Clawed leaves, green but?

Grow Cycle Seedling
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Hi Guys, I’m a first time grower. I’ve included a pic, hope it shows up on here.
These Indica seedlings are 10 days old and are planted in peat pots with garden store potting soil, I’ve added nothing but water. I have a CFL up close and the plant seems to be growing just fine except the leaves are hooking down, the leaves are green with no yellowing. I started off the first few days with distilled water (PH 7.0) and now have a PH meter and for the last 2 days have been giving it 6.5 water.
18 hours of CFL light. and 72 degrees with low humidity. The leaves are worrying me !!! Thank you…

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Welcome @Golfnut hope you’re hitting them straight! I’m a player of the game myself.

Welcome to the ilgm forums!

My first thoughts are under or over watering.

Please fill out this support ticket. It will help us to better understand what is going on

COPY/PASTE: This “Support Ticket” into your forum post.
Answer these simple questions the best you can.
If you do not know, or do not use something; Just say so = NA

Strain; Type, Bag seed, or NA

Soil in pots, Hydroponic, or Coco?

System type?

PH of runoff or solution in reservoir?

What is strength of nutrient mix? EC, or TDS

Indoor or Outdoor
Light system, size?

Temps; Day, Night

Humidity; Day, Night

Ventilation system; Yes, No, Size

AC, Humidifier, De-humidifier,

Co2; Yes, No

Add anything else you feel would help us give you a most informed answer. Feel free to elaborate, but short, to the point questions and facts will help us help you

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Yes looks to be under or over watering, im gonna go with under water because of how dry they look in pics

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Welcome to ILGM

What are you using for soil?

Will

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Thank you for the response,

COPY/PASTE: This “Support Ticket” into your forum post.
Answer these simple questions the best you can.
If you do not know, or do not use something; Just say so = NA

Strain; Type, Bag seed, or NA Indica

Soil in pots, Hydroponic, or Coco? soil, peat pots

System type? indoor, CFL for starting seedlings

PH of runoff or solution in reservoir? NA

What is strength of nutrient mix? EC, or TDS NA

Indoor or Outdoor Indoor
Light system, size? CFL 60 watt, see below

Temps; Day, Night 76-72

Humidity; Day, Night NA, A/C home in Florida 35-40%

Ventilation system; Yes, No, Size Small fan, also exaust fan when I move to grow box

AC, Humidifier, De-humidifier, AC

Co2; Yes, No No

I have built a 2 X 2 X 4 Ft Grow box with a Galaxyhydro 300w LED and a Duct Booster exaust fan, I thought it best to use the CFL lite for starting the seedlings Maybe I should move them to the grow box now ? Also when the sprouts came up I think I may have underwatered them as I only used the spray bottle for the first several days, thus only watering the first inch or so. My cheap light meter says I have about 2000 Lumens up close under the 60 watt CFL.//// using STAY GREEN POTTING SOIL, .10%–.08%-.06% Now watering till water runs out of bottom of peat pot then leaving it dry till the pot is light, maybe 2 days with the fan on them… Thanks

Add anything else you feel would help us give you a most informed answer. Feel free to elaborate, but short, to the point questions and facts will help us help you

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@Golfnut sounds good. A couple of things!

Spraying sprouts with water is fine as they don’t have any real roots and all their water comes through their leaves. And yes, then spraying the soil and then watering to runoff as they progress is all perfect.

What I don’t see any mention of is the pH of your water? Since you are growing is soil your water needs to be pH’d to 6.7 ish prior to being given to your plants. I will pasted in a pH and TDS meter and pH UP and Down at the end for an example of what you could use. (It’s only an example)

It is also important to maintain fairly high humidity until the are several weeks old and then you need to be in the 40% - 60% RH range.

Also want to maintain about 77 degrees during the day and 67 at night. Keep the temps swing 10 degrees and you’ll be fine!

What water are you watering with? RO, Distilled, Tap, well water…

The CFLs are perfect for sprouts and the first while till the plants are a little older. I think mine went under the LED at about 3 weeks, but it’s all on your plants.

The CFL’s need to be pretty close to prevent the plants from stretching. Use the back of your hand right over the plants to make sure they aren’t hot. Adjust lights accordingly!

That soil is a bit rich for sprouts. Usually best to not use any soil with time release fertilizers in them as they can cause problems. Keep a close eye on your plants.

