did I overwater my seeds?

Status
Not open for further replies.

rupert

New Member
Hi all,

I'm a first time grower with some concerns about watering. Sunday (May 10), I started these seeds in rapid rooters...
3X PPP
3X crystal
4X mystery seeds

First, I soaked my seeds for eight hours. Then I placed them into rapid rooters and then put the rapid rooters in coco coir, in 4" pots. I covered the rapid rooter holes with just a tiny bit of coco coir to keep light out.

The water I've given, in various ways:
  • Soaking the seeds.
  • Soaking the rapid rooters before use.
  • Wetting of the coco coir prior to use, to make it expand and fall apart. This resulted in evenly moist coco.
  • Misting the surface a couple times per day since planting.

My results thus far:
It was Sunday night when I planted the seeds in rapid rooters. By Tuesday morning I had a visible sprout -- one of my PPP seeds. By Tuesday afternoon one of my crystal seeds had sent a sprout (or is it a root?) above ground. Today (Wednesday) I have two new PPP sprouts, but the one crystal sprout/root lied down... which has led me to think it may have been a confused root. It seems to want to go back underground. No mystery seeds have sprouted yet.

So, I'm not doing terribly, as I have three nice looking PPP sprouts. But I'd love to have at least one crystal plant. I guess the seeds might still be at work below the surface and new sprouts may yet appear, but I'm concerned I've given too much water overall -- though it hasn't bothered the PPP seeds, apparently. The coco holds a lot of water and does not dry quickly, so it's possible the misting I've done is unnecessary and may keep air from getting to the seeds.

I did not take care about how I oriented the seeds in the holes, as they were hard to handle with tweezers and I found it difficult to control how they were oriented in the holes, especially since I couldn't see down into the holes. I thought I would do more harm than good fiddling with them to try to get them oriented a certain way.

I don't know if it's of any use, but I sprinkled some coco on top of the one crystal plant once the sprout/root lied down. I figure if it's a confused root, I want it to be in the dark.

My water is tap water that sat out for a day or two. No added nutes.

Next time I think I'll soak a bit longer, and I think I'll sprinkle some coco down into the rapid rooter holes to make them less deep. At 1/2 inch these holes are so deep, I don't see how anyone controls position of the seeds... unless the seeds already have a big sprout by the time you plant them. I might also skip the rapid rooters altogether and plant directly in coco after a longer soak. Also, I think I'll mist a bit less than I have.

Thoughts? Thanks.
 
If you think you see a root on top just try putting more coco on top, or bury it if possible. Misting may not be necessary if it takes awhile for the medium to dry out. Sounds like you got it so far, just water enough to keep the top layer moist. I'd start ph'ing the tap water right off the bat though, it will save you trouble later on by just doing it from the beginning. Or use distilled water, that's what I do for seedlings
 
Thanks. This is one of the things I've been confused about, whether I should be top watering or bottom watering at this point... or neither. Opinions vary. I've read some things saying rapid rooters hold enough moisture that you shouldn't water at all for the first several days.

Humidity in my cabinet is around 45% today. That's a little dryer than usual as we are having very dry weather where I am. It makes me want to do a little misting, but I don't want to suffocate the seeds. In a couple days we'll be back to our usual 60-75% outside, and that will affect my grow space. I'm probably overthinking things a bit at this point!
 
Just don't overwater

Yeah what I'm wondering is whether I already overwatered. I think more likely I'm just seeing variations in the seeds, and maybe some are bad seeds.

To help with the dry air I wet a beach towel and hung it on a hanger near my air intakes. That should bring the humidity up.

Many thanks
 
Looks like I didn't overwater. I decided to dig around a bit in one of the mystery seed pots with my tweezers, very carefully. Looks like one of my mystery seeds is progressing well down in its hole, one is ambiguous, and two didn't pop at all, so I placed those back in a glass for more soaking. I don't expect much from the freebies. Also from digging around a bit I see the coco is slightly moist but still loose with lots of air in it. The rapid rooters are a bit damper, especially at the bottom. They really hold onto water even more so than the coco, but I could see that the tops of the plugs were drying out first, even with all my misting, which is good.

I also risked inspecting the crystal plant that had sent a root above the surface. There was more going on down in that hole than I expected, and clearly it is working things out on its own. I put a pinch of dry coco dust on top to block the light and put it back in the cabinet. It's a viable plant for sure.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top Bottom