Seedlings too small!! 2.5 week no growth?! Why?

I planted 5 seedlings in rock-wool in preparation for hydro grow... Two and half weeks later (probably more, i lost count of the days...) they look like they are ready to give up, no growth after they reach about 12cm. The containers are half submerged in water right now, every morning i wet the rockwool. I used plain tap water for week 1, followed with mild general hydroponic nutrient i bought from local nursery since week 2. So far one of them look withered and yellow, maybe it didnt get enough water. Also noticing yellowing on lower leaves. I would like to hear some feedback as to what i am doing wrong, and figure the best possible fix.

is the water oxygenated? whats the ph?

lol why is that picture purple?

If that's what colour your light is- that's ya problem for a start

Secondly, where is the rock-wool you speak of? I see little net pots with expanded clay balls in them... sitting in an anaerobic (not aerated) pool of water. I could start to explain the many things wrong with such a set up but instead I will say this and it applies to everything:

Go buy a basic hydroponic grow book from your local hydro store or amazon.

There are so many things you need to learn and making mistakes like this is only going to waste your time- not help you learn. Read one of these basic guides cover to cover before you try to do anything. If that sounds too hard or boring, hydroponics isn't for you... and digging around on a forum and asking countless questions would be equally as hard/boring for you.

devientmelody said:

I planted 5 seedlings in rock-wool in preparation for hydro grow... Two and half weeks later (probably more, i lost count of the days...) they look like they are ready to give up, no growth after they reach about 12cm. The containers are half submerged in water right now, every morning i wet the rockwool. I used plain tap water for week 1, followed with mild general hydroponic nutrient i bought from local nursery since week 2. So far one of them look withered and yellow, maybe it didnt get enough water. Also noticing yellowing on lower leaves. I would like to hear some feedback as to what i am doing wrong, and figure the best possible fix.

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i know why your plant has no growth.

because your plant is experiencing some problems! hehe.

Your seedling will start growing there root system first. when that's established the shoot will start growing.
The bigger the container the more roots it will grow before growing the shoot.
Your spraying your seedlings with water way to much.

overwatered and temps too hot.

What watt led system are you running?

is that a black light?

In addition to what dl said, I'm pretty sure you fried your seedlings with your lights... based on the color of the pics, you've got some high wattage LED's in there.

pick up plants. drop in trash. start over. in soil.

if its not growing top side its growing better roots. sometimes they dont grow for good reasons.

You don't need a book to say "add an air stone".

I don't understand your setup. Are the roots supposed to grow out of those net pots, and then grow in that open space that's exposed to light? If so, you might need a book after all.

Don't go to soil, that's like going back to the stone age. Master the hydro.

They look pretty frustrated lol. I started off similar to you and ended up with seedlings that would die off no matter what. It was from me keeping them too wet and not giving the roots a chance to actually "search" for water. Looks to me like those roots are being lazy as hell. And I also waited till my seedlings started to show small signs of deficiency before I added any nutes at all. That's probably not ideal but it sure beats the hell out of burning them.

i think we all agree there are issues. I would recommend growing one or two plants in soil full term before venturing into hydro. if you can grow in soil and not kill the plants you may have a chance with a hydro setup

silasraven said:

if its not growing top side its growing better roots. sometimes they dont grow for good reasons.

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Did you look at the photo's of the gnarled tiny plants? Did you read how old they are? Why the would you tell him there is a good reason for this? They aren't growing roots! The are tiny because of their root zone- among lots of other bad factors. This is one of the reasons why I say he should read a text book.

smokinafatty said:

You don't need a book to say "add an air stone"../
Don't go to soil, that's like going back to the stone age. Master the hydro.

Click to expand...

Yes you do need a book to say "drop in an air stone" because the question that follow should be "why?" and then "how" and so on.

I could tell him about how he went wrong and things he could do... but how long would that reply be? Book length? What's the point in me writing my own book here now or copying and pasting it? He should just go to the source and study and do it right.

And soil is stone age? Take a look at this photo (posted by Headtreep in the ROLS thread)
If this is stone age weed then I say "Unga Bunga!"

^^^^ do you know Barney Rubble?




nice pic

All credits for that photo due to Headtreep and one healthy organic living soil-web (just in case I didn't already make clear that it's not my photo)

^^ honest and the truth

TreeGod said:

They look pretty frustrated lol. I started off similar to you and ended up with seedlings that would die off no matter what. It was from me keeping them too wet and not giving the roots a chance to actually "search" for water. Looks to me like those roots are being lazy as hell. And I also waited till my seedlings started to show small signs of deficiency before I added any nutes at all. That's probably not ideal but it sure beats the hell out of burning them.

Click to expand...

Pretty sure at this point they are done for. Complete failure.... I left them in plastic nets because those are suppose to go into bigger reservoirs that periodically sprays nutrient. I figured i was suffocating them, plus those roots shown no sign of growth since i planted them into the rockwool.

LED was purchased online, speced as such


I suppose i can go back to using soil again, but i prefer to get this right.

Get a simple kit at home depot