Germination in soil questions

[Terepeneterrapin]

Few questions bout my current grow.

Im germinating two autos in their final containers in my tent. Problem is i worry i havent faciliated the process well. My temps have been averaging around 21-23. And recently, in an attempt to heat up the tent i accidentally spiked it all the way to 30 degrees for like 30 minutes.

Im constantly monitoring the soil. From pre-soaking it was moist for 3 days so i didnt touch it. Today i tried using a spray bottle to add some water to the seed area. Its been 4 days now, chances i screwed something up maybe.

 

[VetSmoke85]

Did you soak the seeds in a shot glass or anything first? Could take a little longer if the temps were a bit low. I'd give it a few more days.

 

[NuttyProfessor]

you will if you soaked it ( soil ) , its better to use damp soil , not soaked , adding some cling film with holes will help germinate the seed , once they are up remove the film

 

[NuttyProfessor]

i am back to 100 percent germination , little heat mat under them 3 days i had sprouts i only grow autos , i always repot

 

[Terepeneterrapin]

@VetSmoke85 I didnt soak them in water, i planted directly to soil as ive read its best for autos (reduces shock). Fingers crossed hope it helps. My temps are still averaging at 22. No way to bring it up without putting my heater in there (Got no heating pad)

@NuttyProfessor Awesome stuff. Im gonna try the cling method right now. To answer I DID pre-soak the soil (courtesy of royalqueenseed's guide) but did not water for 3 days till today. Using a mister to lightly moisten the first inch or two of soil. Like i told vet i dont got a heat pad but i did this thing where i put a heater in the tent to raise the temp then turned it off.

Also, would i need air circulation in there?

 

[NuttyProfessor]

the cling film acts like a humidity dome, make sure your drain holes are not BLOCKED from small particles of soil , drainage is the most important for now, you want the best wet/dry cycle , if you hold the pot upside down holding the middle so the soil dont come out , see if excess water runs out , if not your ok , your not too wet , and your drain holes are free
some can take up to ten days so don't panic too much ,

And a big welcome to you

 

[Terepeneterrapin]

@NuttyProfessor Hi Nutty, im using fabric pots for my grow. Not sure how to check drainage generally with these kind of pots. So far I've been touching the sides and doing the finger test to check for moistness. I try make sure the soil sticks to my hand and i can feel a tad bit of moisture.

Any tips to this end

 

[NuttyProfessor]

ahh ok i see sorry , you can put a cut clear plastic bottle over them and unscrew the lid , will work the same , ive done this to stop mice eating my spouts too lol

 

[NuttyProfessor]

like this , soon as they come up remove them , this is an example i found , but I'm sure you catch my drift

 

[NorthernCosmos]

My temps have been averaging around 21-23. And recently, in an attempt to heat up the tent i accidentally spiked it all the way to 30 degrees for like 30 minutes.

Don't worry about the 30°C, it's not dangerous for a little while. Some people even grow in temps close to that.

My temps are still averaging at 22. No way to bring it up without putting my heater in there (Got no heating pad)

That'll work, but I think somewhere around 25°C is thought to be a good average lights-on temperature.

A friend of mine has a pre-heater attached to his grow box in a cool cellar. It's a smaller box with an oil-heater that warms up the intake air slightly.

 

[Rkelly496]

Few questions bout my current grow.

Im germinating two autos in their final containers in my tent. Problem is i worry i havent faciliated the process well. My temps have been averaging around 21-23. And recently, in an attempt to heat up the tent i accidentally spiked it all the way to 30 degrees for like 30 minutes.

Im constantly monitoring the soil. From pre-soaking it was moist for 3 days so i didnt touch it. Today i tried using a spray bottle to add some water to the seed area. Its been 4 days now, chances i screwed something up maybe.

I'm only on my second grow but I have had 100% sucsess from 16 seeds My method uses jiffy plugs or rooting sponges anything that the roots are able to worm there way through. Soak the pellet for a few minuets and place seed about 1cm deep and then place the pellet directly into your soil. (dig a hole and place the pellet in the middle) then for the first day I use a mist sprayer and carefully spray the soil around it daily and if the pellet looks dry I give that a little spray too. In theory this will make the roots search for the water because each day your adding extra layers on moisture further down the pot.

Bare in mind my temps have been as low as 15 degrees and as high as 23. Took me 5 days to see them sprouted. Genetics dependent though some can stand colder temps than others but once they veged for a week I'll put the 250 hps in there keeps them nice and toasty until the 400 comes out haha

 

[Terepeneterrapin]

@NuttyProfessor Thanks I think ill probably give the domes a shot. I read about humidity domes but I worried there would be some issues with contact (Also i forgot precisely where my seed hole was ). Im going to try the cling foil tommorow as its now reaching the 5th day.