A picture or two as you progress would be good so we can see what your are doing? Interested to see your grow box as well. Have you done anything to the interior walls? if not bright white paint is perfect.

I think the droop we are seeing in the picture could just be from watering. Does she look any different this morning?

ph and tds meters

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00IEJOI9S/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s01?tag=greenrel-20

ph up & Down

https://www.amazon.com/General-Hydroponics-GH1514-Control-Kit/dp/B000BNKWZY/ref=sr_1_2?tag=greenrel-20

Hygrometer

https://www.amazon.com/AcuRite-00613-Indoor-Humidity-Monitor/dp/B0013BKDO8/ref=pd_bxgy_86_img_3?tag=greenrel-20

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I cannot easily change the temp but maybe I can put them in the grow box and add a jug of water with a cloth hanging over the side to add humidity, this time if Florida it is somewhat dry as there has been only a small amt of rain all winter. Hopefully the rich soil will work as the plants get older
Il’m stll on the first gallon of Distilled water and by next week I’ll be using well water and am lowering the PH with vinegar to about 6.5 PH.
The CFL is cool and I have the seedlings within 2 inches of the light.
The grow box is painted white inside. I’ll post a pic after tennis the morning,
Retirement is underrated !! Gary

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Good deal. I’m retired as well. 2 years ago last week! Hoping to spend more time in the warmer climates in a couple years! (Grand kids…lol)

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For the LED lights I removed the cable hangar and used some hardware store chain so I could hang it closer to the ceiling and then used a good quality line thru a hole in the roof and a cleat to tie it off. The box is plywood, being that I’m retired and I’m cheap, I have a lot of time to make the grow box.
Next day, the leaves are still hooking down but continuing to grow. It may be that the soil is a little too rich for starting seedlings…

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@Golfnut they might be a little young for the water till runoff. Plus those peat pots hold a lot of water in them to. I’m gonna say lift test them to see when they are light and need water and then maybe about half as much water for a couple of waterings. They aren’t showing signs of nutrient issues, droopy leaves is usually over or under watered.

I like your box and that would make an awesome veg box, but I think it’s a little too low to flower in for most cases.

For the light I’m going to guess you want to be 30 inches or so above seedlings, 20-24 inches above the plants when they are in veg and then down to 18 or so in flower

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@Golfnut you’re in good hands here just wanted to say hello and welcome to ILGM… Glad to see another Floridian on here :thumbsup:

Are you in Northern or Southern Fl?

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OK,. Will try less water. I have been lift testing the pots and with the fan on the peat pots they really dry out fast, with the dirt separating from the pot sides.
Thank you for your suggestions,. Ill keep posting for awhile. Gary

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Im in SW FL. Cape coral area, how about you ??

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I think they will be fine! I used the same peat pots on last grow and I’m going back to the old school solo cups. I had to cut the pot away from the root ball very gingerly. Watered pretty good 3-4 hours before transplanting and it helped hold the root ball together!

When you think they are dry enough to water, don’t. Keep watching those leaves. As they dry out they should raise back up. Wait and extra period of time maybe even 8-12 hours and water them, then. What sort of light on/off period are you doing with those? Are they unk, fems or autos?

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Dead east on the other side

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They are fems, they have been clawed down with both 18-6 and 24 hour lighting.
I’ll let them dry much more this next couple of times. I’ll post the results of that drier time.
11 days from sprout now.

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@bob31 seems to havevyou covered @Golfnut
Just wanted to say hello
Hope you have this sorted out now
Happy growing
Will be watching for updates on the girls

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Do they grow faster if I stand there and watch them ? Thanks guys, great forum…

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lol…hiya @Golfnut …actually, the more you watch them the worst they do…you’ll want to do something to help the plants along not being able to just watch and do nothing, we have all been there.

They won’t thrive with being totally ignored, but a little less interest may prove beneficial!

Keep us updated :wink:

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The drooping leaves went away after I transplanted both to 6" pots using organic soil. They really perked up after that. The potting soil I started with may have been too rich for seedlings, as bob31 pointed out ealier.
The whole grow thus far has been watered with PH 6.4 well water. Also since transplanting to the 6" pots I’ve been using my 300 w. LED lamp. about 20in. above tops, It may not be wise but I take them outside for some REAL Florida sunlight now and then, just for a couple of hours.
So far so good !!! **Cannot figure out how I pasted a photo earlier, I’ll keep trying.

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