• If you need help identifying a pepper, disease, or plant issue, please post in Identification.

seeds Seedlings not doing too well

M

M.W

Hey all,

I started some seedlings a few weeks ago, but some of them aren't doing too well at the moment.

They've always been indoors, the soil is 30% vermiculite, 30% worm castings, and 40% pro-mix soil. I water them about once-twice a week. I fertilized only once with fish emulsion diluted to 1/5 the recommended strength.
The setup is like this:
editIMG_1845.jpg


Problem plant 1:

One of the young leaves of this bhut seedling shrivelled up and fell off at the attachment point today.
editIMG_1840.jpg


Upon closer examination, there are also these dark burnt spots at the base of the leaves
editIMG_1842.jpg


It was growing fine a while ago...

Problem plant 2 (fatalii):

Not sure if I just overwatered it... the leaves gradually turned yellow over the course of a week with some tiny purple veins (not really visible in photograph). Now it's all wilted like this.
editIMG_1843.jpg


And a burnt-looking leaf
editIMG_1844.jpg


I've a feeling this one's not gonna make it :( But I'd still like to know what went wrong so it won't happen again.

Anyway, if anyone has any feedback it'd greatly appreciated! The worst thing is making a mistake but not learning from it. Thanks in advance!
 
I would say fert burn. It might have been a little early to fertilize, especially with the worm castings in there. I might be wrong though. We'll see what other people say.
 
I had some potting soil with larval thrips inside of it, so tiny could barely see them. My growth looked very similar to yours. The top of the plant(new growth) would first be browning then die and dry off.

Have you checked them closely for bugs of any kind?
 
need some more information. How many lights (lumens) I can only see one in the pic. The one thing I do see is all of that crinkled tinfoil. could be throwing out hot spots and burning up some of the leaves. The one that yellowed and died could have been over watering. Like I said, hard to tell with the little information provided. I doubt fert burn. You can start ferting at diluted strength after the first set of true leaves and the fish fert is a weak fertilizer anyway at 5-1-1, so if you diluted that to a fifth, it's not much at all. How often have you been feeding them with that though? Every time you water? More information will get you a better answer. Give as much as you can about your grow. (I still suspect hot spots because the rest of that plant looks really good the one you mentioned had a leaf drop off) What are the temps? and so on...
 
#2 looks like it might have possibly "damped off", I've had a few over the years get rotten stems.

I have a tomater seedling that damped off this year, I hit it REALLY hard with hydrogen peroxide and burried it a little deeper, hoping I'd kill the infection and the stem could sprout new roots....it's still hanging on two weeks later although it's growing very slowly. (Note: I don't recommend doing what I did unless you confirm that you have damp off and are willing to take a wild gamble that the plant will survive.)
 
Thanks all for your replies so far!

I'm convinced the #2 is overwatered. >_< Thanks for the tip on dampening off, I'll give that a try.
For seedlings, would it be safe to wait for the leaves to wilt a little before water? :S I've always had trouble watering younger plants.

I haven't checked the plants & soil for bugs, but since most of the plants using the same soil are doing fine, I'm thinking it might be something else. I'll take a closer look at it for sure though.

I might change the tinfoil to white paper, seems like a lot of places are saying that white paper/paint is a better reflector.

Here's more info on my setup:

I use 1 light for this light box. It's a 13W CFL. I have a timer that keeps it on for 15hrs a day. Is it possible that the light is a bit too close?
editIMG_1846.jpg


The temperature is kept between 80F - 86F
I've been fertilizing on average once every 2 weeks

I have another box (box #2) right beside the one I showed before. Strangely the ones in this box seem to be doing much better despite less soil, no vermiculite, and very little worm castings.
editIMG_1847.jpg

The ones in box #2 were germinated at least 2 weeks later too. The light is further away from the plants in box #2, but it's on for the same length. I transplanted the ones in box #1 when they just had 1 pair of true leaves, so I'm wondering if I might've moved them a bit too early therefore made them less healthy in general?

Thanks!
 
I'll tell ya, right off the bat, that light is not nearly enough to grow those plants. You are looking at 950 to 1100 lumens at most. And now you are dividing it up over what looks to be at least 3 square feet and that's just a guess. That means you are looking at roughly 300-350 lumens a square foot. That is no where near enough light and now you can say that everything you are doing is probably overboard for that growing conditions. Those plants are not really going to be able to use much of anything you give them or should I say very slowly. Your Plants prob. Don't get enough light and drop leaves because it just doesn't have enough energy to sustain them. Compare a light to a fire. If you want burn a log, your not going to throw it on top of a burning match. You need some fire for those plants to use the ferry and sustain growth. Up your lighting and it will prob. Fix a lot.

Fertz not ferry. You should do some research and rethink your grow setup

Ok, looking again, you look to be at about a 1sqft area right? Still not enough light. What does it say the lumens are? I think you have multiple issues. Not enough light leads to overwatering and too much fertz. The bigger the light, the faster they grow and the more frequent you can water/fert. I'm going to say you have a combination of overwatering/fert burn and hot spots but that's just a guess. Good luck dude. Hope you get things straightened/figured out. It's all trial and error. Read up and see what works
 
Thanks!! That really made a lotta sense actually, never thought that the lack of light would be the main problem. I was way too paranoid about burning the plants. The lightbulb I'm using is only 800 lumens.

