Need help with germination...

[ArthritisPain]

I lost all my little seedlings. 5 Master Kush, 5 Bubblicious, 10 mystery seeds, all dead. I tried to germinate in pre soaked rockwool cubes, in a germination station that has a heat mat. Now I have read everything, and watched every damned youtube video on this matter and I cannot figure out why in the hell I cannot make this work, I have built so much and come so far, spent so much, and feel so damned helpless it is unreal. I tried twice in the rockwool. I got 2 little peakers and they both were dead inside 24 hours of peeking thru. I have the room temp up, it is not cold, I had the lights on them the whole time to bring heat up in the germ station. It gets very very very hot in there, I was wondering if too hot, I don't know. I have new seeds on the way, same ones as before, this time though I bought some Rapid Rooter plugs, completely cleaned my whole germ station down, and my lights are the 2 - 8 bulb 4' T5's from Apollo, and it DOES get warm under them, so I have distanced my germ station accordingly, about 2 and half feet off of the top of the germ station. PLEASE HELP. I have well water and it is the best dang water I have ever had, but there is a heavy mineral content in the water, is that the problem?

 

[max420thc]

germination in rockwool, It holds to much water and not enough air if you keep them to wet,
go with the paper towel method,take container,, cup with top or Tupperware type container, take paper towel, put ontainerfold paper towel and moisten it,put seeds in folds of paper towel,put water in bottom of container then stand paper towel up in container in with seeds to the top of container , the paper towel will work as a wick and keep the paper towel MOIST, not to wet but not dry, in a day or two the beans will pop and shoot a tail, when it does take out of paper towel and put tail of seed down into something it can grow in,
If you are a new grower I would recommend rapid rooters, you can use rockwool, but you must not get it to wet or it will screw you,WAIT till you see the rapid rooters get light brown , or rockwool starts drying up before you add a little more water with a spray bottle with PHed balanced water to 6,
put container on top of a lamp in a warm dry place that has little light,This should do you good,It always has me,
you cant be the kind of person that gives up easy and be a grower,expect some failure , learn from it get better and go on,
good luck to you,

 

[max420thc]

do get a RO system if you have a lot of minerals in your water, can get them on ebay for a pretty good deal anymore

 

[ArthritisPain]

do get a RO system if you have a lot of minerals in your water, can get them on ebay for a pretty good deal anymore

Thank you, so I need to PH down then...And apparently the only real way too do that is remove the mineral content completely by reverse osmosis...Ugh, more money, and more installation...ok, thank you....

 

[ArthritisPain]

germination in rockwool, It holds to much water and not enough air if you keep them to wet,
go with the paper towel method,take container,, cup with top or Tupperware type container, take paper towel, put ontainerfold paper towel and moisten it,put seeds in folds of paper towel,put water in bottom of container then stand paper towel up in container in with seeds to the top of container , the paper towel will work as a wick and keep the paper towel MOIST, not to wet but not dry, in a day or two the beans will pop and shoot a tail, when it does take out of paper towel and put tail of seed down into something it can grow in,
If you are a new grower I would recommend rapid rooters, you can use rockwool, but you must not get it to wet or it will screw you,WAIT till you see the rapid rooters get light brown , or rockwool starts drying up before you add a little more water with a spray bottle with PHed balanced water to 6,
put container on top of a lamp in a warm dry place that has little light,This should do you good,It always has me,
you cant be the kind of person that gives up easy and be a grower,expect some failure , learn from it get better and go on,
good luck to you,

Thank you, I have seen this method so much, and also seen the failure rate with trans planting into the rapid rooters from there...the light on the shoots....Doesn't that kill the little ladies? Then the delicacy of handling them into the rooters can kill them too? So is this better than just placing them into the rapid rooter or directly into the soil? I am so worried, I cannot lose this batch of seeds...

 

[deadgro]

Rapid rooters work great. Leave the seedlings in them, don't try to remove and transplant them though. You don't need RO, that's nonsense. Keep them warm and moist and leave them alone up to 10 days before you go poking around.

 

[Skuzzy]

Killed 80% my first try (last week) so take this as a show of solidarity rather than advice, but I would worry about the lights and the heat.. The heat pad will keep the seeds warm enough on it's own....too much heat can dry the medium or effectively cook the seeds. Too little, so long as it isn't below 18°C (65°F) will just slow them down a bit.

