veg help needed / Where am I screwing up?

I have several seedlings going.
There were all started in peat pods.
All of them were started in germ at the same time.
Some popped and started to grow right away, and others are just now starting to pop.
I have moved all the ones that have popped from the shallow peat pan to putting the peat into the center of 4 inch xx and moved them all to a 6 inch deep pan. All the while, these have been under a regular incandescent light. I understand why they are longish, and thin because of this light, but the yellowing, and sporadic growth and lack of growth is what is puzzling me.
I was thinking it was all because of this light, so i went and put in a 150watt HPS in the cabinet and after a week, there is no positive turn around.
I make sure there is plenty of water in the pan (about a gallon a day) and the light is set on a 18 on 6 off timer.
I will get pix tonight and post em for you all to see what I am talking about....
Oh... since I didnt see any improvement after adding the HID, I lowered her from the 30 inch distance I had her over the tallest, to about 12 inch over the tallest (hand test assures it is not too hot that close) last night.

the 4 inch xx is rockwool... couldnt think of the word and meant to come back when i thought of it....

Anyways... here are a few pix to see what I am talking about.
As you can see, I have a duel probe, duel reading thermometer with a probe at the hood, and one at the level of the top of the rockwool to give me a good reading of the entire area.
There is also a therm in the 1/4 to 1/2 inch of water to tell me that it is always between 70-75 degrees.
My plan is to move these (hopefully) ladies to soil once the roots start to come out of the wool. I used the wool because it was what I had at the time as well... I have a whole case of the 4 inch cubes.... but no 1 inch cubes thats why I started them in peat.

Let me know what you think and any tips or guidance you can give.... thanks

Oh... the 4th pic is of the very first one that popped.... I transferred the peat into a wool cube and had her by herself in water under the incandescent light, and had the light too close because it caused the peat to heat up and burn the stem and root system. The plant tried to hold on, but there was no way.... the stem coming out of the peat looked like kind of like a hot dog that has been left on the grill all day if you can imagine that... So I cut cut it, and "cloned" her using rooting hormone and put her directly into the wool and she has fought but she is showing allot of new vegitation, just no height....

and the rest of the close ups....

Pic 4 has the foil lifted to show how I put the peat into the wool....

And some more.....

Pic 1: general pic with the HID on.
Pic 2: Foil lifter to show how I put the peat into teh wool.
Pic 3: Temp probe
Pic 4: Therm in the water, the water is just above the therm.
Pic 5: Temp probe at the hood.

And some more....

First pic is of the cabinet opened (the doors dont close around the fan, so there is always fresh air circulating.
Pic 2 is of the duel therm and the readings....

And some more....

First pic is of the cabinet opened (the doors dont close around the fan, so there is always fresh air circulating.
Pic 2 is of the duel therm and the readings....
Pic 3 is of the cab closed....

drop your light. switch to a blue spectrum bulb, loose the tin foil around the cubes until they are twice that size and replace it with a white plate with a cut out for the stem"kinda like a closed pac man mouth" the plat needs to be cut down and not be of a material that will gather moisture,card board is a no no.complete a form and come back. you will get many more answers once that has been finished. i personally believe its your lighting.drop it down....

Without the form its kinda hard to tell exactly. But if i may go out on limb...

If you keep the cubes in constant water, it may be due to over watering/not getting enough oxygen. Those cubes can hold a lot of water and lockout oxygen.

pH of water? Are you adding nutes? Tap water, city, filtered? After my germination i only used pure tap water and added calmag for the first two weeks. The slowly bumped up the PPM until the plants looked fat and happy.

Also did you soak your cubes in pH'd water for a day or so. Those things tend to be pretty acidic.

Again, those are just the first things to pop in my head.

Don't use foil or any metal that comes in contact with your medium or water. Plastic and bamboo are your friends. Even some wood stakes can have mold spores that build up on them.

Ok, I have replaced the foil over the wool with Styrofoam.
I did lower the light some more.....
I have noticed some growth over the past few days.
I have also noticed the fan leaves are curling under.
When I noticed this I raised the light thinking that it was a heat issue...
What do you think, heat? a deficiency?
What form are you all talking about?
I have not added an nutes as of yet, and am looking at transplanting into soil in the next few days.

You're drowning them. Plants should NEVER be in constantly-wet conditions unless a) they are cattails or b) you grow DWC.
Also Rockwool must be pre-soaked to pH 6 before use, and peat pellets become mad acidic when they are kept constantly wet and both problems can kill your seedlings.
You are using the wrong kind of light. You need CFLs, Tube flouros (daylight or cool white for either), or a MH.

You gotta read the grow guide linked in my signature.

I gotta use what I have....

I am in the process of building a room for veg and bloom but I am currently stuck on the wall and hidden door. I cant get to skinning it until this friday or so providing the weather allows me to set up the table saw outside to do it all, then once the wall and door are skinned up I can start on the veg cabinet.
I have three four foot floros put to the side to go into the cabinet.
I am looking at building a cabinet that will be about 56 inch wide, 30 inch deep, and 36 inch high to use for vegging. The 3 floros will go in and be adjustable. My biggest concern is keeping it warm because it will be in a very cool part of a basement.


As for PH... no... I did not soak the wool in 6.0. And I do not have a way to check the levels, the water i have been using is straight tap water. You think the curling is from the PH being too high?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by serpentine5

I gotta use what I have....

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More important, you should find out what you need and how to use it before popping the seeds, and determine if what you have will even work.
NO aluminum or other corrodable metals near your plants or their water!
The leaf damage could be from improper pH, yes. If you are using a hydroponic medium like RW, you have to run it like hydroponics, which is with the pH set to 6.0 +/- 0.2 for both the medium and the water you give it. Once roots are coming out of the cube and you plant it in dirt, with the top showing!!!!!, you can treat it more like a normal soil grow.

I have 3 of the 9 showing roots on the bottom of the RW... When I transplant should I remove the RW? or leave it and plant it into the soil too?

I was under the impression that seedlings wanted the PH to be around neutral. My tap water is supposed to be at neutral.

Hopefully I will be able to get this wall finished and get started on the veg station.

if you stared in rw stay in it,trying to remove those fragile roots is with out a doubt going to kill yo shit.only you can figure out what your tap water ph is and what it contains. never start a grow unless you have exactly what your plants need to survive. using inferior crap is like a child growing up in a closet with out light and expecting them to function normally when released into society,its just not gonna happen.finish the construction,read then read some more,then read a little more , last but not least get proper equipment, then enjoy the world of trial and error and being pissed that you destroyed yet another crop,and then finally one day you will be growing the sweetest shit around.

Get a water report from your local water/power company. It helps a lot.

Ok, Got them into soil now.... had them under a 150watt HPS.
Just tonight I put them under the 400 MH.
Looking much better if I say so myself.

The soil is a special mix... tested at proper levels of everything, and the nutes are all natural.... so no burning or over feeding.

First pix are of them tonight under the HPS:

More still under HPS

Now under MH

And the last pic tonight.....

that HID lamp might be 2 close. it looks really close. a 400w is generally atleast 18-24 inches from the very tip top of the plant.