To Fertilize Or Not To Fertilize?....

[JRS]

I have 6 day old seedlings in Root Riot. Am I right in thinking that they don't need nutrients for the first couple weeks, just clean fresh H2O?

[Topshelf]

The first set of leaves on your little seedlings are round. These are called cotyledons. They are the food source for the seedling as it sprouts.

 

Until these initial set of round leaves begins to yellow and die off, you should simply provide pH correct water. 6.2 should be fine.

 

I hope this helps.

 

Good growing!

[tricloud]

The first set of leaves on your little seedlings are round. These are called cotyledons. They are the food source for the seedling as it sprouts.

 

Until these initial set of round leaves begins to yellow and die off, you should simply provide pH correct water. 6.2 should be fine.

 

I hope this helps.

 

Good growing!

 

There is not enough food in the cotyledons to provide nutrients to a seedling for very long. If the cotyledons die off early on you probably did something wrong. I've seen cotyledons as big as a human babies tongue. They will keep growing if you keep the plant healthy enough.

[tricloud]

The best thing to do is get those rapid rooters in soil right off the bat. Don't wait til the seeds sprout. This will instantly provide necessary nutrients to your young plants. Keeping plants healthy right from jump street is the way to go. Once the plants develop their first set of leaves I start feeding them at about 300 ppm. A little cal mag also helps keep seedlings growing under MH lighting a little healthier, just don't over do it.

 

I think I'm going to start a thread about germinating seeds and caring for seedlings.

[Inepsa]

Once your first set of true leaves show up you should be ok to add some very light nutes. Thats what I do and it seems to work just fine.