Germination Setup Question

[Myzz617]

Not really hes not a real terrorist Glad to hear your doing well and the details you provided. What nutes are you using? Never heard of anyone using nutes in the seedling/rooting stage of a bitch's life haha. Sounds good tho glad you got things undercontrol and rolling. Make a Grow journal

 

[Dean Moriarty]

My local shop doesn't carry GH but they have their own 3 parter that's equivalent. I started using the nutes mainly because they've got visible roots now. Or is it too soon? Should I not put them in the bubbler yet?

I've been taking notes and have a book full of daily entries from the last month of trial and error. The Grow journal will come soon, once I have them stable as the last dozen or so either just never germed or went tits up a week after sprouting.

 

[Renegade69]

Dean,

Sorry for the hijack...lol. You were asking some of the same questions I was asking.

Yea sounds like I hit some of the same walls you did. The difference is I'm using the Aerogrow system.

You mentioned your temps got out of control, what were your highs and lows. Mine seem to hang around 84 with the highest of 94 and lowest of about 75. It did fluxuate (sp) a lot so maybe that was also my problem.

I plan on doing just what you did, adding a fan to help better control the temp. I do have a thermometer (sp) which reads both temp and humidity.

I have an old computer cabinet for my grow room. I will post the grow journal as soon as I start again. Waiting on some last minute supplies.

I will remove this thread from my list and continue my post at the Aerogrow thread.

 

[Doc Bud]

Hey guys,

these plants will grow almost anywhere if:

temps: 70-80
RH: 30-70
Water
Nutrients

If I had the AG, I'd just grow in a small pot of perlite, hempy style. For nutes, almost anything will work. I personally use Osmocote Plus. It costs 19 bucks at home depot.

This stuff isn't complicated. Really, it isn't.

 

[Dean Moriarty]

No worries! Glad you're getting help.

Really, though, on all the "nuts symptom guides" they should mention that turning brown and wilting is a sign of poor ventilation and high temperatures. Would have saves me loads of trouble.

 

[Munki]

DocBud, I want to get a hempy grow going starting from seed. I tried presoaking seeds in water for 20 hours then transferred to presoaked rockwool using water pH adjusted to 5.5. I did not shake out my cubes but they did not drip and there wasn't water in my tray ( an old salad container from McDonalds ). Some seeds were starting to sprout when transferred to rockwool. They were stored above our heating unit that is only warmed by the pilot light so the container gets only slightly warm to the touch. I did snap down the lid but opened it at least twice a day and shoot out condensation.

Well, 7 days and I haven't seen a root show in any of the 10 cubes. Gently opened two of the cubes and the seeds did not progress any farther than when I removed them from the water cup.

So, did I suffocate them? Too moist rockwool, low dissolved oxygen in that water as it was warm? Closed salad container suffocated them?

It appears they died quickly after being put into the cubes. So I need a good method that will go into hempy buckets. I was going to start in smaller Solo cup sizes "buckets" then transfer to larger containers when the plants grow. But what is the best way to first germ out the seeds into strong seedlings before going into the solo cups? I can't just put presoaked seeds into chunky perlite can I?

 

[Doc Bud]

DocBud, I want to get a hempy grow going starting from seed. I tried presoaking seeds in water for 20 hours then transferred to presoaked rockwool using water pH adjusted to 5.5. I did not shake out my cubes but they did not drip and there wasn't water in my tray ( an old salad container from McDonalds ). Some seeds were starting to sprout when transferred to rockwool. They were stored above our heating unit that is only warmed by the pilot light so the container gets only slightly warm to the touch. I did snap down the lid but opened it at least twice a day and shoot out condensation.

Well, 7 days and I haven't seen a root show in any of the 10 cubes. Gently opened two of the cubes and the seeds did not progress any farther than when I removed them from the water cup.

So, did I suffocate them? Too moist rockwool, low dissolved oxygen in that water as it was warm? Closed salad container suffocated them?

It appears they died quickly after being put into the cubes. So I need a good method that will go into hempy buckets. I was going to start in smaller Solo cup sizes "buckets" then transfer to larger containers when the plants grow. But what is the best way to first germ out the seeds into strong seedlings before going into the solo cups? I can't just put presoaked seeds into chunky perlite can I?

Well, if you look at my current and last journals, I go into detail about how I do it.

Here's the basics, and this will work. This method is especially useful if you're using non-femmed seeds, which is what I use.

1.)mix up FFOF and perlite 50/50
2.)hempify a solo cup (single hole, 1.5 inches from the bottom. small hole)
3.)bottom half of cup pure perlite.
4.)next 1/4 50/50 FF/perlite
5.)top 1/4 pure FFOF.

