New Grower...Question

ok this is my first post here...I've been reading the forums lately and decided to post this.

i have an indoor grow room...

dimensions are 4x4x6
the seeds were germinated till the root was about 1/4 inch out of the seed.
they were planted in a 1 quart pot for the seedling stage which will be changed to a 2 gallon pot when the root system is more complex.
the light for the grow room is a 250 watt grow light bought at a Lowe's store. I have a fan setup for the grow room also.
the problems i have run into early is the seed came above the soil to early in my opinion.

Below are 2 pics of the cotyledon's that popped above the soil when i got home today. [sorry for the blurry pics, my digital cam isn't cooperating today]

I am worried that if they are above ground to early that the light being turned on will harm them. My soil i am using pretty much had no nitrogen or phosphate. So I added some nutes to the soil [not much] to add something to the soil so that the plants would grow.

The 2 cotyledons are not forming a T as I have seen them do in pictures from other growers, and the main root from germination isn't straight, it's still curved [much like a "C" shape].

Some advice would be nice, I am only growing 1 plant btw.

Thanks for the help
--Brandon

Be patient with it. I wouldn't add any nutes for a couple weeks at least.If its not very good soil you might want to go pickup some good potting soil.But I'd give it a week or so and see if it recovers.

should the light be turned on since it is above ground?

Absolutely.Do you just have it setting in a window or something now?
You might consider putting it under a 100w cfl for a couple weeks then you won't have to deal with the heat issue.

yea its under my grow light in the grow room now

ok its been a few days since I posted the above article..
sorry for the double post but I can't seem to find the edit button.

ok once the light was turned on the cotyledons turned green, but its been 3 days since and there has been no slight sign of progress.

give me your opinion, should i stay with this plant, or plant my other seed which is germinated

Give it a week or so. Sometimes it takes awhile for a plant to get going. You may have screwed up by adding nutes. Youngsters can't handle it, but if you just added a little, you might be ok. Once, a long time ago I did that, and about 25% of the seedlings survived.

And keep your lights at least 2 feet back during the first couple days, then gradually move closer. Imagine coming out of a pitch black, deep sleep, and having a 1000 watter 6 inches from your face.

lol yea I understand Opie....i only added a small amount of nutes for the reason that my soil had nothing in it. the soil was like 0.21% nitrogen and 0.4% available phosphate. the light is about 8 inches away...ill move it farther away tonight. I planted the other seed just incase :thumbsup:

Your soil SHOULD have nothing in it for sprouting seeds. The only things that should be in it are whatever is in plain old good potting soil.

And by the way, how you are sprouting your seeds is the way I do it. I think it's by far the easiest way to see 100% success. It happens to also be the easiest way in general. Just keep them warm and moist. Just flood once in the beggining with water PHed to 6.8, then you probably won't have to worry about moisture for a week or two.

yea i flooded the soil the day the seed popped above ground [i think the ph was 6.6-6.7 ]and as you can see the soil is still plenty moist....everything has been stable since...i'll update their status here...thanks for the advice Opie...we shall see if it survives

oh btw the temperature of the grow room is always around 78 degrees with the light turned on and 75 degrees without it on

the seedling is on a 18/6 light schedule at the moment

Your welcome. Just keep up the good work. You could bump up the temp a couple degrees if you want to see faster growth. If you do, just make sure you watch for signs of mold.

yea...if i get up around 80 its REALLY humid in that area of my room, so i'd rather see a slower grow as compared to mold lol

In that case, good choice.