seedling trouble......again

[Cronk]

ok, what's going on here? I'm 2 weeks from dropping seeds and this is where I;m at. No growth since the initial sprout. Health looks weak. These roto rooters are very dense and the roots don;t seem to be penetrating downward. Is this the problem? Am I over-watering, under-watering? too little light? It's 4 24" T5 tube about 14" away.

medium around rooters is coco and perlite. I wait until it; mostly dry to water about an ounce each

I'm at a loss. Looks like they're not going to make it.

[az2000]

I never keep seedlings covered under a dome that way. Maybe they aren't getting enough fresh air?

[Cronk]

they're uncovered. just sitting in that thing

[alltatup]

Hazarding a guess: they haven't received enough moisture, space and oxygen to send out roots. I think you mean rapid rooters--not roto rooters--and my seedlings have no trouble at all rooting in them (I use root riots, actually--same thing). It looks dry and dense to me.

[Cronk]

so you're thinking underwatered?

[alltatup]

That's what I'm thinking. If there is not a wider moist area that the roots can expand into, they shrivel and die (if they hit a dry spot: they can't grow into it).

[Cronk]

good to know, thanks. seedlings trouble me every time

[Ell]

14 inches is to far for a t5 . imo . couple or 3 inches away from light is how i do babies to short veggers under a t5.

[Cronk]

even 4 T5 tubes?

[DW2]

Yes, I concur with ELL, lower the lamps to around 4 inches away. I keep my CFLs at just about 4" above the plants.

[az2000]

If I were Cronk, I would raise one seedling to the light to see what happens. IMO, if the problem were the light distance, they'd be stretching like crazy. If it's something else (like lack of fresh air, food, water, habitable medium), increasing light (which is a type of food) could cause stress. They might be in a happy balancing point right now. I'd test on just one.

[PRIMO]

I invert a clear plastic cup over them and bring a cfl down to almost touching, keeps them warm and moist, a must for sprouting.

[homegrown]

hey Cronk, gonna chime in here cause i think i know what the problem is. Im sure alltatup is correct, its a water issue. My last five seeds were a failure so to speak and they were grown exactly like yours in picture. 2 of the 5 survived but were stunted throught life cycle) i used jiffy pellets but pretty much same thing. I think whats happening is those peat pots and the mix that your pellets are in is soaking up a LOT of the water that you give the seedlings. So roots dont wanna come out of that pellet. I tried more water till peat pot was soaked but that just left the pellet soaking wet. Heres proof! I just started these 2 seeds saturday midnight, soaked for 12hr- paper towel for 12hr- seeds cracked, so straight into good soil but still using peat pots. dropped some water on the seeds(area of a dime) and give them light. BAM! sproutingin 2 days! I do like the peat pots, you can almost tell by weight if they need water, i usually cut or tear a couple holes around the sides and as soon as i see roots its time to re-pot larger. i also cut peat pot off at transplant. hope this helps

[Cronk]

Thanks for the input. mine are dead so I'll need to start over. I'm going back to paper towel then into a small pot of coco under the 315 raised to the top of the tent.