why are my seedling dying

I am travelling for 2 years in a caravan. Knowing that I wouldn't have a regular contact for supply I thought I would try my hand at growing my own.

The shower in the van has a very good skylight in it, that I think would be sufficient light for my plant. I also converted a plastic aquarium into a mini glasshouse. I painted the inside white, and it has a clear lid so to allow the sunlight in and protect the plants when on the move or incase they need to by hidden from border security.

I popped into the local hydroponics store and bought some medium which I think is called [FONT=Arial, Arial, Helvetica]perlite and a bottle of fertiliser [/FONT].

I collected the seeds from my last lot of bush weed, and I set to go.

I have now attempted 6 times to grow a plant. But they seem to get a couple of inches high then die.

The stems seem to be very weak, and the leaves to heavy to hold the weight. Then they fall over and eventually die.

I have created a support for the young plants by securing wool across the pot so they cant fall over. This has stopped them from falling over and giving them a chance to live longer. But slowly one by one they eventually die.

I am not sure what is wrong. I thought at first the fertiliser was too strong for the young seedling, growing too fast that the stem could not support the foliage, so I change the fertiliser to a all purpose one and using very small amounts.

This is my only living seedling at the moment and it looks like it is slowly dying. The bottom of the stem has turned a yellowish color topped with a dark brown mark, above this the stem looks healthy enough.

This plant has lived totally indoors inside the shower. I occasionally remove it from inside the mini glass house I created, and hang just below the skylight, but it seems to prefer the being totally enclosed in the glasshouse.


this is the same plant looking down on it.
If I hadn't of supported with this thin wool, it would of surely falling over and died by now..



These are two seedling that I planted only 2 weeks ago when I could see that the current seedlings were dying. They were doing great, looking healthy and growing fast. Then over the last couple of days the leaves started looking soggy and stems very weak. Today they died.




Has anyone any idea what is wrong.

Help please

stop feeding them and get some lighting the natural light does not look like its enough as its stretching like crazy and dinky. Its not going to be able to uptake the food your giving it without good lighting. Your going to have to get a light or wait for another time of year as your not getting enough light.

no nutes.... get a cfl and put it 2 inches from the top of this plant ..no dome after first week, you need a little breeze from a fan after that ..if you try again and do this you'll get a good plant.

johnny12r said:

no nutes.... get a cfl and put it 2 inches from the top of this plant ..no dome after first week, you need a little breeze from a fan after that ..if you try again and do this you'll get a good plant.

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What is a cfl.. a light.. ?? I bought a light that the hydroponics shop recommended. cool light (I think) in the highest wattage I could find. I stopped using it because the seeds wouldn't germinate, and I have to run via an inverter to generate the power from our solar panels.

There is a fan in the shower skylight, I can open the skylight and let in the natural breeze or turn fan on.

Is the lack of light the cause for the weak stems..

I'll plant more seeds today and see how we go this time..

Thanks for your help.

A compact fluorescent light. Do you have a picture of the light that they sold you? Some times places will recommend bullshit lights like incandescents.

super2200 said:

stop feeding them and get some lighting the natural light does not look like its enough as its stretching like crazy and dinky. Its not going to be able to uptake the food your giving it without good lighting. Your going to have to get a light or wait for another time of year as your not getting enough light.

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No time to wait. totally out of weed. Dont know a single person in the area. Only chance is to grow it myself.. Cant quit now..
When possible I can take the plant outside for a bit sunshine. Will the varying temperature from inside to outside hurt the young seedlings.

We are following the sun, avoiding the cold winters. Travelling along the coast, we have been getting strong ocean winds, so till now I have
avoided exposing my babies to salty ocean air.

Are you using the perlite as a soil replacement? If so, that's why your plants are dying. I ask, because you didn't mention that you were growing hydro, in which case, the perlite would work. Buy a bag of quality soil, and eliminate alot of your headaches.

And like was mentioned.....more light. That's why they're stretching and weak. How many watt is that 'cool light' the shop sold you? Any idea of the lumen output?

jawbrodt said:

Are you using the perlite as a soil replacement? If so, that's why your plants are dying. I ask, because you didn't mention that you were growing hydro, in which case, the perlite would work. Buy a bag of quality soil, and eliminate alot of your headaches.

And like was mentioned.....more light. That's why they're stretching and weak. How many watt is that 'cool light' the shop sold you? Any idea of the lumen output?

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Yes I am using perlite as a soil replacement. At first I tried my first few seeds using jiffy pots and had no success. I read somewhere that using perlite and placing the seeds between a few sheets tissue on top works better, that it gives the roots more space and oxygen between the small beads. It did work, almost 80% success rate.. Also it is lighter as I wanted to be able to hang the pot from inside the shower from the skylight. I was going to try my hand at hydro, not really sure what I was doing thou. Thinking that as long as the plant was well feed the perlite would sufficient.

My plant is still alive and growing slowly, I now have it permanently hanging inches below the skylight, with the hatch open. I am worried that the bottom part of stem is already damaged, and no matter what I do the plant will die. That I could be better off pulling it up, and starting again with a good potting mix as you suggested

I'll take some more photos of the complete set up, including the light, aquarium glass house, and the shower so you can see what I have to work with.

Thanks for your help..

Pictures would help. And I recommend that you buy CFL's like they stated above.

If you don't mind me asking, is there a reason that your traveling for 2 years?

you need a fan blowing on the plant that is the only way to get stronger stems and also lot more light is needed that is why it streches and falls over it is trying to reach the light

also get a bigger pot and good soil and transplant that or i would start over if i were you it will be quickest way to get some bud if you transplant that plant bury it up to the bottom of the first set of leaves this might gice you a chance with that plant

connorbrown said:

Pictures would help. And I recommend that you buy CFL's like they stated above.

If you don't mind me asking, is there a reason that your traveling for 2 years?

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Simply Luv the lifestyle, and it is a lot cheaper then staying home. Totally self sufficient, solar panels, generator, bottled gas, 300lt of fresh water. We do a lot of bush camping, so we dont have any camping fess, unless we stay in a community camping area which is usally around $5-$6 per night. We can change the view when ever we want, currently camped (free) right on the beach, good weather, plenty of fishing, and great people. happy hour starts at 5pm every night every one in the camp site is always welcome. Just luv it....

I am going to look into getting a light, the main issue will be getting continual power to it and what sort of drain it will have on on batteries and power supply.
I'll be posting up some more photos shortly..

Cheers

I have taken a few photos of my complete set up that I have to work with.

Do you think I am better to start again, is this plant too far gone to save..

I have not placed the plant back in the aquarium and it has been hanging
from the skylight since I first posted here. No real change to it at this stage.


These photos were taken without a flash, using only the light coming thru the skylight.

The converted aquarium, that I painted black on the outside and white on the inside to
reflect the light. It has a clear lid to allow in the natural light through the skylight.



The aquarium with the light on top.



showing the light bulb and its housing



Pot hanging from skylight..



At time depending the time of day the plant can actually get
direct sunlight ..









thanks everyone for all your help.

The sunlight is going to give you okay light. But you need to remember the sun is whatever temperature it is that time of year, you will be changing it from the optimal light to the current season and that stresses plants.
Looks like you have a decent light bulb, if you can run it at least 12 hours a day you should be able to grow a fairly decent plant. I would use soil definately! Or if your on the beach mix some sand in with your perlite, something to thicken it up just a little so it holds some more water.
I would remove the plate of glass between the bulb and the plant, CFL bulbs shouldnt get too warm.

Like I heard someone else say on here somewhere "If it's not dead its alive" so you may be able to save it, maybe not, depends on how well it can handle stress.

Good Luck!