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Growing under Lights

some problems with germination

19 years ago

I have an inclosed area with two, 2light flouresent light fictures with GE plant & aquarium lights in both fictures. under the lights i am germinating some plants for the comming up growing season. in germination trays w/a peatmoss/perlite/vermiculite mix i have black seeded simpson lettuce, and buttercrunch lettuce. i had saran wrap over the trays to give them the greenhouse effect, and light on them all day. yesterday when most of them sprouted i took the saran off.i only water them once at night once during the day. i now have a timer attached to the lights set for 18hrs light 6hrs dark. when i got up this morining i took a look at the newly sprouted plants and saw that they were shrivaled up and dead. can anyone tell me what im doing wrong? thanks, Rico

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Comments (4)

shrubs_n_bulbs
19 years ago
Might have been shocked going from 100% humidity to open air.

Lights might be too hot, fried and dried them. Symptoms are shrivelling from the top but can be very rapid.

Might be damping off. Symptoms are healthy seedling topples over after rotting right at the soil line, then quickly shrivels.
rico_green
Original Author
19 years ago
would an osolateing fan solve it?
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highjack
19 years ago
It sounds like damp off since you watered them twice in less than 24 hours. Did you check to see if you had viable roots to go with the dried tops? Fungus gnat larvae will eat roots but the plants usually just topple over with zero roots below the surface. If everything was dried and dead, I still suspect damp off.

A fan would help but cutting back on the watering would probably help more. Future watering should also be from the bottom.

Brooke
rico_green
Original Author
19 years ago
that answers my question. thank you -rico

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