seedling laying down

If a seedling with a good size stem of maybe 3 inches decides to lay down (with 1st true small leaves still being green, but small), does it mean that the thing will absolutely die (or already is dead)? Or, can the seedling still recover and possibly stand up again on its own?

Anyone with experience ever see them stand back up again?

fourtwentychat said:

If a seedling with a good size stem of maybe 3 inches decides to lay down (with 1st true small leaves still being green, but small), does it mean that the thing will absolutely die (or already is dead)? Or, can the seedling still recover and possibly stand up again on its own?

Anyone with experience ever see them stand back up again?

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With my experience, no. Once one seedling I had started laid down it yellowed up and died within 2 days, note that's from lack of care though because I had no extra room for it. Now if it stays green say 4 days from doing what yours did, there's no reason it has no hope, unless it yellows and browns up. Let it go and see what happens, unless you're seeing bugs or it's leaves mottled.

I would stake it up with cocktail sticks or something, i quite often have to prop seedlings up. We u repot it make sure u bury the extra stem up to the first set of leafs.

maby its just tired haha, but yea i agree with what mr wesst said, if it fails it will probly shrival up and die =/

Build some dirt up around the stem,(burying it deeper) so that it keeps the plant standing up. Then if it lives, re-pot it like mr west said, and bury the stem deeper in the soil.

mr west said:

I would stake it up with cocktail sticks or something, i quite often have to prop seedlings up. We u repot it make sure u bury the extra stem up to the first set of leafs.

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If you don't have a cocktail stick, you may try a toothpick, and use one of those bread ties. Say early training? Don't choke it by tying it up tight though!

how close to ur light is this seedling? .. might also just be a dud plant

3 inches with one set of leaves songs like a stretchy seedling. mine normally stick around an inch, maybe less, by the tim the first leaevs are say an inch long each.

what light are you using and how far away is it?

tip top toker said:

3 inches with one set of leaves songs like a stretchy seedling. mine normally stick around an inch, maybe less, by the tim the first leaevs are say an inch long each.

what light are you using and how far away is it?

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There was one seedling that out-did every other by about 2 inches, which meant that I could no longer use the original 2" humidity dome after the 2 days it took to reach that height. So, I switched to a much larger dome, because the 2" dome was causing some bend on that one super size seedling. But I think it may have caused more trouble than good for the other seedlings, when I was forced to switch domes. This is because the light I was using for seedlings (single 23 watt or 27, not sure) now had to be moved even further away (this new dome is much larger).

I'm going to try removing the dome and keep the light closer (seedlings started about 7 days ago, and most came up, but some look stunted (haven't opened cotyldon yet).

I kinda stuck in a piece of cardboard around the two that fell down - trying to keep it propped up...one is fairly straight now, but the other stem looks weaker.

It's too early for big roots, but I could try transplanting to a cup (and filling in the stem all the way to the leaves) if you guys still think that is the better way to go.

So, leave them alone, and hope the cardboard perks things up, or put in a cup and fill very high with medium up to leaf?

youd be suprised on how fast the roots will grow in search of nutrients and water.. ive had taproots showing at the bottom of the cups i use for seedlings in 3 days after they had cracked and been planted.. and the plants themselves were only about 1.5- 2 inches tall

your using a dome for seedlings too? u wanna keep ur babys in the fresh air as close to the light as u can get em without burnin.. ull know when ur plants getting hot when the leaves start pointing upward reaching toward the light... good tip for checking heat put ur hand infront of ur light right above your plants for a couple mins.. if it feels too hot for u well its too hot for ur ladys

fourtwentychat said:

There was one seedling that out-did every other by about 2 inches, which meant that I could no longer use the original 2" humidity dome after the 2 days it took to reach that height. So, I switched to a much larger dome, because the 2" dome was causing some bend on that one super size seedling. But I think it may have caused more trouble than good for the other seedlings, when I was forced to switch domes. This is because the light I was using for seedlings (single 23 watt or 27, not sure) now had to be moved even further away (this new dome is much larger).

I'm going to try removing the dome and keep the light closer (seedlings started about 7 days ago, and most came up, but some look stunted (haven't opened cotyldon yet).

I kinda stuck in a piece of cardboard around the two that fell down - trying to keep it propped up...one is fairly straight now, but the other stem looks weaker.

