captainmeow
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indoor herb garden frustration

Hi everyone. I've been trying to grow plants indoors and I'm really becoming frustrated. I have started several kinds of herbs from seeds, and they've finally gotten a couple of inches tall. I have three plant grow lights for them, and I water them the same amount every day.
First, the leaves started turning brown at the very ends on the tallest ones. I read that perhaps it's due to the air being too dry. So I surrounded the growing area with plastic, and I mist the plants a couple of times per day.
Nothing I do seems to result in a healthy plant. They've stopped growing any taller and they look limp, like they are barely holding onto life.
The dill particularly is wilting at the leaves, no matter what I seem to do. And the lavender is just hopeless, it falls over and dies every time it gets about two inches tall.
I used a good quality organic potting soil and a timer for the grow lights.
I don't know what I'm doing wrong. I'd appreciate any help.

:cry:

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queerninja
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Hi captainmeow :) Can you let us know a few things to help you?

Temperatures, humidity, type or content of soil, size and drainage of containers, what wattage and how long the lights are on for and the colour of light, how over they are watered, are you adjusting the pH of the water...? Stuff like that :)

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queerninja
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captainmeow wrote: First, the leaves started turning brown at the very ends on the tallest ones. I read that perhaps it's due to the air being too dry. So I surrounded the growing area with plastic, and I mist the plants a couple of times per day.
Could be the soil is too 'hot' with nutrients...low humidity can cause necrosis too like you read...could be too little potassium too...What type of plants are affected?

captainmeow
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Thanks.
I'm using Miracle-Gro Organic Potting Soil, three 75-watt full spectrum plant gro lights which are purple in color. It's probably about 80-90 degrees in the area where they're growing. I haven't put anything in the water to balance it (I hadn't realized about doing that).
Tomato plants and basil plants are thriving. Lavender and dill are doing very poorly. Many lavender have just wilted and died, which I feel just terrible about. I'm also growing cat grass, and it's turning brown at the ends and drooping over.
It seems that the plants need a lot of water, and even though I've placed them pretty close to the grow lights (3-6 inches away) they lean toward the lights as though they aren't getting enough.
I hope this is useful information.
Oh, and the lights are timed to be on for 14 hours per day. Is that too much or too little? I really am clueless about planting.
All the plants are growing in 3 or 4 inch deep plastic storage containers, and I try to feel the soil and make sure it's moist. The air is a bit dry, so I've put up plastic sheeting around the plants.
Here's a picture of the dill seedlings, perhaps it will tell something.

[img]https://www.captainmeowbot.com/01-05-09_1514.jpg[/img]

Timlin
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1st off I think you should only water when the soil is feeling dry. You might be keeping it too wet for seedlings.

Last spring for the first time in my 20 years of growing from seed my tomato seedlings were not growing at all. I found out my mate had added fertilizer to the watering bin. Very young seedlings do not grow well if your fertilizing them. Let them go with no food until they begin to show signs of stopping growing and then only feed them 1/2 strength at most until they are much larger.

I think under your lights they should do fine without the plastic and sprinkling. You could end up with fungi or mold developing if you keep seedlings too wet.

Honestly if you start over with soiless seedling mix, add nothing but water only when drying and then transplant into a #2 mix and wait until they begin to slow down in their development before introducing any fertilizer at all.

Relax, talk to them, play them music and just enjoy without too much interference in their development and I'm betting you'll be totally successful.
Last edited by Timlin on Tue Feb 03, 2009 11:02 am, edited 1 time in total.

Timlin
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Oh and one more thing.

I've been growing seedlings for years and years, first in the house and then moving them to the gh in mid March. I absolutely never use anything but 4' shop lights. Cool lights are just perfect for seedlings.......nothing fancy, no extra heat........and they just LOVE IT!

So maybe shift to a couple cheapie 4' shop lights, get new bulbs each year because the bulbs do tend to lose their brilliance over a season, and put your seedlings about 2" away from the bulbs.......if they grow up and touch the bulbs it won't hurt them but you should have your shop lights on chains so you can raise them up as the plants grow but you need to have the seedlings right up close to the bulbs.

The lights should be on for 16 hours a day if it's possible. You only need grow lights (which throw heat and ultra violet rays) for plants that are blooming. Your seedlings will not be blooming before going outside in the spring so the cool shop lights work perfectly.

Google "growing seedlings under lights" and see if I'm lying to you! :lol:

captainmeow
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Thanks Timlin! I'm going to implement your advice as soon as possible. I have noticed lately that if I only water every second day, they seem to do better. I'm going to find some soil-less mix and start using that. They've just been eeking along and have only now started forming a second pair of leaves.

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hendi_alex
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Mix some perlite in with your potting soil. IMO potting soils generally tend to be too heavy and retain too much moisture. Also, as another poster mentioned, I can't imagine the plants needing water more than a couple of times per week, and only that often if the seedlings are in very small containers. I place my seedling containers on top of small pebbles in a bottom tray. When the top of the soil gets dry, I add water to the bottom tray until it rises just above the seedling containers. Also, sunlight develops much studier plants than is the case with artificial light. I augment the sunlight with flourescent light to push the daylight period up to 12-14 hours per day. My plants always are given as much natural sunlight as possible and whenever the weather co-operates, I move them outside during daytime temperatures over 60 degrees. The plants seem to really appreciate that treatment. Plants that have not been given direct sunlight can NOT be moved directly into it however. They will get sunscald, will lose many or most leaves, and will possibly die. Very tender plants grown indoors have to get very gradual exposure to direct light.

Timlin
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handi-alex your absolutely right about potting soil but soiless seeding mix is not the same thing at all. It's already light light and drains beautifully....has no real soil in it at all.....but the mix is very fine so perfect for seeding into.

I can only dream of anyone at this time of year being able to put plants outside.......yummy!! We are sitting here at -36 this morning so it will be a couple months (or 3) before my seedlings can be outside. It's late March before I can move them to the greenhouse even. You're living my dream!

I just wanted to add that my earliest tomatoes for this year are at the 3rd set of true leaves stage (about 4" tall) and I have not yet started to fertilize them........I will soon but not yet so you see how long you leave them....I planted these seeds on January 10th so it's been almost a month (they probably germinated and hit daylight about January 17th).

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hendi_alex
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My earliest set of four Juliets is six to eight inches tall, planted late December. My next set of seedlings has not yet germinated, but any day now should emerge.

I'm using bulk potting mix with perlite added, am placing the seedlings and then covering with a fine layer of peat moss. Seems to be working fine. Am only bottom watering, and will add water soluable fertilizer from the bottom as well. Plants are in the greenhouse but are getting supplemental light 12-14 hours per day.

Can't wait until this week end when the plants get placed outside on those ward mid sixties days. Will place them in an open box or cold frame to protect them from the wind, until the plants harden a bit. I'll repot them into one gallon containers in about a week. That generally causes them to jump almost overnight. Will post a photo soon.

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rainbowgardener
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You've gotten some very good advice already. I would just add re the lavender "falling over." If you have seedlings that seem to just bend over at soil level and fall over, that's probably damping off, which is a fungus. It has to do with too much moisture. Lavender is a desert plant and really doesn't want to stay moist. Part of the wisdom you develop over the years is to know which plants are drought tolerant and which ones like more water. I segregate them in different trays. But as people have suggested, it does sound like you are working too hard at keeping things moist. I have found that it is easier to kill seedlings with over watering than under.



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