Plants dieing right after germination
- Thread starter Nodgman
- Start date
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Well-Known Member
Nodgman
Maybe you should consider changing a few variables, use a different medium, water source, lights, strain, etc, until you find which one is the culprit.
Dr. Jekyll
Damping off is not that common, it has only happened to us once so you must be do something wrong for this to occur
Perhaps you could shed a few more details on how you germinate, as we don't have a magic answer.
Mr. Hyde
Maybe you should consider changing a few variables, use a different medium, water source, lights, strain, etc, until you find which one is the culprit.
Dr. Jekyll
Damping off is not that common, it has only happened to us once so you must be do something wrong for this to occur
Perhaps you could shed a few more details on how you germinate, as we don't have a magic answer.
Mr. Hyde
Fultono
Member
My first thought would be your over watering. Once you pop into soil you should be doing besides feeding the sprout some light until the first set of fan leafs pop out. After that if your using a solo cup maybe watering every 3 days. Until the two week mark when you can consider moving forward.
crispypb840
Active Member
How many seeds have you tried sprouting. There are so many variables to why they are dying. Be more specific, give pics, and explain your scenario a lil bit. If the soil is too hot (too many ferts) they will show signs of stress b4 they perish.
hey eveyone thanks for the help. So here's some more info for everyone. This is my second grow and both times I lost a bunch of seedlings. Now the first time was totally my fault. I was trying to germinate in 3 gal buckets, overwatered, temps too high the whole nine yards. Now this second time I planted maybe 20 with about 2 making it. Those numbers are pitiful. So I decided after this last batch of 20, that I would plant them no more than 5 seeds at a time that way I could keep an eye on them. By the way all these seeds are different strains, from different breeders. I've had the most success when I planted in them directly into a coco coir/ vermiculite/ perlite mix. But just to try some different things I've tried doing rockwool(which I have trouble with in general, even clones), I've tried peat pellets( which I've had better luck with), and I've tried to do the paper towel thing with mixed results.
For lighting I'm using 4 48" t8 fluorescents. Also I've tried to use my cloning machine which seemed to be working then one day it just crapped out.
Any ideas?
Nullis
Moderator
Damping off is caused by a number of pathogenic microbes. Many prefer it cool and wet.
I would not recommend using a dome or anything over the containers as any RH between 30-70 should really do fine. Temperature ideally should not be any cooler than 72*F and up to 80 is fine (but no dome!).
I would not recommend using a dome or anything over the containers as any RH between 30-70 should really do fine. Temperature ideally should not be any cooler than 72*F and up to 80 is fine (but no dome!).
montanachadly
Active Member
Wow I have never heard of anyone having those kinda results I mean serious a monkey could throw a couple beans in the dirt and make them grow. Start them all in a paper towel that's moist pull them out when they have a tap root don't damage them put them in the dirt a solo cup or a one gal. Water the dirt before you put them in. Don't water for 4 or 5 days until the pot or cup gets light. You want your roots to go to the bottom of the cup and branch out. When there sprouts they are fragile. they don't need to sit in water just moist dirt. If your using a heat mat or anything to germ seeds stop those aren't good and you will end up with a higher percentage of males if your growing regs.
Hey yeah while I have In the past I no longer use a dome.
I've heard of people sticking their growing medium in the oven, to sterilize it, any truth to this working? Maybe I should try germinating in a true soil base product then which over to coco coir.
Nullis
Moderator
How do you figure? And what benefit do paper towels offer as opposed to direct to soil/less?
72-80 is ideal, and whether the heat comes from a seedling heat mat, a lighting fixture that warms up the soil surface, or ambient room heat... pretty sure the seeds don't know the difference. In my experience you actually end up with a higher percentage of females, if you start in an large enough container in ideal conditions.
I usually use SAM#4, with earthworm castings. The SAM#4 itself is (should be) practically sterile, or at least disease/pathogen free...with the exception of the added mycorrhizal fungi (spores). The castings (any healthy quality castings/compost) should be thriving with microbial life (but again, virtually disease free). IMO you don't want to sterilize anything, ever. The great majority of microbes in soil, earthworm castings and compost are not there to do the plant harm, and are actually found to benefit the plants and suppress pathogens that would do the plant harm.
Good microbes serve an important purpose, even just by not being "bad", and taking up space and resources: thereby out-competing the bad microbes. It is also better to have a large number of different species of microbes (bio-diversity) as opposed to just a few. One of the problems with sterilization is that things like mold/fungal spores are ubiquitous- both the good and the bad. You can't sterilize everything and you probably don't have a clean room (like the kind they use to make micro-chips in) available to you to grow in. But, once you have something organic like a soil/media sterilized, outside of a sterile environment, it is open-season for whatever microbes (good or bad) can get in there and reproduce first and quickest.
http://www.mandalaseeds.com/Guides/Germination-Guide
AimAim
Well-Known Member
Commit the above to memory. Damping off is caused by a bunch of different fungi & bacteria. Many or most of which are already in your soil. That does not mean you have bad soil, they are just common organisms, like the bacteria that is all over your house. Cool and wet bad. Warm and wet also bad. Damp stale air is just bad.
And I will have to disagree with Mr. Hyde.... Damping off is very common and easy to have occur. Keep a dome on a seedling with no fresh air and let it stay fogged up a day or two and you will see damping off. I've had acres of soybeans damp off due to cold wet weather. I've had a couple thousand greenhouse plants (flowers) damp off when we lost power a couple days and the houses could not be properly ventilated. I've damped off a few MJ seedlings due to my own fault by keeping them too damp.
Damping off is not a rumor it is a fact.
DrOctopus
Member
You should wait about a month to nute there is a lot in the soil already if you use a FF or happy frog or any mix of that nature. The best advice I can offer is patience don't overthink it most new growers think they need rockwool or coco or and PH neutral medium that they will have to feed the best thing for a noob is to germinate straight to soil with verm or perlite and let the soil feed the seedling for the first month or so. I get it you do all of this research and think that hydro is manageable but I promise experience is key. Get a couple soil grows under your belt, then use a neutral medium to get a better understanding of what plants need then by all means move on. There are many subtle nuances in the growth process it takes a long time to master
Nullis
Moderator
That is more correct than not. I will say, however, that "ideal" conditions (all around) should result in a marginally (but statistically significant) greater incidence of females over males.
hey but what about coco coir? Does that already have living organisms in it? That's what I've been using .
No it will kill the soil and stink the oven and house up. Just use jiffy pots you cant really go wrong. Your making something easy seem hard.
bro, I know it seems like that, but honestly I can't even imagine that this is anything normal, for anyone except me. Like I feel like I've tried everything possible, out of aprox. 20-25 seeds, I've got 4 plants to show for those 20-25. Like Im going to practice with some bag seed first see what works for me then start planting my good seeds. Luckily I just got some skywalker OG, that I was able to pull seeds from so I'm trying those now.