It's too early for big roots, but I could try transplanting to a cup (and filling in the stem all the way to the leaves) if you guys still think that is the better way to go.

So, leave them alone, and hope the cardboard perks things up, or put in a cup and fill very high with medium up to leaf?

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Removing the dome sounds good, the domes about only good for clones, along with bringing the light as close as 3-4 inches should reduce the stretching. What kelvin rating is your light?

Lil Weedy said:

Removing the dome sounds good, the domes about only good for clones, along with bringing the light as close as 3-4 inches should reduce the stretching. What kelvin rating is your light?

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It's the right spectrum (6500k). It's funny...last time I killed them all with the light too close, and this time having it too farm made everything super stretchy and brittle. I think when I moved the tray, the shakiness hurt the super long seedlings - making it impossible to carry the weight with that height.

I'm not really angry...just disappointed at all the really good stuff that I let die both times.

I packed some more seedling starter medium around the stems (still in prop. tray) to try to keep the rest from dying, but now there are mounds around everything...might be difficult to transplant (if things do survive) when ready.

fourtwentychat said:

It's the right spectrum (6500k). It's funny...last time I killed them all with the light too close, and this time having it too farm made everything super stretchy and brittle. I think when I moved the tray, the shakiness hurt the super long seedlings - making it impossible to carry the weight with that height.

I'm not really angry...just disappointed at all the really good stuff that I let die both times.

I packed some more seedling starter medium around the stems (still in prop. tray) to try to keep the rest from dying, but now there are mounds around everything...might be difficult to transplant (if things do survive) when ready.

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Usually the humidity dome is removed, as soon as your seedlings break the surface. Too much humidity past that point, can cause you a lot of problems. I stretched some of my first seedlings - wound up tieing them up with a toothpick, until I could transplant. There were a couple of times, they fell over limp, almost dead looking - it was because of underwatering. They rely on water to keep their turgor, so you may be drying them out too much. When you transplant, bury the stems up to the first set of leaves. Lastly - make sure you have a fan in there, to help those stems grow stronger. Not pointing right on them - but more kind of shivering them.
Good luck!

Thanks for the advice; I didn't know that the humidity dome should be removed once they've made an appearance. This may have caused me a little trouble last time as well.

With these super tall seedlings, is there a good (optimal) time to transplant? This is day 8 since they were placed into medium/tray/dome...whereas they made an appearance around day 3.

I probably should have used plugs to make transplanting easier...instead some cocoa starter medium was used.

Last question: I've been doing 18/6, but would it maybe be better to run pure 24/0 for a few days instead?

well u dont wanna shock your plants too many times by switching its light schedual.. if u switch to 24/0 u should leave it for a while till u switch over to 12/12 for flowering

and as soon as the plant gets 3-5 sets of leaves ur plant will be rooted enough to transplant.. but you also wont wanna do that for a while again once u do it.. so make sure ur pots are big enough for all the new growth

You can transplant now, if you like - once my seedlings are approximately 3-4 days old, I transplant them into their final, three gallon homes. Never had a problem doing it that way. Personally I use a 20/4 light schedual - it's a nice balance between vegatative growth, and root growth - best I've found so far.

Been about 8 hours since playing the prop-it-up game (made higher mounds of medium around the elongated stems in the prop. tray).

So, doctors, approximately how long should I expect to have to wait before knowing whether or not the procedure was a success.

[Before]
Two long stemmed seedlings were both laying down (one looked pretty bent, nearly broken, in the middle and the other looked as though it had just given up with a very limp stem).

[Now (8 hours later)]
Both are still propped up. The bent (nearly broken) seedling had been covered up with medium until it passed the part that had bent over. Now, after these 8 hours, the non-bent part is still very sturdy - sticking out of the medium (~ 1 inch) and fully supporting the 1st leaves with no drooping present (not sure how the stem actually is underneath the mound of medium).

The limp-stem seedling needed much more support than it's sister - almost completely covering up the entire stem. So, I can't tell if it is sturdy, and I won't be uncovering these higher grow medium mounds any time soon.

[Facts]
- Colors on both are very good.
- Both seedlings' 1st true leaves look *very* good and perky

So, any ideas on how long it might take before I *really* know if they are dying or fighting?

They'll probably be fighting! They want to survive, no point in them dying.

I had a small plant with a tendency to lean and it worked perfect to LST.

Good Luck!!!