strength. you should transplant soon in to a bigger or permanent pot root growth is linked to pot size bigger root system bigger buds.

one more question do you have drainage hole in those cups? if you dont you should make some and allow for good runoff everytime u water to guard against salt build up and prevent nute lock out.

i do, I bottom feed right now so yes, good drainage atm.

Just as iI thought haha, I was going to say earlier that they just look like they have been heat stressed is all. They look relitivly healthy otherwise, bottem feeding if the reason the soil looks dry on the top for all the people who think it was not enough water. Bottem feeding in the early veg is essential for promoting root growth, another week or so and start to feed them from the top. But again heat seems to be the culperate.

definitely man, thanks for that input. I'm working on my flower chamber Atm because these guys are going to get big really, quick. I transplanted them into 1 gallon jugs today and they are sleeping now but i will have pics up tomorrow. I ordered a ph meter today so it should be here by friday. I also FIM'd them last night also, so i hope both the transfer and FIM won't effect them both at once :\