We are going to start at the very beginning to help. Watering a plant that small heavily would cause its roots to suffocate and possibly die. I think we need to start at the beginning
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First things first brother, please walk me through with pictures of your tent set up. Take some with doors unzipped and so I can see your lights, exhaust, intake, etc. What I am going to suggest is first remove all pots from your tent as those plants are cooked and will only make you more frustrated. Throw the soil in your compost and lets start fresh. Now, vacuum out your tent and disinfect thoroughly. I like to buy HYDROGEN PEROXIDE put it in a spray bottle and spray the entire inside of the tent and let it sit. But first take hot soapy water and a rag/sponge and wash the walls and floor of tent after vacuuming. Then do the HYDROGEN PEROXIDE. Let it sit and do its work for 30 minutes or just let it evaporate and dry. Now we have a sanitary tent. Can we start with that? Then the next step will be running the tent with nothing in it to take readings during a 24 hour period. Buy a digital hygrometer from your local hardware store to monitor the humidity and temperatures with the lights on and lights off. Run it through an 18/6 light cycle. I can tell you that before even planting another seed, that you will in fact need a humidifier in that tent, no questions asked. Ok, please let me know if all of this is making sense. I will send a link for a humidifier…they aren’t really pricey at all.
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@IslandGrown76 has your back in this. i would suggest starting with photo-period first, auto seem easy on writing but they are far from it. too demanding. very high maintenance to get them started. photo periods will take very high amounts of stress and come back. the plants you have are cooked, just compost them. even if they come back (very unlikely) they’ll go straight to flower because of the stress.
on another note. WELCOME and don’t stress it. we all have had plants die on us.
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Of course thats what we’re here for!! Also, would you mind telling and showing us where you have this set up…basement, closet, garage, etc??
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Very simple and clear, thank you so much! I always was wondering why the Hydrogen Peroxide, so thank you for that also!
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I apologize for the slow response, I apparently hit my limit with replies as a new poster.
Here are pics of my tent setup. I have it in an extra room in my house so it is somewhat climate controlled then as I live in a cold region and didn’t want to put it in the garage or other area exposed to elements. I am not sure if I have the tent setup quite correct so any suggestions would be welcome.
We can absolutely start with sanitizing the tent. That is something I didn’t even think of, but makes so much sense! I will do that this evening when I’m off work and start getting the readings taken. I will also get a hygrometer as well as a humidifier this evening as well. This is making perfect sense so far! Thank you so much!
I love that your girl made it and looks amazing! Thanks so much for the pics!
Thank you for the welcome and the advice! I do have some photo seeds I received from ILGM…I am very much learning autos are picky from my own trials and also reading many others posts…I admit that I got excited about the prospect of a yield in a shorter amount of time and jumped in the deep end head first without my water wings lol!
Not a problem! Another thing that helped me out was after i got mine set up for dwc, i looked on the site where i got my seeds, and found which ones grew easiest for beginners. Not gonna lie, some of these autos seem a bit difficult at first. After some work, everything starts to work itself out. I can fully say, the first ones that died, i know i loved them too death.
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Ok so here’s the first thing I see. Your 4 inch fan after looking up specs only pulls 100 CFM (Cubic feet per minute). I’d hate to tell you to buy another one but I am…lol. What size tent is that? I always oversize so that the fan isn’t working to hard and if needed it will suck air out like a beast. Number two, I am not sure you are going to need that heat mat at all, given the time of year, but like I said you’re going to test run this tent with no plants in it. Number three, you need a humidifier, that is a must. Make sure its at least a gallon or more capacity, I prefer cylindrical ones. Make sure it has UV to keep bacteria from growing in the water, but make sure it doesnt illuminate as that will mess with photo period plants. I actually just used black duct tape to cover my humidifier light. I’d send a link but that particular one is no longer made. You are going to take readings of temp/humidity with the lights on and off. What do you have for an intake fan or do you have it set up for a passive intake?
