The story of survival

This is the first and only time that a "terminally sick" seedling has made a complete recovery. It is also interesting to note that a surgical intervention made a huge and immediate effect.

#15, the ex-leader of the pack was pronounced dead on December 7 2012:

It remained unchanged for next two weeks when I decided to open it up and examine what's going on:

After examination, I filled one half of the PVC tube with some Cactus mix, leaving the other half to its original soil. It was unclear what it would do to #15.

Per the observations during the surgery, I changed how I water this (and many other) seedlings. Rather than pouring the water from the top, I was injecting water with a 30ml syringe into the sides through pre-drilled holes. For #15, knowing that the healthiest part of the root was at 6 inches and below, while the top 4 inches were thin and sickly, I was injecting water only through the lower holes:

It appears that the simulation of "ground waters" applied to the lower part of the root was appreciated by the plant. The fuzzy purple residue disappeared within a few days completely, and two weeks later we have this:

#15 January 4, 2013. Two months old.

In other news, today the second lamp assembly arrived from the High Tech Garden. Now both 4x4 grids are complete with 100% lighting:

The second grid (on the right) has 13 out of 16 vacancies filled. Out of two remaining brown patch samples either one or none will survive. Also, a few seedlings that I moved to the white/clear patch will surely die judging by their under-developed roots:

My biggest problem still seems to be overwatering of the seedlings that leads to the root rot. I also discovered that 7-10 days in the peat moss will determine whether a seedling will survive or not. Most brown patch seedlings are dead on arrival after that time. Those that have just right amount of water show well developed root. Here is an example of a10 day old seedling with a good root. Compare this #103 with the #104 above:

I will bet a lot of money that #103 will survive and #104 will not.

#102 is a somewhat an interesting case because it had a long root but it was very thin:

All three samples are now on the white/clear patch with plenty of light. Will see what happens next.