The idea is for the seeds to germinate in total darkness....therefore they are covered with soil. This is really important for male/female ratio.

At the same time, you don't want the roots to form up for soil, but for perlite....hence the bottom of the hempified germination cups are pure perlite. No nutes are needed, the soil provides them.

They can grow in these cups for several weeks, easy. Just pop 'em in the larger hempy buckets when the time comes and the roots will already be in the sweet spot, ready to suck up nutes and water. The soil is no problem at all.

Caveat: Don't grow these little cups out under an HID! They get too warm and you could get root rot. Use a T5 or CFL's if you've got 'em. If not, use some H202 a couple times a week in the following manner:

Prepare a 4 inch deep pan of H202/H20. Dip lower half of cups into the solution, let it wick in and up, and then let it drain. This will kill off any root rot that may (or may not) form.

I had mine under 1000watts and I got root rot on two. But under the T5 I had zero problems.

pics:

You can grow them out long enough to determine sex in these little cups

 

[Munki]

OK, cool. Got the FFOF and the initial soil should be a great start. Do you sterilize the soil in an oven first to kill any potential bad fungus or bacteria. I know it would kill good bacteria as well but we just want the soil to initially start the seed so they shouldn't be totally necessary right?

BTW, started opening the rockwool cubes as I had only checked two. Found one that had a root a bit longer than 1/2 inch long. So, slow growth for sure but not all is lost. Rinsed the remaining cubes under some bottled water and gently shook out excess water. I also put down some dry paper towels to help dry the cubes a bit more. Figure I want to encourage roots to seek moisture.

I also have three bagseeds I collected over the past year now in cups of water for a presoak. I will put them into the solo cups as you suggested tonight. I have a nice little grow tent and 2 foot 4 bulb T5 lamp to start their lives. Appreciate the guidance and patience DocBud!

 

[Doc Bud]

OK, cool. Got the FFOF and the initial soil should be a great start. Do you sterilize the soil in an oven first to kill any potential bad fungus or bacteria. I know it would kill good bacteria as well but we just want the soil to initially start the seed so they shouldn't be totally necessary right?

BTW, started opening the rockwool cubes as I had only checked two. Found one that had a root a bit longer than 1/2 inch long. So, slow growth for sure but not all is lost. Rinsed the remaining cubes under some bottled water and gently shook out excess water. I also put down some dry paper towels to help dry the cubes a bit more. Figure I want to encourage roots to seek moisture.

I also have three bagseeds I collected over the past year now in cups of water for a presoak. I will put them into the solo cups as you suggested tonight. I have a nice little grow tent and 2 foot 4 bulb T5 lamp to start their lives. Appreciate the guidance and patience DocBud!

No problem bro!
I should also mention that soaking the seeds for 12 hours is a really good idea, before planting them. Use a spray bottle to keep the soil slightly damp, but give at a good watering prior to planting the seeds, so that there's moisture down there for those roots to seek out.

Don't use a humidity dome, etc.

I didn't sterilize the soil, but I do soak the seeds in a bleach solution for a couple minutes prior to soaking them in H20. This kills any bacteria or fungus that may be on the seed.

The first few pages of the MK Ultra journal has lots of discussion about how, why and when. Any observations and improvements you can make would be most welcome.

 

[Dean Moriarty]

What is bad about using a humidity dome?

 

[Doc Bud]

What is bad about using a humidity dome?

A better question would be, "What's good about a humidity dome when growing from seed?"

Answer: nothing.

People get mixed up between seeds and clones.

In the case of a clone, the plant has no roots from which to drink water, and so it can only feed through the leaves. If the RH isn't kept really high----with a humidity dome-----the plant will dry out and die.

However, seeds are quite different. The tap root is already 4 inches long before you see the cotyledons emerge. The extra humidity not only isn't needed, it's actually counterproductive.

You want those roots to furiously seek out moisture, and they do that better with the RH down at about 60 percent.

Higher humidity than that invites damping off and other fungal infections....not at all good! Higher humidity stresses the plant, which will make for males.

 

[Dean Moriarty]

Thanks Doc! So, is it okay to use it with ungermed seeds until they sprout to maintain that 60% and remove it once they sprout (not just for cannabis, but seeds in general).

 

[Doc Bud]

Thanks Doc! So, is it okay to use it with ungermed seeds until they sprout to maintain that 60% and remove it once they sprout (not just for cannabis, but seeds in general).

Well, I suppose you could do it that way, as long as you knew it was truly 60% humidity in there.....but you'd be better off just making your whole room at 60% humidity.

There just isn't a reason to use a dome for our favorite plants when sprouting seeds.....but as I mentioned above, there are plenty of reasons NOT to use one.

Clones are another matter.