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My progress - Day 9 - Some questions

Overall I believe my seedlings look great for being day 9 and my first time growing.

Some of them started wrinkling and never grew back though (picture 1). I believe the reason for this is because I only water when the top of the soil looks dry but I do not want to overwater. The lowest temperature that these plants ever get to is 75-80 degrees at night. I have removed the heating mat at this point. Should I keep it on at night? And during the day it peeks at 91-93 degrees around 4pm. Humidity usually stays at 20-30% (picture 2). Some of them started being top heavy (picture 3).

[background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]Also I have the lights in a timer. LIghts turn on at 7am and turn off at 8pm. Is this fine?[/background]

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Here are some pictures of my set up and close up shots.

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These looks like they are doing great! These are chocolate habanero and Red Caribbean habanero.

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And the "Five Chinese Color" are actually pretty cool because the leaves are starting to turn purple!

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Lastly, I have purchased Neptune's Harvest Fish and Seaweed 2-3-1 fertilizer. When is the best time to use this? Should I wait until they get bigger or can I use some of it now?

Thank you guys for all of your help. Officially my favorite forum. :dance:
 
Congrats welcome and a few things...your plants look very wet and wait on using any fert until you have 2 or more true sets of leaves roughly.

Happy growing!
They were actually dried of water before this. But should I water less when I do water?

Also I have the lights in a timer. LIghts turn on at 7am and turn off at 8pm. Is this fine?
 
That soil looks extremely wet. Maybe because you just recently watered it, but damping off seems to be your problem with the dead or dying ones. Thos will not recover. Pull them and resow. Next, try bottom watering.... just enough to keep your soil moist, but not wet. I'd also take the spotlight off of them and rely on the overhead flourescent. The spotlight could be cooking them. The 93 degrees is probably too much for your tender seedlings.
 
They were actually dried of water before this. But should I water less when I do water?

Also I have the lights in a timer. LIghts turn on at 7am and turn off at 8pm. Is this fine?
If you do not already, get a fan on them to make them sturdy and assist drying out. I like to have my lights at 18 hours but everyone here has their own way, do what works for you.
 
Thanks I will do that.

And good luck, happy growing, and welcome to your new addiction!

Definitely addicted.

That soil looks extremely wet. Maybe because you just recently watered it, but damping off seems to be your problem with the dead or dying ones. Thos will not recover. Pull them and resow. Next, try bottom watering.... just enough to keep your soil moist, but not wet. I'd also take the spotlight off of them and rely on the overhead flourescent. The spotlight could be cooking them. The 93 degrees is probably too much for your tender seedlings.

Oh and the spot light is a regular 13w fluorescent bulb. Should I still take it off?
 
Excellent! You'll get the hang of it! No need to let the soil get dry in between waterings, just keep it slightly damp with bottom watering. Your plants will love you for it, and you'll be sucking down smokin' hot pods in no time. The hardest thing for me to learn was patience. I always hope I can feed mine this or that and wake up in the morning and see that they've doubled in size..... but I just keep killing them when I do that, so I learn to do what they like. And absolutely agree with Joyners..... put a fan. If not, at least make sure there's decent air flow in the room to help toughen the stems. You'll do fine! Enjoy it!

I really need to get me one of those light rack set ups.... that's bad ass

Oh and the spot light is a regular 13w fluorescent bulb. Should I still take it off?

Nah. Shouldn't hurt. I was thinking it was a flood light. lol.
 
Excellent! You'll get the hang of it! No need to let the soil get dry in between waterings, just keep it slightly damp with bottom watering. Your plants will love you for it, and you'll be sucking down smokin' hot pods in no time. The hardest thing for me to learn was patience. I always hope I can feed mine this or that and wake up in the morning and see that they've doubled in size..... but I just keep killing them when I do that, so I learn to do what they like. And absolutely agree with Joyners..... put a fan. If not, at least make sure there's decent air flow in the room to help toughen the stems. You'll do fine! Enjoy it!

