Seedlings turning yellow

16 years ago

Well, my 12 OP seedlings are growing on nicely, but all of a sudden the lower set of leaves on several of them are turning yellow. My husband tells me I'm overwatering. I'm wondering if it's from the water-soluble fertilizer I spray on the leaves every few days. It's Green Light's Super Bloom 12-55-6. One of the plant's leaves look almost like they're sunburned tho (the third pic - but it's hard to see). I have these guys in the kitchen window with natural light during the day. And from dusk til about 11:00PM I have a 75watt full spectrum light hanging a couple feet overhead.

These pics aren't as clear as I would've liked, but maybe you can see how the lower leaves are yellow. The new growth is ok.

On a lighter note, I stuck the mini greenhouse starter that still has a bunch of the seeds that hadn't come up yet, outside a couple weeks ago... and dang if there aren't two new ones sprouting up. Plus there was one that the leaves died on, and there's just a green stem sticking up. I figured it would've died by now, but, it's still green and I'm wondering if it will resprout new leaves. That would be cool!!

I hope these babies all make it. I'm dying to see the first blooms.

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Comments (4)

farmgirl
16 years ago
It's natural for the first set of leaves to die. Their job is done. However, it does look like the seedlings are getting leggy from insufficient light. Try leaving the grow light on 16 hrs. a day and lowering it to 12 inches above the plants. I would also cut back on the foliar feeding by either diluting it to a very weak solution or stop adding it to the mister for awhile. The sunburn spots could be fertilizer burn.

Carol
bethnorcal9
Original Author
16 years ago
Hey Carol! Thanks! I was sorta wondering about those lower leaves, whether they might die off. These guys get plenty of light. One thing, I probably should've potted some of them a bit deeper and buried their long stem more, but I was afraid I'd break it off! As for the fertilizer, I have it highly diluted. And I don't have a mister, I just use a squirt bottle maybe a couple times a week. I usually just mist a few squirts over the plant and the surface of the soil. Maybe I'll quit that and just use plain water all the time instead.

Earlier last month I filled two more of those 72-cell seed starters with more seeds that I gathered off the bushes. They had gone thru the freezing temps and light snow we had, and some had even begun to germinate in the hips. So I figured by putting them out in the breezeway again, where it's still only around 40 degrees, they should start popping up like these guys did. But I see nothing happening. Since finding more of the other ones coming up after I put their little greenhouse outside, I'm wondering if I should put these two other ones outside too? I think they'd get better light maybe. The breezway doesn't get very much light.

Anyway, this is my first attempt at this, and I'm so excited I can't stand it! I hope all of these 12 first babaies will have good enough blooms to keep!
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Over watering can definitely cause yellowing. While still in the cups let the soil dry out before watering. The legginess is probably because they need more light than they are getting in the window. And, they're probably large enough that they could use a gentle, light fertilizing, if you haven't done so already. Once you get them in the ground they will not be so prissy and demanding. I know that you are putting them outside when the weather is nice. That's good, but start them out in the shade for short periods of time (like 15 minutes), and very gradually expose them to sunlight for very short periods of time until they get used to it. Otherwise, the leaves may get sunburned and bleached out. Ask me how I know. :-)
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Thank you for the responses! I did sprinkle a small amount of Osmocote on top of the soil/bark when I potted and used a weak mix of Miracle grow once a week for most of this time. The plants looked so good until a few weeks ago. I've mixed up 511 several times in the last couple of months so I've lost track but each batch had at least 2 weeks of getting mixed and wet before it was used. The bark looks so chalky on top but my water does leave residue which was why we put a water softener in over a year ago ( I still have a couple sources of the original hard water which I use for my plants). Dormancy could be it. Been slow to warm up here and have had several days that it didn't get out of the 40's and the plants were outside for a few hours at midday. And there were a couple of periods with week long cold spells (30's to 40's F), that everything stayed in the basement, under 'not so strong' lights (14 hr/day). We've had some low 70's on occasion but mostly 50's and low to mid 60's for highs on most days they've been out, so not ideal growing conditions. There appears to be beginnings of new buds at the leaf scars. And the rain barrel filled the other night so I'm able to use rain water again. :-) I also gave a regular dose of MG to everything yesterday and may just use weak MG mix from now on.
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diane_nj 6b/7a
16 years ago
The Queen of all roses needs more roses? ;-))

I gotta get my seed out of the fridge.

If you happen to get a brown/lavender ruffly one, send it out east for testing, OK? ;-O
carla17
16 years ago
I hope they do well Beth, they're so cute!

Carla

Seedlings turning yellow

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farmgirl

bethnorcal9
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Seedlings turning yellow

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farmgirl

bethnorcal9Original Author

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bethnorcal9
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