Droopy leaves 
I gave her a little mist, the soil was dry along the outside edges, about an 1"+ below, the top soil was all dry. I got nervous I was giving her too much so I skipped the usual 8 PM misting but I think she needs it with the new light? I’m not sure, the first of many trials I’m sure. I just hope she’s alright.
Any ideas?
I gave her water early this am, the soil was dry so she must be drinking it. I also brought the light’s intensity down a little bit and raised it (PPFD 371/ lux 24k ~ I’ve never had it around her before, hopefully it’s a sweet spot for this life stage.
She has new growth 
and her top leaves that were new a few days ago are more straight this morning:
@merlin44 @Eagles009 @TheGrowKid @kdawg @areyoutheregoditsmemargaretandimtryingtogrowweed does that sound good, what would you all do here? I feel like I may be overreacting and maybe I am but you know, I am lol.
I aren’t no expert I’m on my first grow too, but I got told not to spray the plant it self and to put a dome over it and spray in the dome and mist around the dome the roots reach out, for dome can just use a clear plastic bottle ect I’m using a plastic cup and when the leaves nearly touch the side then take it of 
, if this was me and wasn’t sure just stick you finger in soil and see if soil sticks or feels wet or dry hope this helps I have my temps about 24 humidty around 60, light is like 30 inches away but using a 450w led
@SpaceInvader how many days you into now from seed and what you growing
So far your plant looks good. The biggest challenge can be establishing and maintaining a healthy moisture level.
I put seedlings in fairly moist soil with a dome…after that I just check on them daily but don’t water or mist them for at least a week or two.
@Bongtoker - she went into the cup on 9/17 and sprouted on 9/20, she stretched a bit here and there so I’ve made adjustments to the soil, I got a new light that was put in this past Saturday, I think it was just cranked too high and drying her out.
I think you and @merlin44 are right regarding the moisture, I should have used a dome. I’m not sure if I can now. Even in the few hours from this morning her soil dried out again even though the light is much less intense now (LUX from 41 to to 24k as an approximation). During the same time the tent at canopy has been 73F / 64% RH so it’d seem the moisture in the air is there for her, though it def. wasn’t from Saturday until last night (the new light killed my RH as mentioned above).
At this stage how would I know if she’s just thirsty? Sticking my finger in would say she’s thirsty because the soil is dry but I’m not sure if that means as much now?
She does have a few new leaves to support, they seem to be popping up all the time now since this weekend. The very first leaves actually look better, along with the new growth on top, the bigger leaves that first unfurled seem to be the ones really drooping now - I think?
Now:
Sunday evening:
They were much more fanned out then, presumably, working better at collect light? I’m not sure. I’ll keep an eye on the soil and use that as a guide and try to see how that correlates to how the leaves look (droopy or straight or lifting up?). Could they just be getting out of the way for the tiny new leaves? I thought that happened much later.
I’m also hoping that changes to the light let the RH stay a bit higher and that helps her also.
Thanks for calming our nerves I am sure it will not be the last time.
Sorry, she’s a GDP from ILLGM (photo).
I would put just enough water on the soil to insure that it is moist, not wet and put a dome on it. Don’t water around the stem, make a ring outside the current root zone. I try not to mess with seedlings too much, just give them a high rH environment so they have a chance to get some roots.
After the seedlings have a nice root system, they are ready for action.
Get a soil meter quite handy iv started mine in 11 pots and I use that and tells you how moist it is, ph, and light only cheap of amazon came next day @SpaceInvader
@merlin44 sounds good, I’m on it. though I did probably mist too close to the stem earlier… It sounds like the idea is that I want moisture away from her roots so she grows towards it, which makes all the sense in the world. Now I just have to find a dome. What do you do as far as exhaust or air movement at this stage?
@Bongtoker that’s awesome… I like the idea of it being bluetooth Amazon.com ?
The soil moisture function can be useful…the light gauge perhaps…
The pH function of these is not useful for our purposes, not nearly accurate enough. You will need a decent pH probe such a Blue Labs or Apera.
@SpaceInvader
I use a clear Solo cup for domes and don’t really worry about air movement. When I inspect the seedlings there is enough air exchange to keep them healthy at this early stage.
The clear cup forms the dome which will create a high rH environment.
If you don’t have clear Solo cups, get some clear cups at your nearest fast food or coffee shop.
@merlin44 I’ve already got the Apera (sitting in it’s case still lol - I’ve been using just bottled distilled water for misting and in the humidifier to this point).
I think I’ve over engineered the seedling stage if I’m being quite honest. I wanted the env setup to be like the dome for now and then let her adjust it to it as she grew and contributed to the environment. I over corrected when I did have her covered and saw her stretch and never went back to it, but I will today. I know so much more today about why she probably stretched then :). I love this and that I’m learning I just hope I’m not stressing out Esther too much.
@Bongtoker that’s a high class problem to have! Are you going to be doing any kind of training? I’ve been researching manifold training myself (I just have one plant in a 24x24x60). Which strains are you growing there?
Here are my seedlings under their domes. I have not misted them since putting the cracked seeds into the soil 8 days ago. Humidity inside the domes is clearly very high.
This is a common error amongst those of us with technical backgrounds.
Growing plants was a completely foreign activity for me back in January 2018, I had to learn everything.
Edit: excellent on the Apera pH pen.
Haha yeah definitely, going to lst them, might even fim or top one just for experiment since its going to be a struggle anywys but iv learned alot of things so far and still so much to learn think next time I’m just going to upgrade tent ect and get the one plant in a big pot and train that
That’s the way forward then, thank you - At this point are you even running a humidifier or anything like that, is it just seedling with a dome? What’s the light setup like?
Esther is in a red solo cup so I don’t have a good way of seeing root growth (that I know of), is it just obvious when it’s ready to take off (do they just start pushing into it and that’s when it’s time to take it off?).
I have one of my low wattage lights (~200 watts) hanging over the domed seedlings with ppfd set to about 400 uMoles/sec/m^2 (used a PAR meter). No other equipment is in operation at this time. Many folks run even less light than that with great success. In fact, many don’t measure light intensity.
When the plant is about a wide as the Solo cup you can assume that the plant is ready for transplant. If you go much longer than that, it will become root bound which will slow its growth for a short time after transplant but it will recover from that.
@SpaceInvader a clear plastic cup over top may help and if it does the seedling just needed more humidity unless it’s having an over or underwatering situation. I have two seedlings going right now, one under a clear plastic cup(dome) and one in open air with light 14-16” above them
