My seedling looks sad, and its growth seems to have stalled (already)–this is a full week after it popped, albeit with helmet head that I left it to resolve 1 day before helping it off. Its two first true leaves are bending way down.
My sense from looking at other posts on this forum and elsewhere is that the soil is too damp. I’m surprised, as I’ve watered sparingly (imo), but I must not have: I’ve spotted and removed two mushrooms already (different kinds). This itself is a sign of a) vibrant soil; but also b) it’s too damp.
Anyway, I’m deciding that I’ve overwatered. In my both of my last two grows, which are also my first two), I planted sprouted seeds directly in the 3 gallon fabric pot they would spend their entire lives in. This time I’m using a plastic pot for seedling stage. My hunch is that with not many roots to take up water, and the relative lack of aeration, this pot is going to stay moist longer than I want it too, with damping off a definite possibility now.
So I’m thinking I might move it now the fabric pot, filled with comparatively drier substrate, and just allow the ambient soil to help me dry out the soil the seedling is currently in.
Good idea, bad idea? Other ideas? I’m annoyed at myself because although I’ve learned A LOT during my last two grows (thanks to many of you), I’ve actually messed up earlier than I have perviously… and I KNEW not to do this!
Also, just to say: although I expect this is overwatering, temps are around 22c and RH at 50%, sometimes actually even lower. I’ve managed to sort the latter, hanging a wet towel in the grow tent (it’s small, and I don’t have other options at present). So that it’s stable at around 65rh. But maybe I want it drier, to dry out the soil?
Earlier, before I suspected overwatering, I wondered f it wasn’t the light, and so turned it up to 300 ppfd. A couple of hours of that made the leaves curl down even more noticeably. It had been at 200 ppfd since it popped.
Now it’s down to 150 ppfd… Advice on this also welcome! Thanks all.
OK, thanks @StonedCold13, perhaps I’ll just let it go then. Yeah, circulation is on: 4" inline duct fan and 6" oscillating fan very gently moving air around but not directly at seedling. But it’s small / underdeveloped, though, right? This plant’s been above ground for 7 days. It stretched a little, sprouted these two true leaves, and then just stopped, with the next set of true leaves just little teeny weeny points. I had an upside down glass tupperware thing on it a few days. But I took that off after I checked the ppfd under the dome and discovered it was only in the 80s (and I was reluctant to turn the light up to a point where the ppfd INSIDE the dome was within what I’ve read is optimal 100-300 range… like without frying it or something, I dunno). The PH of the water going in has been 6.4-6.3 range. Soil feels moist for sure but really light and fibrous.
Looks fine for a week old
True leaves are coming in with nice color
Maybe lower your light till she screams
I mean an inch or so
And you can backfill a inch or so to give it support and it’ll pop more roots too.
I agree, this looks fine. Once they sprout will be a little stall while plant is building a root system. During this time there’s not a lot of root mass to absorb water, so it’s important to not water much as the media will stay wet for an extended period. Once the plant has some legs you’ll start to see regular growth and will soon be time to transplant.
Quick update on this. So the seedling’s above-soil growth has totally stalled. It’s now day 11 I think since it popped up (germinated a few days earlier). So I decided to experiment, and cut the bottom off this thin plastic pot, and place it on a raised metal grate I use for the fabric pots, to keep them off the ground, etc. The idea was to expedite the drying of the soil. Anyway, cutting the bottom off I noticed a root all the way down there, already, some four inches / 10 centimetres deep. So it’s growing down but not up, as several folks have suggested is what should be happening, laying roots, etc. Anyway, seeing that root and not wanting to expose it to light /air, I transplanted the whole thing to the fabric pot I planned to use later. I filled the pot with dry substrate, hoping that would draw moisture away from roots / soil and get things going. What do folks think? Maybe I not only overwatered right at the start, but that water wasn’t ph’d right? (I might be having trouble with my PH pen, I’m realising, after trying to calibrate it recently). Fact of the matter is, this plant has not developed leaf-wise at all for 7 whole days. I attach a picture from 3 April, and one from today (10th). Y’all will have way better ideas about this than me, but here’s a plant from my last grow, two pictures taken 7 days apart. Different strain (this one I’m growing now is Gorilla Glue, the previous one was Titan), etc. But still. I’ll give this a few more days and then maybe chuck this one out / start over.
