Time for a permanent home for seedlings?

First time grower here. This is my first posting on this forum, I've read just about every sticky and guide I could find, so please forgive me for my n00bness. Anyway, I have a real budget/amateur setup and here's what I have after about a week from some bag-seed. I know the stems are long and awkward; I think that's mostly due to having them under a single CFL for a few days before I got my setup constructed. I have them now under 4 CFLs, two in the high spectrum and two in the low (I'm running on a tight budget, so I could only afford 4 bulbs, HPS is out of the question for now). All together though, it should output around 5000 lumens. I also have the lights as low as they can go without touching the plants. And I currently have them on a 18/6 light cycle. The one in the back is all on its side, but still looks relatively healthy and it has lots of roots (Update: I have it now leaned up against a match-stick for support).

Anyway, I'm here to ask if now would be a good time to transplant them into a permanent pot. I have them started in peat pellets, but I don't know how long they can stay in here. I've checked around them and they all have roots protruding the sides of the pellets. I was thinking about getting a smaller fiber-peat pot and doing a second transplant when they out grow that, but I'm not so sure if doing two transplants would be healthy. So far I only have the four, and the rest seem to be no shows or late bloomers. So what should my next step be? If I do move them into a pot, how small can it be? I only have the four lights and the four plants, so I'm trying to save on space. Thanks for any help you can give. Please let me know if you need more information or pics.

If the roots are coming out , transplant now to whatever size pots you have. You can transplant again without harm to them. You just don't want roots in the light. it's not good for them.

Also, if you used your peat pellets in the humidi-dome they came with, unless you didn't get that, they would be looking alot better, also, the pellets you are showing in your pix are extremely dry, go to where ever you bought your pellets and looks for the tray and cover for them, it works awesome.

-C

I just went out and bought some fiber peat-pots and Miracle Grow potting soil with 21-07-14 ratio. I know MG isn't probably the best soil, but from what I've read, it's not considered bad. Either way, it was the best they had at my hardware store. I'm gonna use the peat pots so there's no hassle with transplanting (Just stick the whole pot into the new one, just like the pellets).

Bad news though, checked on my babies this morning and two are really withered :(. I think it was because the roots were starting to grow into the other peat pellets and I disturbed them when I moved the pellets around. Next time I'll definitely take out every other pellet so this doesn't happen again. And yeah, the light is shining on the roots, and that's not good :(

Yeah I was using that humid cover for a while, but someone told me that I'd just end up shocking them when I would eventually remove it when they outgrow it, so I took it off. I'll put it back on and see if it helps. As for the pellets being dry, yeah it's been really heating up here and I have no AC. I spray them with water every few hours or so to keep them moist, but I get the water is drying out before it sinks in. I'll pour some water into a saucer and put the pellets in to let them resoak. Would that be a good idea?

Thanks for the help so far guys, I appreciate it. Pray for my withered children! :)

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Originally Posted by OrionX

First time grower here. This is my first posting on this forum, I've read just about every sticky and guide I could find, so please forgive me for my n00bness. Anyway, I have a real budget/amateur setup and here's what I have after about a week from some bag-seed. I know the stems are long and awkward; I think that's mostly due to having them under a single CFL for a few days before I got my setup constructed. I have them now under 4 CFLs, two in the high spectrum and two in the low (I'm running on a tight budget, so I could only afford 4 bulbs, HPS is out of the question for now). All together though, it should output around 5000 lumens. I also have the lights as low as they can go without touching the plants. And I currently have them on a 18/6 light cycle. The one in the back is all on its side, but still looks relatively healthy and it has lots of roots (Update: I have it now leaned up against a match-stick for support).

Anyway, I'm here to ask if now would be a good time to transplant them into a permanent pot. I have them started in peat pellets, but I don't know how long they can stay in here. I've checked around them and they all have roots protruding the sides of the pellets. I was thinking about getting a smaller fiber-peat pot and doing a second transplant when they out grow that, but I'm not so sure if doing two transplants would be healthy. So far I only have the four, and the rest seem to be no shows or late bloomers. So what should my next step be? If I do move them into a pot, how small can it be? I only have the four lights and the four plants, so I'm trying to save on space. Thanks for any help you can give. Please let me know if you need more information or pics.

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Get a bunch of red/blue dixie cupe (solo cups w.e. they are called) and transplant them into there. They should then be fine for about 2-3 weeks. Then you can transplant them as need be from there.

MG soil is fine! In my first grow log in my sig. I used MG soil and fertilizers and had pretty good results. Just have to use it right!

Here's a quick update. I soaked the pellets in shallow water and one of the withered babies perked right back up! I guess the pellets were really dry. Can say the same for the other one, the other one is looking pretty bad (Still green though!). Anyway, I just put them in their peat pots. I wish I could lower the lights, but the weight is lopsided, so I can't bring it down anymore without touching on of the plants. It's only one square foot, so it still should be more than enough light, right?

Now at this point, how often should I water? Should I keep spraying them with the bottle, or should I just pour it in still it drains out the end? I think spraying is ineffective because of how fast it dries up. I bought the moister control MG, which is supposed to retain more water. Sorry for such newbie questions, I'm trying to do as much research as I can.

Alright, here's another update. Despite the heat, I would say my babies are coming along quite nicely... except for a small problem. It seems like the first set of leaves are turning yellow and dying. Another symptom is that the tips are blackening, but mostly on the leaves that are turning yellow. So far, only two of my plants are showing this. It also seem to be happening to the bottom leaves. These are also not the embryonic leaves as those have already fallen off (Which I know is normal).

So could be causing this? I transplanted them into peat pots a few weeks ago and i used miracle grow as my soil, so I'm not giving them any extra nutrients. From what I looked up, yellow leaves are a symptom of lack of nutrients, but how can that be the case if I'm already using nutrient packed soil? Should I really add more nutrients? Let me know if more information is required. Thanks for any help you can give, I appreciate it :)

Here are a few pics.

Can be a number of things yellowing your seedlings. Stuff like, ph swings, under/overnute, bad lights, overspraying...

The nutes in your MG soil will last a while. You shouldn't need to add nutes till about a month after your next transplant, which should be in something like a one gallon pot. Going from peat pucks to peat cups, you might be having a low ph problem. (peat lowers ph)

When you do transplant from those peat cups, peel away as much of the cup as you can, but don't risk root damage. Yes, the peat cup will eventually break-down. But until that time, the roots will be restricted. And if you let the peat cup dry-out, it can become tougher for the roots to penetrate.

Yeah I'm definitely not adding any more nutrients any time soon (Like you said, till I put them into a real pot). So what should I do at this point? Is this something that can kill my whole plant? So far, only the bottom leaves are turning yellow and dying off, but now it seems it's spreading to the top leaves. I want to take care of this before it can really do some damage.

Just wanted to give my two cents about transplanting & the peat pellets. Be careful with the Jiffy peat pellets, since it's very easy to over-saturate them when you first start out. You really don't want to plant in them right away until they have a chance to dry out to the point where they're moist but not sopping wet anymore. I killed a lot of seeds figuring that out.

I've been going from the peat pellets to the smaller peat pots like you have and then to a 14" clay pot with no problems at all. Just go with straight water after you transplant in case you've shocked the plants at all. If you let the soil in the old pot dry out before you transplant, it's a lot easier, since you can just cut that peat pot off and put it into the larger pot. Be sure to dowse the soil thoroughly after you transplant, so that the plant is encouraged to spread its roots out into the new soil.