What am i messing up for these seedling?

So I am a first time groener and have some plants that were planted almost 3 weeks ago and lately they look like they're suffering, can anyone tell me how i can fix this / avoid this this in the future? I've looked up some info and i think it might be watering problems and or light problem (have 600w hps in a 4x4 grow space, can be hard to keep the plants from burning but the air temperature haven't been below 20 celcius or above 30 celcius in the weeks since they were planted so i'm very curious as to what i can do better, thanks in advance for any relevant info!

Looks like a nutrient problem to me, but I am a new grower myself. Mind if I suggest you checking out Growweedeasy? Leafly is another good source of information too.

Nutrient problems can be caused by PH problems or too much nutes or "lockout". Watering too much can also cause nutrient problems as well.

If it is possible, I wait until the leaves start to droop before I water my plants. But I am able to check my plants 3-4 times a day, no problem. As soon as I see the leaves droop, I water the soil. But with seedlings and very young plants I go by feel of the soil. I stick my finger in, up to the first or second joint, depending on pot size, to see if they need water.

Good luck my friend! Hope that this newb, can help another newb. lol

Over watering/ lack of drainage

if you've watered that container more than once.....its called overwatering

Quit watering so much. Let them go a few days without water. Maybe longer.

What kind of soil is that? Looks like it needs some perlite for drainage.

maxdaJ420 said:

So I am a first time groener and have some plants that were planted almost 3 weeks ago and lately they look like they're suffering, can anyone tell me how i can fix this / avoid this this in the future? I've looked up some info and i think it might be watering problems and or light problem (have 600w hps in a 4x4 grow space, can be hard to keep the plants from burning but the air temperature haven't been below 20 celcius or above 30 celcius in the weeks since they were planted so i'm very curious as to what i can do better, thanks in advance for any relevant info!

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Thanks for the fast responses, i do think i overwatered indeed! Having a hard time watering them correctly because of the hps drying out the top layer of soil within hours! Will try waiting untill the leaves start drooping from now on, otherwise i tend to overcompensate the watering. I Believe there's perlite in there but will check to be sure!

So we have overwatering on the table.
What about too much light, or maybe seedling sprouter soil stunting

maxdaJ420 said:

Thanks for the fast responses, i do think i overwatered indeed! Having a hard time watering them correctly because of the hps drying out the top layer of soil within hours! Will try waiting untill the leaves start drooping from now on, otherwise i tend to overcompensate the watering. I Believe there's perlite in there but will check to be sure!

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Let me help you out here bro first thing is 600w for a baby is way to much light second buy good bag of soil Believe it or not Miracle grow is perfect for novice growers you can even buy roots organics or Fox farm That already has the perfect PH and nutrients for your plants.They also have perlite and Cocoa core mix in. This would eliminate guessing your ph guessing your nutrients and solve your drainage and moisture problem. The other guys are right it looks like you're overwatering ur plants a good way to check is to put your finger into the soil and feel if it's still moist and thats how you determin if you need to water every plant is different and we'll drink as they please. Happy grow

also picking up the pot and feeling the weight of it.
It will feel substantially lighter when it's time to water

Alright i'm planning on transplanting to plagron royalmix (good soil available in my area, has perlite and bacteria that are good for weed etc), and will water them once every 2-3 days and see how they cope with the damage they have received! Unfortunately i have no fluros or other good lamps for the early stages so i'll try moving the lamp further away to avoid light burns, i had trouble in the beginning with stretching when the lamp was about 4-5 feet away from the plants so i'm wondering what a good distance would be under the 600w hps. Thanks again for all the advice everyone, with your input i'm sure i'll manage to grow some good grass not too long from now!

You didn't mention what soil you are currently using. Could it be too rich, or too poor?
I've had seedlings stunt and stay seedlings forever, left in seedling mix. Must have zero nitrogen or something.
Your crispy edges would fit well the the converse though, burning from too rich.