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More to come, but follow up with me in regards to my last informational post. We need to know your tent size in cubic feet to properly size an exhaust fan. I really love AC Infinity fans. I am thinking a 6" might be good butwe need your tentbsizes as I stated before. This also monitors trmp and humidity and you can mount the LCD viewing screen outside your tent. It also runs on DC power so its very little draw on electricity.
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Also, that grow light is only 250watts output. While you’ll be able to grow something it is under powered for your footprint. Also, knowing the tent size will help dictate what lightning is appropriate for the tents size. If you are on a budget, I totally get it, and if you aren’t super into growing long term, then maybe stick with what you have now. Lights are so so important and its something I chose not to skimp on, but you can work towards that, or who knows maybe you are cash flush in which case, a good light is in your future. All this said its going to be a bit before your first successful grow, so be patient and methodical. Cheers 
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@IslandGrown76 you have been so great, I really thank you!
My tent size is 2 feet by 4 feet. I bought the tent, fan and exhaust as a kit. I’m honestly not sure if the exhaust is passive…I can see if the description says anything, let me check that. It does have a dial to turn up the speed but I don’t see any other switches or anything that might indicate I could change that.
Lol…I wondered about the fan, it looked small but I wasn’t sure….I’m sure learning though! I shall get a bigger one, now knowing the tent size what size fan would you recommend?
To be completely transparent, I don’t have an infinite cash flow, but I have disposable income so I feel I’d like to get this right and learn and get good equipment as it just became legal where I’m at and I’d definitely like to grow long term and not have to go to the dispensaries and pay higher prices. Investing a little more now I think will save in the long run! Plus, with the experience I’ve had thus far killing them all, I’m determined and think it would be so rewarding to reap the benefits of being successful!
I will definitely have patience and be methodical as I really really do appreciate the help and guidance!
Also, have my clean tent, have a hydrometer and ready to start recording the readings. Should I put the lights down more towards where they should be for the seedlings? Right now it’s at 73.9° F with 47% humidity
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I’ll follow up soon, off to work I go.
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If those pots have no holes put holes on bottom also consider fabric pots water has to be able to drain
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Many tents have an exhaust fan and an intake fan. With that said you should have more than one opening on the tent. I only run an exhaust fan but have one port in the tent open to act as a passive air intake. This means that I am using the power of my exhaust fan to pull air in from outside the tent. You want the tent on a loop so to speak where it is exhausting air and pulling in fresh air. I’ll try and remember to take a picture of my tent setup today after work.
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Ahh ok that makes sense…yes there’s openings in several places on the tent…couple at the bottom, few at the top.
Okay so it’s been a 24 hour cycle. At night with everything off for 6 hours the temp drops to 72° which is what I have the ac set at and the humidity rose to 53%. During the day, with lights and everything on the temp rose and hovered between 78° and 80° but humidity dropped and hovered between 41 and 43 %. I checked it fairly regularly and it seemed to fluctuate just a little. Humidifier should be here tomorrow!
I’m feeling good about the basics so far, it’s sinking in!
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Hell yeah!!! Next you’ll dial in that humidifier. My suggestion is that you consider this inkbird controller. You can plug your humidifier right into it and set your desired humidity. Otherwise your humidifier will keep running and create too much humidity. I run mine around 58% and it might be around 62% with lights off. You’ll obviously notice changes in humidity when you have freshly watered pots.
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The humidifier coupled with the inkbird controller will get you dialed in.
While you wait for these items, be looking for manufacturers suggested heights for lights above the plant canopy. Every light manufacturer has different suggestions for appropriate heights. This is super helpful and as you progress you’ll be able to look at your plants and know whether or not you need to raise or lower the lights.
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Humidifier is on the way, inkbird is ordered! Super great recommendation on the inkbird thank you! I will start reading about the heights for the lights and get familiar with that as well. Have an awesome day today!
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