Why are my seedling's leaves bending down?

I have five auto flower seedlings in my grow tent. They're about 8 days old and some leaves are curling downwards. I thought it could be from over watering so I stopped watering for two days when an inch deep into the soil was dry, i watered it again. It's now been 48 hours and the soil is getting near dry again. I don't think it's from overwatering but I wanna make sure before I go watering again. I have a 6inch fan at the bottom of the tent blowing in air from the outside, and another toward the top on the other side of the tent blowing air out of the tent. I had an 600w HPS in but changed it yesterday afternoon with a 600MH. The light is one foot away from the plants and the soil is 72-77°f (measured with a solid thermometer) and the tent is between 70-77°. I used Foxfarm soil soil it's not the soil, and I have used any fertilizer. Any help is much appreciated, thanks for your time!

This is what happens when you don't add that vital 25% perlite to Fox Farm Ocean Forest soils

avoid overwatering

lift the pot Think!

then water or not

see the chart for the correct height

but they could be better under a couple of CFl's for 2 -3 weeks first



now's a good time to paint or wrap them white pots in kitchen foil or paint black

good luck

My bad, I forgot to mention that I added 20% organic perlite to the soil. The light is so close to the seedlings because they had been tilting toward the light which at the time was HPS. Once I realized how much of an impact HPS had on autoflowrers, I immediately went online and purchas a new 600w metal halide bulb. This morning I noticed that two of the seedlings starting tilting towards the opposite direction of the last light (assuming it might be because MH is working better?) so I brought the light to 18 inches away from the seedlings. Although heat was an issue, I don't believe it's what's causing the leaves to bend. Any other possibilities?

Them pots look way to big for the seedlings, looks like you could be watering to the pot and hence overwatered. You need to start in small pots for seedlings and ensure theres enough drainage holes. The roots like to search for water in a smaller area i.e in smaller pot and just gently water around the stem untill they pick up. Once the root system has search out most of that small pot the roots will start poking out the bottom thro the drainage holes. Then its time to pot up bigger. Btw as mentioned would be better to start under a few cfl's aswell you can get lights closer to seedlings without the worry of burning the leaves.
Good luck buddy

David Fisk said:

My bad, what's causing the leaves to bend. Any other possibilities?

Click to expand...

Bend down = overwatering

Bend up = to hot

Bend Left = Photomorphic

Bend Right = Republican

good luck

ps keep a temp gauge and fan at hand