I'll definitely need to do some research. I didn't do any at all when I had this set up since I was going to move them outdoors beginning of May. I didn't think the light would be an issue in such a short period of time, looks like I'm wrong here haha. I did notice my plants growing much slower compared to other growers who started at around the same time, which made sense when you mentioned more light = faster growth. I'm gonna try and get these guys more light asap and see if they bounce back. Thanks for the tips :D
 
Your light set up is not going to cause what happened to your plants. At most, you will have less growth. Sure, the tin foil isnt the best to reflect, but it's better than nothing. Plain and simple, your problem is fert burn and/or over-watering. Also, next time try not adding the castings until you pot into their final home. I do not recommend fertilizing until a minimum of after their 3rd to 4th set of trues. Sure, it works for some people. But IMO, you're asking for trouble.
 
Looks like classic overwatering and no air movement. The light issue would only make them leggy, not cause issues like you have. I would not even say fert burn, just over watering.
 
I am going to say +1 for overwatering for sure. I still think fert burn is possible. I have never used castings for seedlings but I have burned mature plants with castings before. Of all the soil mixes I have used for seedlings, straight promix outperforms for everything else for me. Also, are you watering from the top or the bottom? Bottom watering is a good way to prevent damping off.
 
I'll be sure to not give anymore fertilizer until these plants bounce back. I've also ordered some grow lights so hopefully when I install those it'll at least help out with speeding up the growth. I've been top watering unfortunately, and have had lost some plants to dampening off... gonna try bottom watering in the future. For the worm castings, I thought they don't burn plants no matter how much is used?
 
Worm castings are high in N which will burn plants if you use too much. There is really no fertilizer that won't burn your plants, just some that are slower to release than others. I burned my plants for the first time this year and wasn't too happy with myself, but most of my plants recovered. I had one primo that looked a bit like yours and I just scrapped it, it didn't seem worth salvaging. I flushed it and everything and just nothing seemed to help. The rest of the guys seem to have covered it nicely. Luckily your plants will be fine for a little bit without more light since seedlings barely want light anyway. The best thing to do when they're small is to just plant em and let em go. Water sparingly, fertilize almost never, and wait for them to get bigger before you start worrying about the rest. They look a tad bit leggy but nothing extreme yet, just pop a fan on em and wait for the lights to come.

Honestly, for plants at that stage, a few 24W CFLs should do the trick in that small area. You should be able to find those at home depot. When they get bigger you'll want a bit more.
 
had all your problems this year and more... can tell ya 3/5 king nailed it. :)

cut way back on everything, abuse them a little... it's how they get their kicks. it's easier to fix and notice underwatering than overwatering; peppers like it on the dry side anyway.
 
Thanks all! I've been 'neglecting' them a bit more, and will see if they get a bit better. The really wilted pepper seems to be dying off, but I kinda saw that coming. Still too soon to tell if the others are doing better, but at least they're not getting worse *knock on wood* :D
 
I might be a little late to this party, but that kinda looks like some mold in the second picture. Not a harmful type, but a tell-tail sign of too much moisture. So, in any case, it sounds like most of the advice already posted is on point.
 
M.W said:
Thanks all! I've been 'neglecting' them a bit more, and will see if they get a bit better. The really wilted pepper seems to be dying off, but I kinda saw that coming. Still too soon to tell if the others are doing better, but at least they're not getting worse *knock on wood* :D
Click to expand...

Hi M.W.

A couple of weeks ago I was in exactly the same position that you're currently in...and i think for me personally, i just did WAY too much reading up on stuff and tried to apply it all in a short space of time.
Like, i read to add ferts when the first true set of leaves came, then im thinking maybe they need calcium etc etc etc....and to top it off i was overwatering them like crazy. I ended up with all the leaves going yellow / curling / falling off....
They are still yet to show any signs of recovery unfortunately, and to be honest i think they've had their day. I will still carry on with them.

BUT...a few weeks ago i had a couple more seedlings pop out, well over a month after my original batch popped......and with these new arrivals i just potted them into jiffy cups, gave them 20ml water every 4 or 5 days (nearly winter over here though) and added NOTHING to them...no ferts / calcium etc.... and they're doing absolutely fine and looking really green and healthy!
I think my main mistake was trying to fix something that wasn't broken....but it's great as i learnt something from it :)

Hope yours make it :)
 
The light is fine for those plants at that seedling stage. Sounds like most people were on it with the overwatering, and over feeding. Oh and good eye, Rabid. If youll notice the leaf spot as well...A word of advice, take box #2, retrace your steps, and repeat! That box is doing fine and pretty soon will be wanting more light ! lol :P
 
Worm castings are not high in nitrogen, or at least none of them that I've ever seen/used. Never seen a number higher than 1. Saying that I would never use a mix with 30% of any nutrient.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top