First Grow - "Stealth" - Bagseed - 130W CFL: All input welcome!!

they look great H&P!!! the one in the bucket is going to be a beast

hudman, you do have drainage holes in your cups, correct? if they are falling over they still somehow sound overwatered.

Allright...freaking embarrising but here are some photos that might help solve this riddle. 1st pic is how close I am putting the lights....should be fine as they are just flouros. 2nd pic is an example of what is happening.... plant comes up fine looking awesome...then the stalk starts to thin and get dark, plant falls over and starts to die... 3rd pic is one of the plants that I took out of the ground to check out the roots. 4th pic is simply some living plants (Jalepenos) (Carrots)....insert joke here_______. 5th pic is the holes in the bottom of the cup for drainage.

My observation is that I may possibly be over wetting the soil prior to seed transfer. I guess the soil could be over saturated so the roots are rotting....not sure though.
I also am concerned with the yellowing of the soil at the top...is this just from the lights or is something else going on? Jalepenos are in the same soil.

Soil is Happy Frog from Ocean Forest with some extra perlite mixed in. The soil is also getting very hard on top, not sure if this is normal or not...

One day I will look back on this and laugh but for now I am going through some cash on wasted seeds..... so please help me solve this so I can get past the seedling stage.

maybe try planting them suckers a little deeper in the soil???

What are your day and night temps hudman? The top of the soil looks like it may be salt and/or mineral deposits. Where is your water supply coming from? Have you been able to check pH?

A great method I found for wetting seedling soil prior to planting is to take half the soil you plan to use and wet it well, mixing it as you go. Now this soil should hold together well if you pick up a clump and squeeze it into a ball. Now take the other half of the soil and mix it with this wet soil. Plant seed and cover till sprouts.

I agree with gumball on the seedling-soil method. Works great for me too.

I recently planted three more seeds...2 pineapple chunk and one Jack Herer... went with much less water this time...also planted the seeds at 1/2 inch as suggested. Covered with plastic. SHould sprout up in a few days. I have one very healthy looking plant going right now. We will see how it does.

H&P since you also started in party cups can you tell me how long you waited to water once the sprout came up? I would think the initial watering would last at least 4 or 5 days.... thoughts?

Temps are between 70 and 75 at the max....garage temps are very stable. I have an ocilating fan moving and blowing on low constantly to help strenghten stem.

So I still think the plants were dying from to much water to begin with....I think they sprouted and were growing fine up top while down below the soil the roots were drowning. Thoughts on this???

I honestly just water it when it wants to be watered haha. When the soils dried up at least 2 inches down it gets some h2o.

A pic of each of the girls and the new additions to the family! (Purple Kush clone and some bagseeds)

Milly is gettin huge!

Yo H&P!!! That girl is getting large! Is that a party cup grow? I see you are germing some newbies... looks like a new grow log coming. lol

Ok here is a pic of Tera....she seems to be doing fine at this time. She is 4 days old and looks good right now. Have not watered her since planting...cup is still pretty heavy. The 2nd pic is of my Jalepenos and Cilantro...hahaha still doing well.
3rd pic is of my new ring of hos... Jessie, Devon, and Jenna. They havnt sprouted yet but should in the next couple of days. I think I will be getting a nex light system soon..looking at the Sunburst Digital...400w combo.... but first I have to get past the seedling stage..

Since I just planted some new ones I'll document the steps I go through during the seedlings just for you hudsy. We're gonna get your through this stage dammit!

But Tera is lookin' great man. Just let her be and don't water her until her soil is dry ~2" from the top--she'll be pretty big by then.

It's been a busy-ass week. One of the local dispensaries had some Headband in stock so I thought I'd give it a shot.

Wooh. Little more Indica based this time around. Haven't had a chance to enjoy it until tonight because both times before it knocked me straight on my ass haha.

Nice man... I am open ears on the seedlings my friend...if I can ever get past this stage im golden. Let me know step by step... even if you could measure the water or something...hahaha... I looked at Tera this morning and she has a little yellowing on the ends of her leaves.... ideas on this? I still have nto watered her. She seems to be growing fine just hope this yellowing doesnt lead to anything. The other ladies have still not sprouted. Should be any time now.

Here is a pic of the yellowing....other than that she looks good... will keep an eye on her.

OK...I finally figured out what has been killing my plants....dampening off. There is no doubt. All the symptoms are exactly what has been happening. I will try harder to prevent this in the future.

Any issues with this ever..anyone? How to prevent?

K hudsy, temps have been 75-83F in the cab where I'm sprouting the seedlings. I've kept them approx 1" from the lights but I just moved them now that the seed has sprouted because I think it's a bit to close and I don't want them to get roasted. They're about 4" from the lights now. 2 of them have sprouted and 1 will be sprouting soon, I just planted her deeper because she had a longass taproot.

Pic one is Milly. She's about 9" tall and 12" across.

Pic 2 is the BBH, the lil AK-47 and the new Purple Kush clone that I'm gonna make a mother. It's been currently sitting under a shitty 13W 6500K CFL (LOL) but I just haven't had time to go to Home Depot. Anyhow we'll fix that soon enough.

Last pic are the 3 bagseeds. If I get a male I think I might try to pollinate a branch on one or two of my females. Why not, ya know? Of course I have to think this through because I don't want to mess up an entire lot of girls.

Anyhow these are going 12/12 from seed ala SmellyTreeZ.

Thanks for the info H&P....did you use the same method of wetting only half the soil? What soil are you using? WAtered in the seed with a cap full of water?

Yeah I used pretty moderately damp soil. It was almost dry when I checked on the babies today but that's also due to their proximity to the lights, things were gettin' baked! And yeah I put like half a shotglass of water of top of where I planted the seed. I'm using about 70% Fox Farm Ocean Forest and 30% Peat Moss. I gave them about a shot glass worth of water around the edge of where the sprouts are today since the soil was so dry.

Ok..cool. I think this has been my problem all along. I am going to the hydro store today and also asking them how to help prevent this from happening. i have some seeds germing now so hopefully I can end this madness...lol. I really appreciate your support...I should be able to finally get a grow going. I will hit you back when seeds have popped!

Well I don't usually have that problem, the soil drying out. I think this time it was mostly a combination of me making the soil drier than usual this time around and also the cups being too close to the lights.

Yo H&P!! How about a update this weekend buddy!