seeds My seedlings died on the sun in only 1h!

[future_man]

I was advised in this topic http://thehotpepper.com/topic/46328-8w-lightning-sufficient/ to expose my fresh seedlings to a lot more light, since they were getting leggy under my only 8W fluorescent light.
 
Look what happened in less than an hour:
 

 
 

 
 
 
THEY GOT COOKED ON THE SUN! So much for "more" light advice... I am furious, can I fix it? What should I do next time? What the hell is happening?

You put so much care, thought and patience in your plants and are happy to see them well, then this... Makes me so sad, I hope it is not too late to buy new seed and grow them for this season
 
I shouldn't listen to the advice to put them on the sun

 

[casweet8]

You need to take the lid off your seedling station when you put them outside. I bet it was 100+ degrees in there. I don't think the sun cooked them.. you effectively made an oven.

 

[future_man]

My god so it was the lid then? It had holes though... How else am I suppose to protect seedlings from flies and rain, dust and not to mention strong wind? Will the seedlings repair over time or I must plant new seeds?

 

[thirdcoasttx]

With seedlings that small started under weak lights, putting them directly under the sun even without the dome probably would have killed them anyway. Potting them up to small cups and sticking em near a window would be better I would think. Sorry about your babies give it another shot what do you got to lose?

 

[casweet8]

If you're only going to have them out there for an hour at a time you don't need to worry about protecting them from anything. Once they are big enough to stay out longer.. you won't need to protect them from anything. Remember: plants like these have been growing without tender loving care in the wild for thousands of years. They are used to rain flies and dust
I would plant new ones but keep the old ones around as well. Can never have too many peppers!

 

[filmost]

They may not be dead yet. Take them inside and put them near a window. They may perk up again. If they do come back from this (and they might) then you now know what you should not do. You really don't need the dome once they have germinated, so leave the dome off.
 
Also if I remember correctly from your first thread, no one told you to specifically put the plants outside, but rather to put them next to a south facing window to get more light.

 

[future_man]

If you're only going to have them out there for an hour at a time you don't need to worry about protecting them from anything. Once they are big enough to stay out longer.. you won't need to protect them from anything. Remember: plants like these have been growing without tender loving care in the wild for thousands of years. They are used to rain flies and dust
I would plant new ones but keep the old ones around as well. Can never have too many peppers!

 
Thing is I intend to have them on sun rather than under my weak light :/ I can only hope some of my seedlings will get better
 

With seedlings that small started under weak lights, putting them directly under the sun even without the dome probably would have killed them anyway. Potting them up to small cups and sticking em near a window would be better I would think. Sorry about your babies give it another shot what do you got to lose?

 
I can't put them near a window, we don't have any S facing windows, I can only leave them on the balcony outside... Would gradualy introducing them to sun help? Like in the morning or in the evening?

They may not be dead yet. Take them inside and put them near a window. They may perk up again. If they do come back from this (and they might) then you now know what you should not do. You really don't need the dome once they have germinated, so leave the dome off.
 
Also if I remember correctly from your first thread, no one told you to specifically put the plants outside, but rather to put them next to a south facing window to get more light.

 
Can I somehow manage to raise my seedlings outside on full sun? I don't have any windows exposed to a lot of sun you see

 

[filmost]

Of course you can, but you may need to gradually introduce them to the sun if you started them inside. If they are only a couple of weeks old, I think they should be able to handle outdoor conditions, provided they have lots of shade.
 
So as I said, bring the plants inside and see if they perk up, give them a day or so.  If they do, great! If not, you still have plenty of time to get new seeds started.
 
Now assuming they did perk up. Remove that dome as it is no longer necessary. Find a spot on your balcony that gets shade for the majority of the day and place your seedlings there. If it is warm outside at night in your area, you can leave them there, or you can bring them in.
 
You will have to use judgement here. If these plants are only a couple of weeks old, they should be okay just left out side in the shade, otherwise you will have to gradually extend the amount of time they spend outside over the course of a week. For reference, I had two Chile de Arbol seedlings that were probably about 2 or 3 weeks old (no true leaves yet) and I put them outside all day (inside at night) once the weather warmed up here and they have been doing fine. 
 
Again, use your own judgement.

 

[rghm1u20]

If they start on a sun place, will be ok (I mean, like you have a garden and put the seeds in the ground, and they grow there). If you start some plants inside, do not let them in the direct sun like now, even without the lid, for long time. I would recommend not to put them outside until they are big enough to be moved in a separate plastic glass or whatever. You have to expose them graduate, or will get the leafes burned, especially when you are growing them inside, with artificial light.
 
Later edit: I see filmost posted a bit faster than me :-)  but the picture is about the same: expose gradualy to sun.

 

[thirdcoasttx]

Probably, what I would do first (and I'm not a pro by any means) is get them out of the starter tray and into some solo cups and bury them up to the cotys. A lot of people wait until they have true leaves but I transplanted mine a few days after they sprouted.

 

[casweet8]

Also remember to try and not "love them to death".  Micro-management is not needed and causes more harm than good.  Patience is a virtue in growing especially.  It took a lot of time and even more self control for me to learn this lesson.

