by Katelyn
Can’t keep plants alive
7:49 pm in Getting Started, questions, Seeking Advice, Uncategorized by Katelyn
I set up the easiest airlift system, and everything seemed to be doing well, but then all 3 of my lettuce plants died as they were about to develop their first set of true leaves. I pulled them out, and their roots were a rotten mess. I turned down the pump slightly so less water was running through it, and I put in just one test seedling, and it died too within a couple of weeks. This one’s roots weren’t rotten, but they were small and weak and the leaves were all limp and shriveled.
Is there a way to guage how much water is the right amount or should I just keep trying until I find that balance? Has anyone else been through this with their system? Any advice would be much appreciated, I went through all the trouble of building the thing and now the plants won’t cooperate…I’m not about to give up!
Hmm, I seem to be having the same problem. My swiss chard kicked the bucket. Right now the two colums I have are on a constant drip. I bought a timer that has 15-min intervals, and I’m going to try doing it that way. I think my system would dry out too fast if the intervals were longer.
Do you know the ph of your nutrient solution? Someone posted this chart some time again and I like to refer back to it for various plants. http://our.windowfarms.org/2010/04/12/files/2010/04/VEG_PPM_PH.pdf
Hi ! I’m new to hydroponics myself, but I did not experience something like this in my two windowfarms. I would suspect a disease rather than excess water from the system itself. Where do you start your seedlings ? In dirt or in another medium ?
I know of an illness in very young seedlings that we call in French “seedling melting”, which is caused by a bacteria (rhizoctonia – take a look at the photos in wikipedia) or different species of fungi. The symptoms appear suddenly. Any species of seedling may catch this disease and may be attacked from the moment of emergence. Usually, after the seedling has produced 3 or 4 leaves or more, it’s out of danger. A non sterile substrate may be colonized by one sort or the other of fungus, which may be present in the air. A bag of dirt opened since a while may have collected the fungus from ambiant air. Air humidity and low temperatures make favorable conditions for this disease. The sick seedlings will die 100 percent of the time.
The damages are drying seedlings which become filiforms. The stems seem to have been pinched off at the base and the seedling lie down on their side. The base of the stem may be brownish or blackish.
When the symptoms appear, it’s already too late.
But you can apply some measures to prevent this before sowing, like using sterile soil from a recently opened bag, disinfecting tools with a solution of water and 10% bleach, respecting the sowing distance recommended on the seed envelope, providing good air circulation, avoiding to drown the soil, using peat moss as your sowing medium.
I hope this may help you !
Oh, and you may find this post and its relating comments of interest :
http://our.windowfarms.org/2010/11/06/whats-the-best-way-to-germinate-seeds/
I usually start my seedlings in a kit with a dome. They are about 3-5 bucks from any hardware store.
They need humidity and good roots to live in a window farm.
I had my first series of tomato plants die as well during the seedling stage. They are at they’re most fragile then.
Lettuce like a lot of moisture, so it’s almost impossible that you over watered them. It’s likely a infection. Did you smell the roots?
I would suggest sanitizing everything. Run 5% bleach solution through the system for a few hours. Drain and let dry for 12 hours and rinse with boiled water, then drain and let dry for 24 hours. Boil your nute water before using it. Add hydrogen peroxide to your nutes; 5ml per 1L of the drug store 3% works for me.
Thanks for the advice, everyone.. I have been busy with midterms in the past few weeks and haven’t had a chance to pay much attention, so this thing has been on the back burner but tomorrow I’m planning to take another look, I will follow through with some of these suggestions and post back with updates! I hope it works… this is such a promising idea.
Based on what you guys have told me, I agree that it’s an infection of some kind, and I think it is most likely damping off, so I will try sterilizing everything and starting over. Hopefully that’s the key! I’m really looking forward to some success
Cheers
I had this happen to my first set of tomato plants. All of them died. Second set did rather well.