Seedling Stage – Continued
Keeping an eye on your plant during this stage is essential. There will be telltale signs should any issues arise, but the key here is to act fast! We’ve noticed our #BlueDream seedling picked up a few problems…
Stretching
#Cannabis seedlings stretch to get closer to their light source. This results in the plant developing unnaturally long stems which aren’t strong enough to support many leaves and branches. The quick fix here is to use a blue spectrum CFLs located roughly 5cm from the top of the plants. Seeing as we are using a #greenhouse to grow, we have moved the #seedling to our vegetation area, where we manipulate the light cycle of the plants to 18 hours light and 6 hours dark.
Curled up small leaves
This can relate to stretching, but to be safe we have decide to transplant he seedling into the exact same size pot, making sure the grow medium is not compacted at all, to help stimulate root production.
Other problems that may arise:
Too wet – don’t drown your seeds! While it’s okay to soak seeds for the first 24 hours, after that they should be moist but not soaking.
Too dry – if seeds are too dry, they won’t sprout! If seeds sprout but then are exposed to dryness, they will die.
Too deep – if you plant seeds too deep in the growing medium, they may have a hard time making it to the surface. 2.5 cm deep (just enough to support the seed and cover it) is about as deep as you’ll ever need to go.
Not warm enough – seeds and seedlings like warmth ( and will grow more slowly in cooler environments.
Wrong starting growing medium – Many growers like to plant their seeds directly in a growing medium, just like in nature. But some growing mediums are better for seeds than others.
Too much humidity – Some growers like to use a humidity dome for new seedlings, but don’t leaves these on too long after sprouting, as too much humidity can cause “damping off (seedling sort of folding over and dying).