Disaster grow so far

I have planned and planned and planned my first grow. I did alot of research on here and thought I knew what I was doing. I started 6 AK47 seeds and only 4 germinated...no big deal. THey are growing in expensive soil from the grow shop, 8 24w cfls, 8 ounce beer cups to start, good ventilation, water has been pH adjusted to around 6.
Only one looks the way it should and even it doesn't look as good as others on here. Two are pretty much completely dead and one is close behind. The only problem could be from overwatering in my opinion but I haven't gotten too carried away. How dry should I let the soil get? I usually let dry out to the point where there seems to be no moisture in there at all. But I germinated them in soil and kept the soil saturated for a week until the sprouts popped up...not sure if that is good. I also keep the lights 1cm from the plants. The one that looks decent has really wrinkly leaves and I can't find any picture examples on this site.

Also, how long should I wait to fertilize? THe guy at the grow shop said to fert as soon as they grow their true leaves...which has happened already.

Thanks for reading my post guys and any advice is appreciated...you guys are a wealth of knowledge.

Might be a classic case of "damping off" with one strong survivor...To wet's no good for seedlings...Sorry to hear that...:(

When I feed a seedling varies from strain to strain,but my babies are already sittin' in a decent amount of worm castings so I know they're not starvin'...I usually feed em very lightly,(1/8 tsp GH Gro and 1/4 tsp SuperThrive per gallon) when second internode is well established...

okay well you need some pics first off....but 1cm wat forums you been reading cause they got it fucked up 3 to 6 inch yes inches away from the plants you have burnt them you need a fan too how are your temps and 6 is to low for soil maybe 6 fo hydro but thats later in life ...get it up to 6.8 to 7.5 for soil will be fine or just water with bottled water and dont worry bout the ph .....but get a fan and move te lights up and you sound like you can water the right way butdiffrent strain require diffrent ammounts of water

Maybe it is because the light was too low then. I've moved it up to about 3" but I think the damage is too great on some of them. May need to start over.

ALso, how many weeks to wait before using fert? I used fert on the second decent one and it completely went the other way and died. I only used 1/2 the lowest recommended starting concentration too. DAMMIT!!

I fert after they get a few sets of leaves. I think I started my current one when it had 4 full sets of leaves

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Originally Posted by canadagrown

Maybe it is because the light was too low then. I've moved it up to about 3" but I think the damage is too great on some of them. May need to start over.

ALso, how many weeks to wait before using fert? I used fert on the second decent one and it completely went the other way and died. I only used 1/2 the lowest recommended starting concentration too. DAMMIT!!

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If you're using "expensive" soil, it may already have nutes in it. I'm using Fox Farms Ocean Forest and I can easily go 30-45 days vegging with no additional ferts. That tells me that adding even half the recommended dose could od sensitive seedlings on nitrogen. I usually start with no more than one quarter the recommended dose, and haven't had to add anything to seedlings or newly rooted clones.