Seedlings keep dying

Hi everybody,

I've lost over 60 seeds in the past couple of months. After the seeds germinate, I move them in my aero cloner. After a couple of days, their roots become all soft and starts changing color to a brownish nuance and part of the stem dries up. And after that they start rotting.

The below pictures are from a couple of days ago. My most recent failed attempt.

I just don't know what to try anymore. I've tried using hydrogen peroxide, beneficial enzymes (CannaZym), chamomile, garlic and cinnamon tea, bleach and most recently a well known rooting hormone (Roots Excelurator). Nothing has worked. I've even though about trying to grow them in soil for a couple of weeks and if they don't die then move them in my aero system.

In my next attempt I'll try the Roots Excelurator + bleach combination.

Can you recommend anything else?

I wonder sometimes how do commercial growers avoid contamination when they grow in such large spaces and seeing that it's so easy for some damn fungi spores to come in a growing area?

What are your temps when this has been happening? I'm sure ph can be a factor in this process.

Also do you wash your cloner out with bleach before you use it?
I know if I dont wash out my clobe trays every other run in them I'll lose most of the cuts to some kind of fungus.

zeitate said:

Hi everybody,

I've lost over 60 seeds in the past couple of months. After the seeds germinate, I move them in my aero cloner. After a couple of days, their roots become all soft and starts changing color to a brownish nuance and part of the stem dries up. And after that they start rotting.

The below pictures are from a couple of days ago. My most recent failed attempt.

I just don't know what to try anymore. I've tried using hydrogen peroxide, beneficial enzymes (CannaZym), chamomile, garlic and cinnamon tea, bleach and most recently a well known rooting hormone (Roots Excelurator). Nothing has worked. I've even though about trying to grow them in soil for a couple of weeks and if they don't die then move them in my aero system.

In my next attempt I'll try the Roots Excelurator + bleach combination.

Can you recommend anything else?

I wonder sometimes how do commercial growers avoid contamination when they grow in such large spaces and seeing that it's so easy for some damn fungi spores to come in a growing area?

Click to expand...

Why are you putting bleach in with the seedling? You do know bleach will kill a plant right. i would clean the your res. with bleach and rinse it very very good. Make sure your temps and PH are in check.

Okay.... First of all I would only use Hydrogen peroxide out off all the things you listed up there! In vary small amounts at that! 5ml a pint maybe....adding enzymes like that this early in a system like that I can imagine they them selves would eat your roots if they aren't already dead from the fertilizer!!! Sorry not trying to be rude just surprised nobody else mentioned that! If you raise your ec two fast it will kill the roots of your plants at any stage. In the beginning they have absolutely no tolerance....also they have enough of their own nutes for the first week I believe.

Also never use cinnamon garlic or bleach! These are all anti beneficial bacteria and will kill your microbes that are converting ferts for plant consumption. Hydrogen peroxide should only be used as a seed starter and then as a mist for leaves and soil top to prevent and kill molds and fungus!

Should have mentioned that a light worm tea instead of h2o2 will also help seed starting and provide the plant with a very strong immune system that will fight off disease molds and fungus!