Seedlings shriveled up after removing plastic/humidity cover?

Hey guys long time no hello. Hoping someone can advise on how to prevent other seedlings from shriveling up. Planted directly in DWC reservoir, she sprouted a few days ago and have been keeping a plastic wrap over the net cup to keep humidity up during while germinating...she sprouted a few days ago and last night I removed the plastic and woke up to find her all shriveled up. The other seeds next to her are looking good with plastic covers still on them though how long do i need to keep them in high humidity or how do i prevent them from drying up after removing plastic? It's November & in a small grow tent with relative humidity about 35% ave.. seedlings kept under 24hr light + trying to keep up overall humidity so after i remove plastic covers they don't shrivel up..how long do i need to keep them in high humidity/under plastic and when i remove the plastic how can i prevent them from drying up?

Looks pretty normal. It's important to remove the hood or plastic bag covering the seedlings directly when it peaks through the soil surface.

They may die of damp off if you don't put a small fan blowing on the soil/plug surface. It looks a little bit to moist to me.

Wastei said:

Looks ok to me. It's important to remove the hood or plastic bag covering the seedlings directly when it perks through the soil surface

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Thx man this pic was taken 3 days ago & she sprouted up nicely since then. Last night I removed the plastic sheet completely and now she's shriveled up (foliage is shriveled but roots still in tact, *putting that one in another cup to see what happens **prolly nothing). So should I remove the plastic on all the other reservoirs now as all the other seedlings have just started to come up? The seed shell is still on 2 of them but they have sprouted up above the surface already? I'm afraid if I do so they'll all just dry up again.

bonytang said:

Thx man this pic was taken 3 days ago & she sprouted up nicely since then. Last night I removed the plastic sheet completely and now she's shriveled up. So should I remove the plastic on all the other reservoirs now as all the other seedlings have just started to come up? The seed shell is still on 2 of them but they have sprouted up above the surface already? I'm afraid if I do so they'll all just dry up again.

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No problem dude! Put a light fan on and mist them gently with some water a couple of times a day if you want to play it safe.

I start my seedlings without a dome. Using a dome makes them soft. You have to harden them by taking the dome off for a short period and putting it back on. Keep making the off time longer until they don't need the dome anymore. But in the future skip the dome.

Wastei said:

Put a light fan on and mist them gently with some water if you want to play it safe.

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Yep, though the fact that I just removed the plastic sheet last night 12AM, and only in 8hrs it dried out, guessing i need to maybe spray her quite often since it only took 8hrs to dry up...or perhaps just keep the sheet on another week maybe get her just a little bigger/stronger? Last year when i popped seeds i didn't need to use plastic sheets on top of reservoir but i guess the beans have just got older and need some extra attention/i.e. the plastic sheets so they are going from high humidity to 35% humidity...how can i guess keep up humidity in a small space long enough to just get them to adjust to relative humidity?

Renfro said:

I start my seedlings without a dome. Using a dome makes them soft. You have to harden them by taking the dome off for a short period and putting it back on. Keep making the off time longer until they don't need the dome anymore. But in the future skip the dome.

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TY. Will start to do that now with the other 2 + will keep closer attention to them during this time.

bonytang said:

Yep, though the fact that I just removed the plastic sheet last night 12AM, and only in 8hrs it dried out, guessing i need to maybe spray her quite often since it only took 8hrs to dry up...or perhaps just keep the sheet on another week maybe get her just a little bigger/stronger? Last year when i popped seeds i didn't need to use plastic sheets on top of reservoir but i guess the beans have just got older and need some extra attention/i.e. the plastic sheets so they are going from high humidity to 35% humidity...how can i guess keep up humidity in a small space long enough to just get them to adjust to relative humidity?

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It all depends on your situation. Nowadays I got a humidifier so I don't bother using domes. They are not really needed for sprouting seeds. I think cuttings should be rooted in water/DWC bucket without a dome as well.

Do as Renfro suggested or spray them with water. It will have the same effect.

Had this dome of death situation with a transplanted clone. You remove the dome the shock of humidity change wilts,, you leave the dome on, the medium never dries out, dropping, wilting.

You have to slowly condition to lower humidity. Bigger dome, no misting let evaperation, transpiration add the humidity. and or add a little air hole to the dome will reduce the humidity slightly. Don't give them toomuch light or wind when out of the dome. Only for a few minutes at a time at first if the leaves go a bit limp replace dome fast.

Wastei said:

It all depends on your situation. Nowadays I got a humidifier so I don't bother using domes. They are not really needed for sprouting seeds. I think cuttings should be rooted in water/DWC bucket without a dome as well.

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Yep, that's exactly where I'm at right now bro. I tried to put some cuttings (for my 1st time) about 2-3 weeks ago with little luck. 2 of the 6 look ok still but it's been over 10-12 days now with no roots yet. They're still alive and they look like the roots are about to hit so I will def update on those. I usually just transplant already rooted clones but yes have just now started to clone/grow my own cuttings in DWC. A friend of mine uses a little aeroponics kit with his clones but DWC reservoir is same so now i'm thinking since i keep cuttings & seedlings in the same tent, my problem here is pretty much low humidity for both cuttings & seedlings..

ubluntu said:

Had this dome of death situation with a transplanted clone. You remove the dome the shock of humidity change wilts,, you leave the dome on, the medium never dries out, dropping, wilting.

