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seeds Seedling growth slowed down quite a bit....?

Islander

Islander

I planted seeds on Feb 14. Most of them hooked within the first week or two. They sprouted up and cotys out. Most are a few inches tall and it seems like the growth has just almost came to a halt. Some have developed first set of true leaves, some are starting to develop and some have just cotys. Any ideas on what could be going on?
 
Using Jiffy organic seed starting mix in 72 cell seed tray. Water as needed 2-3 x a week. 400W MH 24" above seedlings. Avg room temp 60 lights off 70 lights on..... Photoperiod- 10hrs on 14off
 
probably running out of room, those 72 cell trays are only good till first set of leaves or so.

temp: ok
light: ok(maybe do it longer like 18or16 on)
soil: ok
nutes: none n/a
water: ok
 
First I would re pot them into something bigger, then I would switch the photo period to 14 on 10 off or even 16 on and 8 off.  Probably would make a difference.
 
inadequate light, cool temps, or wet soil, or a combo of these, will cause seedlings to stall out. They might recover if you can find the issue and correct it. I truly believe peat-based seed starter can inhibit pepper growth as well, but I know a lot of people would disagree with me on that. 
 
With Jamison and Mallory on this. Need more light and repotted. I ran into this same exct issue this year. An when I repotted discovered that their roots just weren't forming. Think the cool night temps and damp soil was trying to cause root rot. But a repotted in fresh soil and they've rebounded back.
 
14-16 hrs of light with a 400 Watt Metal Halide?



Picked up some Fox Farms Ocean Forest and some large styro cups. Will repot later and post some pics.

Should I remove all of the old soil from the root(s) or leave some??
 
Islander said:
14-16 hrs of light with a 400 Watt Metal Halide?



Picked up some Fox Farms Ocean Forest and some large styro cups. Will repot later and post some pics.

Should I remove all of the old soil from the root(s) or leave some??
Click to expand...
Be careful with that Ocean forest. I'd seriously dilute it. It is very potent. It has enough nutes for 30 days or so. So all they'll require is water. Mine stunted out in that stuff last year. I'd dilute it if i ever use it again. leave the soil on the roots though. I wouldnt disturb the roots.
 
go 18/6
 
I had seedlings in starter mix that were not growing, so I went ahead and transplanted them into ocean forest. They really took off and I had no issues with burning. I sprouted the next batch of super hots in ocean forest and transplanted them into bigger cups with ocean forest before they had any true leaves, still no issues and those plants are a foot tall now at 8 weeks. However, I tried sprouting basil in ocean forest and it got off to a rocky start, really burned the plants. It's strong, and I wouldn't be surprised if some people have had issues, just hasn't been my experience with peppers. As long as you don't over-water, and don't give additional nutrients, I think you will be ok. 
 
The Ocean Forest is perfect as it is right now. No need to do anything with it. Leave rootball intact and plant em up into the cups. Where in TN are you?
 
I've got to agree that the Ocean Forest is great stuff. At the time I had quite a few seedlings ready for potting up, and placed them in solo cups with Light Warrior, not realizing I needed to add ferts to that. As I had several SAFI red hab seedlings available, I thought I'd do a small scale experiment. Planted 1 into Ocean Forest thinking I'd burn it up, while placing the rest in my own mix, and that 1 plant is easily the biggest and healthiest seedling I have. 
I think your main problem though is due to lack of nutes. Being new to starting from seed I ran into the same trap this year. I thought the seed starting mixes had enough nutes in them and stunted my plants, Seed starting mixes are really purely for that, once they get 1 or 2 true sets of leaves they need additional nutrients. Try a diluted fish emulsion watering and see if that makes a difference. 
 
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