We started germination in “IHORT QPLUG Cubes” on 11/25, under a dome with a heat mat under the tray.
We’ve been running 18/6 light/dark cycles, keeping temperature under 77 and over 60 (with lights off) & humidity between 77-55%. No nutrients, and watering with PH of 6.0.
First week they looked good, but now some are doing better than others (see images attached).
There is typically some water at the bottom of the plug tray, so the main root will likely sit in that water, although the entire peat plug is not “soaked”, especially at the top. Is this ok or should be avoided?
Reading through similar post - seems like not spraying the seedlings directly, but water gently around the base may be one thing to consider.
If the seedlings are drooping at this stage, it’s because they’re being drowned. I’ve never personally grown in a setup like this so I can’t be a tremendous help, but as a general rule of thumb, standing water is bad water for cannabis.
When I do have my seedlings under a dome, I keep my cubes moist but not wet. Once they’re as large as your seedlings are now, I transplant them into the next size pot - I’ve recently started using nursery bags and they seem great. Before that I used a clear solo cup tucked inside an opaque red solo cup (to block light from the roots). Your girls are big enough that you can stop babying them in the incubator - that’s my personal opinion, though- others may feel differently.
As a final note - I highly recommend you put the spray bottle down unless you’re misting the inside top of the dome or treating for pests. Truly.
Cannabis prefers wet/dry cycles. The only reason to keep the root cubes from drying out totally is that peat plugs tend to shrivel up and squeeze the life out of your seedling if it dries out before her stem is strong enough to combat the shrinking peat.
Also sorry for sounding abrasive if I do - it’s late here. Welcome to the forum and absolutely ask away. We are all here to help and if others don’t come along, I can happily tag in some experts
Sitting in the water line that for tiny seedling roots could lead to dampening off(drowned root) I germ my seed in coco and solo cup. I clone with either coco and a solo cup or a cloner but always mist the leaves until a have the roots established.
It babies remind me of my efforts with tomatoes. They start great, but start to droop about this stage. The cause is ALWAYS water on the plant- not good! As others have posted here, stop with the spray bottle & transplant to 4ever home. Otherwise there will be much die off of babies. Good luck!