You have to slowly condition to lower humidity. Bigger dome, no misting let evaperation, transpiration add the humidity. and or add a little air hole to the dome will reduce the humidity slightly. Don't give them toomuch light or wind when out of the dome. Only for a few minutes at a time at first if the leaves go a bit limp replace dome fast.

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This is why you should root cuttings in water/DWC bucket. It's to much work and unstable method using rockwool cubes or whatever under a dome.

ubluntu said:

Had this dome of death situation with a transplanted clone. You remove the dome the shock of humidity change wilts,, you leave the dome on, the medium never dries out, dropping, wilting.

You have to slowly condition to lower humidity. Bigger dome, no misting let evaperation, transpiration add the humidity. and or add a little air hole to the dome will reduce the humidity slightly. Don't give them toomuch light or wind when out of the dome. Only for a few minutes at a time at first if the leaves go a bit limp replace dome fast.

Click to expand...

TY man I'll cut holes on the other 2 now. I just slightly removed the sheets a little to introduce less humidity but making slits are a great idea so i don't have to keep putting the sheet on every few hours or so.

You really don't need a dome for seedlings. As long as the root is in a damp plug there's no reason for it to wilt. You're likely causing it to rot and wilt from being to wet and minimal air exchange.

I think the issue could also be the LED light is too close to the seedling, when the plastic sheet is above the seedling, the light is diffused, with the sheet removed the light is intensified and this could be overwhelming the seedling before it has a chance to photosynthesize/utilize those approaching photons.

I'd raise the LED and add a cfl to the setup if I were you, seedlings benefit from small doses of UV light, UV light from the Sun is continual throughout the season, the the sun doesn't withhold UV from seedlings during the early springtime germination, and if we want optimized growth then we will replicate what the Sun provides.

LED diodes where designed/developed from existing knowledge that was previously used over top of existing laser technology, way back in the 60's, LED lights use diodes just like certain lasers do, that's all I'm saying LED light is a singular directional type of light in nature this means understanding of the lights intensity has to be understood, there are proper ways to use any well designed tool.

Wastei said:

This is why you should root cuttings in water/DWC bucket. It's to much work and unstable method using rockwool cubes or whatever under a dome.

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It was rooted in a glass vile in a mason jar dome. Transplanted to soil. I've ditched the domes, i never used them before, idk why i was at the time. I think i was overdoing the light on the mom and it wilted a bit after cutting becasue the transpiration was already high. Then i was stuck in the dome of death like OP.

ubluntu said:

It was rooted in a glass vile in a mason jar dome. Transplanted to soil. I've ditched the domes, i never used them before, idk why i was at the time. I think i was overdoing the light on the mom and it wilted a bit after cutting becasue the transpiration was already high. Then i was stuck in the dome of death like OP.

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That's what happened to one of the 4 cuts that didn't make it, I did a self-made dome & overnight it wilted so kept trying some other things for the next one's. I mentioned earlier that of the 6, 2 are still OK but I think I've already given up on those for the most part. I'm happy with what I have in grow and really tried to do the cloning out of curiosity, so now i think my next attempt i'll just focus on the clone environment vs the dwc environment i keep them in now/growing from seed in this (smaller) tent.

mustbetribbin said:

I think the issue could also be the LED light is too close to the seedling, when the plastic sheet is above the seedling, the light is diffused, with the sheet removed the light is intensified and this could be overwhelming the seedling before it has to photosynthesize/utilize those approaching photons.

I'd raise the LED and add a cfl to the setup if I were you, seedlings benefit from small doses of UV light, UV light from the Sun is continual throughout the season, the the sun doesn't withhold UV from seedlings during the early springtime germination, and if we want optimized growth then we will replicate what the Sun provides.

LED diodes where designed/developed from existing knowledge that was previously used over top of existing laser technology, way back in the 60's, LED lights use diodes just like certain lasers do, that's all I'm saying LED light is omnidirectional in nature this means understanding of light intensity has to be understood, there are proper ways to use any well designed tool.

Click to expand...

Great info, i've heard cfl + led work good together though not in that much detail - - especially for seedlings. I don't know if my baby tent can handle any more but i could start from scratch in a different, new, small baby tent. The Photos here is pretty much what's going on except for the last photo which was just a snap from a while ago. I'll get some other pics up on the soon to flower tent - the bigger one with just 2 plants (tent on the right.)

Here's the tent next to the seedling tent, this one I want to flip by thxgvng and will probably end up keeping the little plant on the left in grow in another little space or see if she at least hits the trellis and just keep her in there // i'm running out of room!..

KryptoBud said:

You really don't need a dome for seedlings. As long as the root is in a damp plug there's no reason for it to wilt. You're likely causing it to rot and wilt from being to wet and minimal air exchange.

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Without the dome/plastic i've had zero luck so dome was the way to just try get something started but now i can see there's also problems too in getting the seedlings acclimated from dome environment to tent environment.

Another tip, Vitagrow antiwilt. That shit works, but you gotta get the underside of the leaves. Great for clones though.

What kind of temperatures are the seedlings experiencing within your setup? Maybe get a thermometer reading for us? If the temps are too cold w/ included dampness then that can definitely add extra odds against the survival of a seedling, maybe check there for underlying issues.

Are you planning on running a light timer after the seedlings grow for a day or 2, or are you planning on running them for 24/7 continually?