My Seedlings are Dying

15 years ago

I'm a newbie at both posting and growing from seed. I have some Wiri Wiri pepper seedlings that I grew from seeds. I combed this site for tips and had the most success at propagatiion with the baggie method. While the seedlings are about 2-3 weeks old, none have developed any true leaves as yet. Unfortunately, the oldest seedling died last week. It appeared to be about to sprout some true leaves. Then it developed a tiny black spot on the edge of one leaf. The seedling stem stayed strong but the leaves appeared to basically collapse. I combed this site once more and concluded that the seedling either suffered from damping off, or some kind of necrosis (although I donÂt understand why). I figured I might be overwatering, so I cut back drastically. I had previously been bottom watering daily with a weak chamomile solution. I stopped using the chamomile and instead added hydrogen peroxide to the water, and only allowed them to drink every 2 or 3 days (a teaspoon or 2 per seedling - watering from the top this time). Now (a week later) another large seedling has developed a black spot. One of it's leaves has already collapsed against the other, and well, I figure it will likely suffer the same fate as the other.

Is there anything that I can do? Are the remaining seedlings doomed? Any assistance would be appreciated.

Thank you,

Tenthmuse

N.B.: The seedlings live in a plastic egg container and a plastic takeout container. The soil mix is approximately 1 1/2 parts vermiculite, 1 part sifted potting soil, and a dash (about a 16th) of Soilsponge (Plant Best). Once they were transferred into the soil mixture, they began receiving about 16 hours of florescent light/day. However, soon after, I decided to up the light dosage to 24/7.

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Comments (3)

tenthmuse
Original Author
15 years ago
Correction: The soil mix is approximately 1 1/2 parts PERLITE (not vermiculite), 1 part sifted potting soil, and a dash (about a 16th) of Soilsponge (Plant Best).
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megachili
15 years ago
It sounds like you've been loving your plants to death. Daily bottom watering is more than enough to make them keel over dead. All the other stuff (tea, h. peroxide) makes it more difficult to pinpoint the culprit because any one of those things could've been disagreeable to your seedlings. Pepper seeds are basically complete, self-contained packages that can get all the way to full first leaves with nothing but light and a bit of water. Anything else introduced into the equation can cause an imbalance of one sort or another or just overwhelm the plant. Also, isn't Soilsponge a water retention medium? Retaining water while watering daily - I think you've got your answer right there. They probably just drowned. (With the caveat that what you describe is not what a drowned seedling looks like - the dark spot is not the usual symptom; but it's hard to tell given all the other variables you had going on there).

On a side note, I believe your proportion of perlite is way, way too high. A quarter or maaaaaaybe a third perlite is OK, but 60 % perlite is going to leave huge gaps which are too big for the root structure to take hold. It'd be like trying to grow plants in a gravel bed, just to take a more extreme example - the roots need space but also need something to grab onto. Also your potting soil may already have perlite or vermiculite so your percentage perlite may actually be higher than 60 % - it could be that your seedlings roots just couldn't take hold in that mix. I would take some new seeds, put them in straight potting soil, do not add soilsponge, moisten the potting soil a bit once the seedling sprouts, give them the textbook 16 hours of light per day, and then give it a few drips of water every 4-5 days but only when it's obviously bone-dry and never when it seems to be already moist. See what happens. I think you'll get better results.
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greenman28 NorCal 7b/8a
15 years ago
I started my seeds in gritty mix - one part bark, one part perlite, and one part pumice.
No humidity domes or any other contrivance - just a piece of plastic wrap placed over the
tray until I saw the first sign of green. Then I uncovered my seedlings completely.

This is my second year with the gritty mix, and my seeds fared even better this time.

Josh
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