Help! Before CPS come for my babies!

My seedlings like to get me all excited, and then slump over for no apparent reason. My cfl's are three inches away. I know I haven't over watered. They are in jiffy pots. What am I doing wrong?

Seedlings often need a little supporting in the early weeks of growth. This sorts itself out after about a week or so.

This is of course as long as apart from not supporting themselves they otherwise look healthy.

Supporting? Literally? I am supporting them emotionally and financially.:p

I watered them a little more and one of the buggers decided to resurrect. Maybe I am not watering them enough. I am paranoid about overwatering.

seedlings must be kept moist for the 1st week or so don't worry about overwatering until they have a little bigger rootsystem. it will only take a few hours for a seedling to dry out and dy if underwatered as they are so small they don't have enough leaves/stems/roots to retain much water.

as long as the light is the right spectrum
(cfl, flouro, mh, even hps) and the proper distance seedlings should not need to be supported. if you need to support them then they are stretched and you should have had the lights closer or have better grow lights.

I normally use half/quarter of a bog roll tube just to put around the stems which keeps the things propped up. Rip the bog roll so that you have basically a C shape and can just fit this around the stem. Don't try and put it over the top of the plants as you might damage them.

Really its just a matter of keeping the new leaf growth off of the soil while the stems are strengthing up at which point they will go back to supporting themselves again.

As for watering too much seedlings don't need a lot of water so as long as the soil feels slighty moist they should be fine.

You are right to be wary of overwatering as most newbies tend to go wrong by doing to much with their plants rather than too little :D

They are doing much better...the only ones that are struggling currently are the ones that have not shed their shell.

Is it possible to pull the shell off? Too dangerous?

Thanks for the help so far...I feel a little more confident about these guys (gals hopefully)

i place a little 3" fan blowing right over them making them dance a bit and within about 2 days they are nice and strong to hold themselves up.

Yeah...I realized that yesterday and set one up. Can't find an oscillating fan though...seasonal item. I've noticed the guys getting the breeze are thriving.

supporting them emotionally and financially..... hysterical!:D

yeah get a fan, and prop them up a little bit.

also, contrary to what someone else said about overwatering, you still need to worry about that with seedlings. i think the poster meant that you didn't need to worry about root rot caused by overwatering at the seedling stage which is true, but you still need to worry about STEM ROT. if the soil is kept wet around the base of the stem all the time, the stem will rot, the plant will fall over, and it will die.

Does that apply to clones as well, Dutchy?

i would assume so...anything with a stem is prone to stem rot. you probably need to be even more careful with clones, because their soil stays wet much longer than with seeds because they don't have any roots to suck it up (if you are referring to fresh cuttings).

ps: i liked that you called me Dutchy! i like that nickname, maybe it will catch on.

I just assumed everyone already did. I do have 2 day old cutting and I noticed that the soil still hasn't dried out, obviously because I'm trying to keep it alive in hopes it roots, wonder if I should just take it out of the humidity tonight when I wake my other plant up from its 6 hr nap

the soil won't really start to dry out until the clone roots- at least a week from now. it's fine under the humidity dome, just make sure you open up the dome and fan the cuttings a few times a day to prevent mold and rot. i have cloned many a time now, and have never encountered stem rot on them. good luck!

Thanks for the info Dutchy...I may have lost one seedling to rot. Sigh. My girl and I had a ceremony for the little one as it was the first I've ever lost :( On the brighter side, I transplanted some the others into new soil (Black Gold) and different pots (out of those jiffy pots). We'll see how it goes...