Hi everyone, Decided to make a new thread as my issues have kind of evolved. It's looking like I'm going to lose my whole first crop to damping off . Live and learn. I'm going to outline what I did, and if anyone would shoot me their thoughts, that would be so so appreciative. I want to make sure I understand what happened before I invest in more seeds. So from start to finish here is what I did: 1. Started with 15 grower's choice seeds, sprouted them on paper towels and that all worked perfectly, 14/15 popped immediately. 2. Planted the baby seedlings in an egg carton with MG seedling starter (first two mistakes- next time I will use that Ocean soil from Fox Farm, bake it, and also mix in some worm castings). I also put the egg carton in an "incubator" type unit first, I think it didn't provide enough light so next time I will start them in the grow tent. 3. After about 4 days all the seedlings had grown up into tiny palm trees. They all looked good. Then about the 5th day some of them started damping off. I don't think that I overwatered them, I was misting them only, and with distilled water. I imagine the spores were already present in the soil. So after I figured out what was going on, I repotted them in 4 inch pots in the same type of MC soil, but this time I baked it first. I figured that was worth a shot. Put them all in the grow tent. Lost about 3 more right away. The remaining 8 looked pretty good, but they didn't really seem to be growing. They just kind of stayed the same day after day. After reading on this forum I thought maybe they weren't close enough to the light, but I didn't want to move them closer without a lightmeter, so I ordered one but it ended up taking almost a week to arrive, so that whole time the plants might have been getting not enough light. 4. By the time I had gotten the light, I had lost about 4 more. Used the lightmeter and moved them to where they were getting 15,000 lumens. Then 4-5 more days pass, and same.....just not thriving at all. By this point they had *maybe* doubled in size, which is to say they were still tinyyy. The whole time I had been watering really sparingly, mostly misting but every couple days putting a little dump of water on them. Still using distilled water. 5. Now I'm down to just 2. The plants were starting to get yellowing on their leaves so I moved them a little farther from the light. The two that remain look....ok, but I'm not holding my breath. Photo below of the last two. SO: aside from not taking damping off precautions from the beginning, what else happened? Is it normal for damping off to affect seedlings at different times, or were there other major factors that might have killed them? Based on what I've read and seen, in a proper grow tent the plants should flourish from a pretty young age, so I'm very confused why they started so strong and just....stopped. If it's as simple as just damping off prevention, great, but seems like there might have been some other issues. I'm using: a vivosun grow tent kit with a 600w bulb, air filtration. I have a humidifier but haven't used it because I was concerned about excess moisture with the damping off. I also have fertilizers, but didn't ever use them because I was concerned the plants were still too delicate for feeding. Thanks for helping a newbie, gotta learn from your mistakes...
dampening off is generally just caused by too much humidity early on, that give any pathogens a great environment to grow in. When I sprout seeds I make sure they are getting plenty of air flow as soon as they sprout and release their seed shell. I dome them before they sprout and until they shed their shell, then I immediately undome them and let them breathe. I recommend not using those cardboard type seedling starters. They're meant for roots to grow through but they really hinder cannabis roots, I like them for vegetables but I've never had good luck with them with cannabis. Just use little tapered cups or normal plastic potting containers. Nutes were probably a bit too strong too in the MG, if you go with something else you can add coco or perlite too it to lighten it up. I've seen ffof be a little too strong for seedlings too. You could always sprout in those little coco or peat plugs. Just make sure to fluff those little coco disks up before planting in them (jiffyplugs etc) Also keeping the light close as they sprout so you don't get stretching. A lot of stretching seems to make them more susceptible to dampening off..or they can just straight fall over from being top heavy also. *also when watering seedlings, I don't soak them. I do a sort of half watering right in the middle by the stem. Same with watering after transplant...I just lightly water until I see roots poking out of the bottom of the container. **what is "incubator unit" ? ?
@Bongsauce it's nothing official, it's just a small unit with a built in light that's only about 12x6x12"- only large enough for seedlings. But the grow light it has is nothing special it's just a standard. THANK YOU for your help!