I really need to get me one of those light rack set ups.... that's bad ass

One question. Do you always keep water under the tray? I have bottom watered maybe twice so far but I remove the water from the under tray after about 20 minutes.
 
I do the same.... just enough to get the soil damp and then I dump the excess. But my plants are outside and hardened off now. I guess the easiest way is to limit the amount you put in the tray so that everything gets sucked up and there is no excess. That's kinda tough to measure though.

This is only my second year growing, so I'm definitely no expert, but one thing I;ve read is that if you keep the soil too wet, the roots will take forever to grow. Why should the plant spend the energy to put out roots when there's plenty of available water? Makes sense to me! I've learned not to starve them of water, just limit them to force some root growth.
 
Hey Phil I use that same light rack. Here's a link and they are dirt cheap.

2 foot
http://www.htgsupply.com/Product-AgroMax-2%E2%80%99-Light-Rack.asp


4 foot
http://www.htgsupply.com/Product-AgroMax-4%E2%80%99-Light-Rack.asp
 
I came "this close" to ordering one from Amazon this year. Decided not to pull the trigger because I don't have a dedicated indoor space. I vow that I will sow next year's seeds in November and buy a light rack. I'm so jealous of all of these guys with two month old plants that are huge while mine are stuck doing things the natural way! lol. I planted in February, and I'm just starting to get five and six leaves!
 
I came "this close" to ordering one from Amazon this year. Decided not to pull the trigger because I don't have a dedicated indoor space. I vow that I will sow next year's seeds in November and buy a light rack. I'm so jealous of all of these guys with two month old plants that are huge while mine are stuck doing things the natural way! lol. I planted in February, and I'm just starting to get five and six leaves!

You know what would be nice right now? A solar powered grow room. I live in Arizona sun is no problem :P Ya I wish I had money to buy all that.
 
Just one thing : buying and setting a fan is a must, but it will decrease you humidity ratio. Considering that yours is at 20% which is very very low you should probably find a way to rise it up with a spray loaded with water or with a electronic humidifier. (or any other way).

For the rest it has been already said : don't water too much, give them as much light as possible 18h/day and as close as possible (except with MH/HPS of course). With fluo lamp, 500W per m² is ideal.
 
Just one thing : buying and setting a fan is a must, but it will decrease you humidity ratio. Considering that yours is at 20% which is very very low you should probably find a way to rise it up with a spray loaded with water or with a electronic humidifier. (or any other way).

For the rest it has been already said : don't water too much, give them as much light as possible 18h/day and as close as possible (except with MH/HPS of course). With fluo lamp, 500W per m² is ideal.

I suppose I can bring my mini greenhouse inside my room and try that. I think it could work.
 
Pretty good advice in this thread...

I would emphasize the usefulness of exposing them to a fan

Also... as far as your light schedule goes.. I see no reason not to go 24h light for the first 8 weeks.

Once they want to start flowering and fruiting, they'll be responsive to light cycles, but if you are just blast vegging them out in their early stage, I think 24-7 light is fine.
 
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This is probably the best collection of seedling advice in one place on this board. My 2 bits... You don't need the heat mat anymore. Extend the light cycle to at least 16 hours. Fan for a few hours a day. 20% humidity is definitely on the low side, but for me this is a very low priority to fix. Damping off and other wet-soil problems are more of a worry. Don't wait too long to pot up, those roots want to grow down.
 
This is probably the best collection of seedling advice in one place on this board. My 2 bits... You don't need the heat mat anymore. Extend the light cycle to at least 16 hours. Fan for a few hours a day. 20% humidity is definitely on the low side, but for me this is a very low priority to fix. Damping off and other wet-soil problems are more of a worry. Don't wait too long to pot up, those roots want to grow down.

I have them on 18 hour lights now. I'm going to bring in the mini greenhouse later today in the room. I'm going to see if I can wire my computer fan together and see if that is good enough for a fan. I'm going to be bottom watering now. How long should I wait to pot up? Wait another week?
 
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