slow seedlings

hey i got a few seedlings around 2 weeks old. first time starting them in a hydro setting.

their in rapid rooter plugs, have a few roots reaching the water. water is 65 F has around 200ppm from.ro. and ph of 5.8 (calmag + GH trio) temp is 77F in the tent now and i have lights on for 24hours as of today. (lights off temp was too cold) this is my worse looking n best looking of the bunch. let me know what you think.

not sure if they could use more food or what. i also havent been hand watering which i prob should have been doing

200ppm is too low. RO is adjusted to 250 ppm with Cal Mag even b4 your base nutes are added.

This gives a good idea of the numbers to be close to.

What's the hurry with putting them in the hydro? Can't they get some roots established in the Rapidrooters? I dunno, when I use Jiffy pellets for seedlings I let the seedling grow some roots out of the juffy pel before I put them in the hydro.

70's natureboy said:

What's the hurry with putting them in the hydro? Can't they get some roots established in the Rapidrooters? I dunno, when I use Jiffy pellets for seedlings I let the seedling grow some roots out of the juffy pel before I put them in the hydro.

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i was watering them 3x a day lol they had long roots coming out the bottom. dried up quick tho.

Jypsy Dog said:

200ppm is too low. RO is adjusted to 250 ppm with Cal Mag even b4 your base nutes are added.

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thanks i readjusted my nutes.
flushed my system and did 250 ppm of cal mag n then gh trio up to 340. been about 6 hours there now and they look ok.

was just thinking as well....

i had my seedlings in rapid rooters and they had good roots and were growing good. but then i placed them in my system it almost seemed to completely stunt them.

i put just a 1 rock thick layer of hydroton on the bottom of the netpot then put my rapid rooter on that, i believe i shouldve maybe did 3 or 4 layers of pebbles then the rapid rooter. my water level seems low but my rooter plugs are drenched.

i carefully lifted them out and added more clay pebbles before i put them back in.

all my seedlings had good roots coming out of the rapid rooters i think they just may of had to dry out a little better.

**** update switched my res to plain ol tap water n the roots are flying out now.. not sure why the RO wasnt working .

louiedogg said:

**** update switched my res to plain ol tap water n the roots are flying out now.. not sure why the RO wasnt working .

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Just tap water? Or did you add your nutrients to it as well?

Axion42 said:

Just tap water? Or did you add your nutrients to it as well?

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just straight up tap water, been seeing new roots shoot out of the netpot everyday now, i will add nutes probably today. just trying to figure out why they didnt like my RO water.

Those clay balls are horrible to grow grass in. The roots end up breaking because of their weight! That is probably why your seedling is not growing so much. They are very tender so young and I bet everytime the plant throws out a new root they clay balls snap it and that is what is hindering your progression!

SoMe_EfFin_MasS_HoLe said:

Those clay balls are horrible to grow grass in. The roots end up breaking because of their weight! That is probably why your seedling is not growing so much. They are very tender so young and I bet everytime the plant throws out a new root they clay balls snap it and that is what is hindering your progression!

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im not so sure about that, i repotted them up higher in the pellets n stopped handwatering and i got little fishbone roots as i call them already.

it was definitely misusing of the RO water which is weird cuz last time i had no issue with ro, mustve been beginners luck lol.

although i tried adding nutes to my tap water, the ph stays at a solid 7 no matter how often i adjust it... im gonna try refilling my rez with ro again n hopefully my new roots dont die off