I don't know plagron royalmix, but here's a thread of someone using that soil, with the same setup (600w hps, seedlings), and experiencing the exact same thing.
Plagron may not save you.
https://www.rollitup.org/t/new-indoor-grow-plagron-royalty-mix-soil.244757/

Someone else found that with Plagron Royalmix, he needed to flush before growing or there was very a high PH runoff, and presumably root zone.

"i tested the run off water from my plants a while back and noticed that it had a pH of about 8-9. i thought this was very strange as i was watering with water that had a pH of 5.5-6 and the soil i was using (plagron royalty mix) is supposed to have a pH of 6-7.

after realising this i got a 2 litre pot and filled it with the plagron soil. i then began to water it with acidic water (pH 4) i kept doing this till the run off water was about 6.5.
i did the same with another pot, this one had bio bizz all-mix in it and it took pretty much the same amount of acidic water to bring the pH down to 6.5. (about 10 litres of water for each pot)"
https://www.rollitup.org/t/soil-ph-is-too-high.389961/

Thanks so much GreenLogician, i hadn't thought about flushing the soil before using it so you just prevented me from making a fatal mistake! i don't know exactly what kind of soil they're growing in right now, at the grow shop it was recommended to me for seedlings and the first 1-2 weeks of growth went relatively well so it would indeed seem likely that the soil has ran out of nitrogen. I hope that transplanting into the flushed and ph'd Royalmix will lead to some improvement! Again, infinite thanks for all this info to help me get my grow on!!!

Try watering ur seedlings with a spray bottle to avoid over watering, and do ur watering over the course of the day so the water can spread and sink instead of soaking an area and getting run-off, u can add in a bit of nutes a few days after it breaks ground
This seedling is 8 days old in a 3 gallon cloth pot, im using green fields, sensi grow a&b and mammoth p, and foliar spraying photosynthesis p when it gets bigger, 400w LED in a 3x3x5 tent also LSTing early as u can see

whitebb2727 said:

Quit watering so much. Let them go a few days without water. Maybe longer.

What kind of soil is that? Looks like it needs some perlite for drainage.

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It would probably take a week or longer for that to dry out ......I add lots of perlite to my new bags of soil ...FFOF,RO707,even my seed starter soil....in my Grn.houses il top off my smart pots straight out of the bag ((no perlite added)) and it's crazy how much more dense the soil is straight out of the bag....stays wet and compacts way more than I prefer....and those are soils meant for what we grow....when in doubt ....more perlite...lol

Good eye btw

Good tip L3on, will get a spray bottle today! Your little plant looks very good, hope i can get mine to grow like that at some point too! I think there should be enough perlite in the new soil to prevent me from overwatering again, if not i'll know to buy more perlite!

Okay so I am a fairly new grower myself. Why does everyone always suggest perlite instead of sand?

Just my personal preference, but I don't care for perlite. If you need to flush (as I had to) perlite tends to float losing all of the benefits that it is intended for. Sand on the other hand, stays put. Matter of fact I hate perlite and vermiculite because of the fact that they will float.

MadMel said:

Okay so I am a fairly new grower myself. Why does everyone always suggest perlite instead of sand?

Just my personal preference, but I don't care for perlite. If you need to flush (as I had to) perlite tends to float losing all of the benefits that it is intended for. Sand on the other hand, stays put. Matter of fact I hate perlite and vermiculite because of the fact that they will float.

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and you'll find with experience you wont be flushing any longer, and perlite will be your best option.

Sand water-logs too, and u could just end up in a situation where the sand is all at the bottom and is trapping the water into the pot and stopping runoff, might lead to all sorts of problems not the least of which is root rot, perlite may float but if mixed into the soil and not just piled on top its not gonna all float up, also if ur flushing for harvest and not to get rid of a nute buildup in ur soil thats hurting ur plant and u have a visible layer of just water on top when ur flushing thats waaay too much water, just saturate the soil over a little while longer, if ur water is all running right thru the pot its not really flushing just kinda drowning, just feed the plant with plain water the same way uve been feeding it anything else mayb twice a day in the morning and evening.. sorry for the novel hah

If u insist on using sand make sure its unsalted