They may not be dead yet. Take them inside and put them near a window. They may perk up again. If they do come back from this (and they might) then you now know what you should not do. You really don't need the dome once they have germinated, so leave the dome off.
 
Also if I remember correctly from your first thread, no one told you to specifically put the plants outside, but rather to put them next to a south facing window to get more light.

As stated here, once they are out of the dirt, take the lid off and leave it off.  Once they start to develop leaves, they will be taking in CO2 and putting out O2.  You want that airflow to make sure the plants have easy access to the gases they need.  I read an interesting study that showed a microclimate of co2 poor o2 rich air develops directly around plants if there is no air movement at all.

 

[juanitos]

This is why you should post a picture with your original question. We would have told you to take off the dome.
 
My advice: take dome off, water them, put them under the 8w or shade outside. If they perk back up great, transplant them and bury them up to the cotys and put them back outside and give them some shade (tie a flag, shirt, bedsheet, etc to the balcony rails) first few days.

 

[geeme]

I'll ditto one of the things said above - if you sprout your seeds outside, no hardening off process is required. They'll acclimate to the sun on their own from day 1. However, if you start them indoors you have to gradually expose them to more light, and you can see one hour was too much for the first day. I recommend putting them outside in full shade to start with, then more gradually expose to sunlight a bit at a time. Yes, water and see if they bounce back, but if they don't you won't be far behind where you were at in the first place, as those plants don't even fit into my definition of "seedling", but only of "sprout". And yes, if you're going to take them outside remove the dome, for the reasons given above.
 
It is frustrating, since we put so much time and attention into our plants, but chalk it up to a learning experience and move forward. Best wishes!

 

[Phil]

My god so it was the lid then? It had holes though... How else am I suppose to protect seedlings from flies and rain, dust and not to mention strong wind? Will the seedlings repair over time or I must plant new seeds?

 
Yes, it was the lid. You don't have to protect them from dust, rain and flies.... or wind even, unless you're talking about gale force winds. Like the others said, too much "love" can kill them. Remember, these little guys do just fine on their own with no human intervention in the wild.

 

[future_man]

Thanks for all the great help guys! Just to clarify some things to see if I understand this right. I will germinate my seeds inside because I have a heater that produces 86°F. This is why starting outside is out of the question because of lower temperatures, am I right?
 
And when they poke out of the soil I will move them outside in the shade first and gradually increase the sunlight exposure. Do I understand the whole process  correctly?

 

[Hybrid Mode 01]

 
 
And when they poke out of the soil I will move them outside in the shade first and gradually increase the sunlight exposure. Do I understand the whole process  correctly?

 
     As long as night time temps don't dip below 55F, that should work fine.

 

[future_man]

I will watch for that. What if it is cloudy? I read somewhere even when it is cloudy, lumens reach around 5000 so I think cloudy weather shouldn't be a problem... Why do some people even start them inside then if the temperatures aren't the problem? Maybe good lights produce faster growth. I hope the quality will also be OK in my case, regardless of time needed.

 

[geeme]

Temps don't have to be as high as 86F, although that tends to speed germination. They'll sprout at 76F just fine. Why do people start them inside if temps aren't a problem? No idea…. I grew up and lived in the subtropics for more than half of my life, and I always just direct-sowed in the ground. Moved to Ohio where it's colder more of the year than warmer, and now start inside as I'd never get ripe pods other than annuums otherwise. 
 
"Cloudy" is variable. If there are big grey clouds it's not a biggie, but then the impending storm would be a possible issue. I recommend putting them in a spot where they're shaded regardless of cloud cover, then start the move from there. 

 

[future_man]

Temps don't have to be as high as 86F, although that tends to speed germination. They'll sprout at 76F just fine. Why do people start them inside if temps aren't a problem? No idea…. I grew up and lived in the subtropics for more than half of my life, and I always just direct-sowed in the ground. Moved to Ohio where it's colder more of the year than warmer, and now start inside as I'd never get ripe pods other than annuums otherwise. 
 
"Cloudy" is variable. If there are big grey clouds it's not a biggie, but then the impending storm would be a possible issue. I recommend putting them in a spot where they're shaded regardless of cloud cover, then start the move from there. 

 
Yea I will need to start them indoors, temps here aren't near 76F. I feel bad for having 2 threads up now but since I do I can ask again here about the shadow. Since I don't have any shadowy spot (really small balcony), can I just make my own shade with a piece of cloth/fabric/sheet whatever? And remove it later in my plant life? Would that work?

 

[nzchili]

im new to this but I start my seeds in pellets in the hot water cupboard, as soon as i see a hook, i put them on the window sill that gets all day sun. I sit the pellets in a little dish with some water in the bottom to prevent them drying out..
Once the cotys are out and looking ok i put them outside where they can get as much sun as possible, still in a little dish with 5mm or so of water in the bottom..
I like this because it prevents anything drying out too much, i add a little water to the dish when needed and a couple of drops of water on the top of the pellets.)
So far so good.  Real sun from the hook seems to be easiest and works well for me.
How hot is it outside there? (currently our days are getting to about 25deg C, nights are about 15C, and dropping)