Weird white fuzz on seedlings; shriveled leaves- HELP!

[Aida]

Hi everyone, I have an issue with some of my seedlings. Today, I noticed these white, fuzzy clumps around the bases of their stems. I mixed up my labeling chart, and now I can't tell if this is on the tomato plants, or the other ones.
Pictures:







This might not be the cause, but a day or so after I bottom watered with a bit of cinammon(to prevent damping off), I noticed these teeny-tiny "spiders" crawling around the trays. To be honest, they look like ants with yellow buts. Are they just there for the yummy water, or should I start squishing them?



Secondly, some of my seedlings are looking, well, crappy. Here's what I mean:



There's about five like that*- leaning over, and looking kind of shrivled. The one pictured above is the worst one. I don't think this is the dreaded damping off, because all of my seedlings get the same conditions, and 80% of them have perfect, dark green leaves, and strong, straight stems. Gaaah! Help!


** The plants that are shriveled are NOTthe same ones with the clumps.

[rainbowgardener]

Since you didn't get an answer, I'll make a stab at it.

I think both the fuzzy mold and the slightly shrivelly look are symptoms of over watering / soil staying too wet.

I would put some new dry potting soil down on top of the mold area and back off on the watering.

The leaning might be if they are not getting enough light. What kind of lighting set up do you have?

You would be better off to fill all those little cells to the top with soil anyway. It's little enough soil even full. Tomatoes benefit from having part of their stem buried; it will put out roots from the buried stem.

[Aida]

I have a fluroscent light right above them, and aluminum foil around them to reflect it back.

Okay, thank you! I'll fill all of them to the top with potting soil and I'll see if it imporves. Asfor watering, I water them from the bottom(fill a tray underneath them). Should I do this differently, since they seem overwatered?

[rainbowgardener]

Bottom watering is good, but I'm not sure what you mean when you say "fill" the tray underneath them. You want just enough water to barely touch the bottom of the pots so the soil can wick it up. If you water in the AM, by the evening all the water should have disappeared from the tray.

[Aida]

I realize I've been filling it too much(today, two died).

I did just what you said- gave them more soil, and I emptied out the water they had beneath them. I'll let them dry just a bit before filling it up a small amount again. I hope the others will be OK...

I'm really relieved to know that it is most likely just mold, and not some weird bug/disease, though.

Thank you once again, Rainbow!

[rainbowgardener]

Oh yeah. You never want your plants just sitting in water. If there was water sitting in there to be emptied out, you were definitely over-watering. Hope things start doing better now! We all have to learn and none of us got good at gardening without killing a whole bunch of plants along the way.