What could be the reason of dying of newborn seeds?

vincenoir

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Hey guys. I can say that Ive got some experience about beautfully grown plants. Somehow, especially in winter time my seeds cannot survive. Sometimes they re dying during the germination inside the paper towel or after I put them into soil. Some of those cannot come up from the soil, sometimes they re coming out but dying in their first week. They look like they can not hold the soil. It looks like kinda rooting problem If they could reach to the soil stage. Here is my enviromental conditions and processes.

Usually Im soaking the seeds for a couple of days depending on their reaction. Mostly they are germinating well in that step. Later Im trying to manage humidity levels inside cotton or paper towel. In that duration they re staying in warm and dark place. Usually in those stages they look ok but sometimes they gettin too yellowy color which I suspect it because of high humidity. But this one rarely happening.

If they even look nicely germinated when I put them into the soil, they just dying. I usually dont do transplanting because Im not sure If its really effecting to results. Some plants are growing well in anyway. Im putting them to same grow room with the big plants and trying to manage humidity with plastic bottles which has holes for airflowing. I tried both practics. With bottles or giving enough humiditiy to whole tent. I think I couldnt find any stable reaction in both way.

Here is the details about conditions.

I got previously used Plagran soil mix which I added worm castings. Tent and room is usually around 22-26 C degrees. Lights are 18 hours open. Around 400 watt leds for 1.5MX1.5M which is ok I think, I grew very good plants in this setup. If Im using bottles to cover them, for first week Im spraying water inside the bottles regularly to keep them wetty enough. If I dont use bottles tent is usually around in %70-80 humidity. Im using Canna branded liquid fertilisers with natural spring water and Im always measuring the TDS and PH values.Im following the feeding schedule of producer which is only Rhizotonic and Terra Vega in first phase for my case.

So I was thinking to add some additional bacterias like Mykoriza or something. But Im not sure If that is the problem. I mean lack of stimulants for rooting. Somehow this failures mostly happening in winter time, rarely or never in summer time. Im not sure If its just a chance. In my area nights are going down to until 6 C degrees. Yet as I mention, my room and tent is never less than 18-19 Celcius, when even the lights off.

Lastly I want to remind symptoms when they go die. Sometimes they re not coming outside at all and they are rotting in the soil. If they succed to come out some of those still can getting yellowy leafs and dying after a couple of days later. Or most healty ones coming out very good and looks lıke very healty and green leafs. Somehow they cannot go on to grow and lets stayıng there 7-10 days and dying. When I get in this trouble I may be losing 5 to 10 seed seeds in a row. Right now I ve three new borns and not sure If they will survive.
 
"Later Im trying to manage humidity levels inside cotton or paper towel. In that duration they re staying in warm and dark place. Usually in those stages they look ok but sometimes they gettin too yellowy color which I suspect it because of high humidity. But this one rarely happening."

once the seeds crack drop them in the soil 10mm deep,

"If they even look nicely germinated when I put them into the soil, they just dying. I usually dont do transplanting because Im not sure If its really effecting to results"

you may be damaging the tap root at this point, its better to drop them in the soil as soon as the shells crack open.

". Lights are 18 hours open. Around 400 watt leds for 1.5MX1.5M which is ok I think, I grew very good plants in this setup."

400 watts on seedlings sounds like a death sentence to me.

I would not give any nutes to seedlings, except maybe a light dose of root juice...

If the seedlings are dying after planting, your soil may be to hard tamped down, too wet, overdosed with nutes or you are damaging the tap root when transplanting, the seedlings would suffer. from any of these and from 400watt leds blasting them directly..

maybe some pics of your process, soil, setup might add some information.

You may want to wait for some expert advise though, I am just a amateur for fun.
 
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Soak seeds till they sink. Paper towel till they crack, no longer. (The roots can grow into the towel on a level you can’t see).
“ Nicely germinated”. Suggests this is your issue.

Lights backed way down, (I have run sprouts and seedlings under my lights running full tilt, but kept them under the canopy to shield them from the intensity). No nutes first couple weeks, temps 75-85. Rh would be nice to be 65%+, but I’ve grown many many plants that were germinated and grown in 30% or less.



In winter, soil bags not sitting directly on cement, or a tent floor then cement. Air gap between bags and floor.

Years back I had some of the same issues your running into, for me I fixed it with skipping the paper towel (while this system helped with my ADD, cause I could look, it didn’t work for my plants). Soak, and straight to their final home.
 
I meant to reply to this ystrdy, but the sandman had plans for my eyelids that i could not compete with….

my two bitcoins from when i experienced similar losses.

my loses I believe were over night when the light was off and the temp got out of healthy range. I also over watered a tad. so my tip of sorts is to really make sure the temp is consistent.
if your tent or room (grow space) has the pots on the floor like garage, or basement, cold ass closet like mine…it can really sap your pots heat and roots dont like it.
as I said i over watered a bit, now I like a light misting early, to heavier misting when they are just popping and some green is photosynthesizing. But not drenching them down. Mostly to keep the surface moist till the roots get a good week old.

and final tip is a dome or plastic bag (control of room tent etc) for first few days (depending on your set up and space options) To keep that extra humidity the seedlings like. I use old McDonalds/Wendy’s cups. works great, and mine are clear so win win. Too much moisture poke a hole or two in the top to vent.

good luck and keep us posted, i am curious if we have similar issues and fixes…
 
I would check into your soil. A quick google of it I noticed they have a few different blends. I didn't look into all of them but here's a quote for their allmix "Because Allmix is richly fertilized, it is not suitable for very young plants."
It really sounds like hot soil and over fert thing IMO. Find out whats in the soil before you add any of your canna nutes. You may not need to add any canna at all to start. I've never used Canna before but usually you want to half the recommended dosage with most ferts. You might even have to cut the soil with some inert media as well as I suspect it's too hot. Personally I like inert media so I know exactly what's in it and what I need to add.

As mentioned previously you have them under some pretty powerful led's. Make sure they are atleast 35" below the light if not more. I keep mine under a cheapo 10w fluorescent light for the first week or so. Getting the humidity and mykos are just sort of icing on the cake. It's probably not your issue. Seedlings aren't really like clones where they need to have that high humidity. My RH gets as low as 25% in winter. And of course make sure they aren't cold.

Good luck, keep it simple. Less is more !
 
"Later Im trying to manage humidity levels inside cotton or paper towel. In that duration they re staying in warm and dark place. Usually in those stages they look ok but sometimes they gettin too yellowy color which I suspect it because of high humidity. But this one rarely happening."

once the seeds crack drop them in the soil 10mm deep,

"If they even look nicely germinated when I put them into the soil, they just dying. I usually dont do transplanting because Im not sure If its really effecting to results"

you may be damaging the tap root at this point, its better to drop them in the soil as soon as the shells crack open.

". Lights are 18 hours open. Around 400 watt leds for 1.5MX1.5M which is ok I think, I grew very good plants in this setup."

400 watts on seedlings sounds like a death sentence to me.

I would not give any nutes to seedlings, except maybe a light dose of root juice...

If the seedlings are dying after planting, your soil may be to hard tamped down, too wet, overdosed with nutes or you are damaging the tap root when transplanting, the seedlings would suffer. from any of these and from 400watt leds blasting them directly..

maybe some pics of your process, soil, setup might add some information.

You may want to wait for some expert advise though, I am just a amateur for fun.
Thank you for tips. I'll definitely be sure about those steps for the next time. I got only one tent so I ve to use those lights for both youngs and adults. But for seedlings ligths in a distance where at least 1.5 meter. But thanks maybe I need to grow those in a different light condition for a couple of weeks.
 
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