@NorthernCosmos Thanks for that tidbit of info. Really cleared my mind on the temp worries. You mention lights on temp huh. I was reading that generally seeds dont need light to germ, specifically bud seeds. Is it the opposite rather/ or would lights help the germ process.

@Rkelly496 Thanks. Honestly i wanted to try soaking the seeds or using something like a jiffy pellet. However, i was worried about repotting an auto as people mention any shock for an auto is wasted time. However as @NuttyProfessor has said, they've had success even with repotting autos. Did you ever check the soil before misting or just misted in regular intervals?

 

[NuttyProfessor]

i misted the centre put the seed a little finger nail deep, never plant too deep , covered , misted again , put the cling film over popped a couple of holes , second day i give the centre another little mist , covered again , later the next day one was up a little , next day all heads where up , in the pic above i posted there is a pot with cling film still on it , this was seeds that would not germ for me a while back so im given them another go this way , i don't want to throw away a couple of hundred seeds that i bred , all good strains lol , i am hoping this method will crack them too

 

[Rkelly496]

@NuttyProfessor Thanks I think ill probably give the domes a shot. I read about humidity domes but I worried there would be some issues with contact (Also i forgot precisely where my seed hole was ). Im going to try the cling foil tommorow as its now reaching the 5th day.

@NorthernCosmos Thanks for that tidbit of info. Really cleared my mind on the temp worries. You mention lights on temp huh. I was reading that generally seeds dont need light to germ, specifically bud seeds. Is it the opposite rather/ or would lights help the germ process.

@Rkelly496 Thanks. Honestly i wanted to try soaking the seeds or using something like a jiffy pellet. However, i was worried about repotting an auto as people mention any shock for an auto is wasted time. However as @NuttyProfessor has said, they've had success even with repotting autos. Did you ever check the soil before misting or just misted in regular intervals?

See I use hot soil, biobizz all mix i simply wet/soak the jiffy plug and squeeze out excess water. Then place the plug into your final pots for autos. Because jiffy pellets have a netting that the roots can make there way through but if your unsure you can also break the jiffy pellet up then use it to layer in the middle of the pot. But just must regularly (when dry) then if none of that works I do the paper towel method I've only had to do that once with 1 seed that I threw away anyway haha

 

[Terepeneterrapin]

@NuttyProfessor Haha good on ya for the persistence. I probably wouldve been discouraged if they didnt pop the first time. So generally did you mist regularly or only if the soil felt dry? Initially i pre-soaked my pot instead of misting and i felt that the soil was moist for a good 3 days. I only started misting today. Whats the ideal 'moisture' you were looking at

 

[NuttyProfessor]

about three to four sprays misting , i only kept the middle damp , now i just water the edges so the roots grow out , i used the energy drink bottle , i have it set that it drips out , so had to put a screw driver up the drinking part lol these are designed to squeeze but they squeeze too much so i alerted it to drip ,
And if you only put a little bit of water in them each time you cant over do it , its impossible, i only add enough now to keep the plants happy . I was hell for watering too much seedling stage

 

[Terepeneterrapin]

@NuttyProfessor thats a fine idea haha. Guessing underwatering is always a better issue to have than overwatering. SImilar to yourself my plan was to try feed in an area around the seedling. Been reading up on another grower that specifically mentioned feeding water in a weekly + 3 day cycle, where you water to the bottom for the week and mist the top to encourage the top roots. I dont have a water bottle handy but I hope my mister might do the trick.

 

[NorthernCosmos]

You mention lights on temp huh. I was reading that generally seeds dont need light to germ, specifically bud seeds. Is it the opposite rather/ or would lights help the germ process.

Ah yes, the seeds don't need the light to germinate. Some say they germinate best in the dark (it is dark down in the soil...). I was thinking that there might be a light in your tent already - the light usually provides quite a bit of heat, so If you're not running one yet, you'll probably get up to good temps when you do.

AFAIK the seeds like a little heat when germinating, and I think 22°C is at the lower end - it works though, I'm mostly germinating mine in temps like that.

 

[NuttyProfessor]

@NuttyProfessor thats a fine idea haha. Guessing underwatering is always a better issue to have than overwatering. SImilar to yourself my plan was to try feed in an area around the seedling. Been reading up on another grower that specifically mentioned feeding water in a weekly + 3 day cycle, where you water to the bottom for the week and mist the top to encourage the top roots. I dont have a water bottle handy but I hope my mister might do the trick.

Its watering too often that kills there is a thread by Emilya on here , its taught me something new ,

 

[NuttyProfessor]

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