Also, seeds germinate in darkness... the use of lights is common in larger scale production so the seedlings have light when they emerge when the grower might be busy elsewhere. You are, if anything like me, going to be watching your seeds pretty much all the time. When they sprout you will see it right away, and can move them out of the dark/humid propagator and into a more moderately humid (RH 50%) environment with a grow light. This reduces the risk of fungal infections and diseases that can attack young plants when the humidity is high and gets your new plants into the ideal light envirnoment.

Basically... the advice that worked for me was, ' you are a small grower, so take advantage of the attention you can provide to give your germinating seeds what they need, then quickly move seedlings into an environment they need as each plant sprouts'.

 

[Hawk1020]

Wet Paper towels in a Chinese takeout container never let me down.. Let em get a nice root and try again. Never really heard of em dying like that but it might be suffocating..

 

[FrostyPelican]

What the others said about paper towel method and Skuzzy's advice about the light, use it. What you need to do is buy a few packs of regular garden seeds and practice with those. You can germinate directly in rockwool but until you get the right amount of moisture you will have problems. Practice with some regular garden plants that have roughly the same germination time as MJ.

 

[401bigsm0ke]

i used heating mat same size bulb tfive used four bulbs on i think maybe your lights to high tfive 2 and half is kinda high. i put my 4 bulbs on 3 inches 4 the most above the top of propagation tray dome. i also used clonex and gh rapid roots had roots dripping out of plugs into resivour. but ya maybe lights are to high and heats too high. if your humidity is too low buy a cheap humidifier on ebay i got a digital one for 26 dollars good luck.

 

[max420thc]

Rapid rooters work great. Leave the seedlings in them, don't try to remove and transplant them though. You don't need RO, that's nonsense. Keep them warm and moist and leave them alone up to 10 days before you go poking around.

nonsense?do you know what is in his well water? I don't,,had a buddy who had a lot of iron in his well water was straight fucking up his plants, If he doesn't know whats in the water you do not either,

 

[max420thc]

Thank you, I have seen this method so much, and also seen the failure rate with trans planting into the rapid rooters from there...the light on the shoots....Doesn't that kill the little ladies? Then the delicacy of handling them into the rooters can kill them too? So is this better than just placing them into the rapid rooter or directly into the soil? I am so worried, I cannot lose this batch of seeds...

the bean will pop without light, when it throws a tail , you poke a hole into the rapid rooter with a pencil end drop it tail first into the hole,then lightly squeeze the rapid rooter around around it and it will take off,, like to use perlite in a cup for seed starting , you can use dirt or what ever,
If you use a solo cup with perlite make a couple of holes about 1/3 up from the bottom pour phed balanced water into it with LIGHT feed ,maybe a quarter strength every three days,
This is called a hempy bucket,,but its in a cup, when the roots hit the water level In the bottom of the cup the plant will take off like a bat out of hell,
You can also grow this way, with a larger container, Make sure if you go this method you put the drain holes up far enough from the bottom to make a decent res at the bottom,
If you use a RO water system make sure you add a little cal mag to the water, the plant will need it,
When you put the seedling under light at first just make sure the light is not to strong in it to begin with,
Hempy is kind of like DWC ,
when you pop seeds if you keep a little heat on it , the seeds seem to produce more females,thats why I sit them on something warm, like the top of a light hood, heat mat works good too,For popping seeds arundo 80 to 85 degrees is a good temp,

 

[Hawk1020]

the bean will pop without light, when it throws a tail , you poke a hole into the rapid rooter with a pencil end drop it tail first into the hole,then lightly squeeze the rapid rooter around around it and it will take off,, like to use perlite in a cup for seed starting , you can use dirt or what ever,
If you use a solo cup with perlite make a couple of holes about 1/3 up from the bottom pour phed balanced water into it with LIGHT feed ,maybe a quarter strength every three days,
This is called a hempy bucket,,but its in a cup, when the roots hit the water level In the bottom of the cup the plant will take off like a bat out of hell,
You can also grow this way, with a larger container, Make sure if you go this method you put the drain holes up far enough from the bottom to make a decent res at the bottom,
If you use a RO water system make sure you add a little cal mag to the water, the plant will need it,
When you put the seedling under light at first just make sure the light is not to strong in it to begin with,
Hempy is kind of like DWC ,
when you pop seeds if you keep a little heat on it , the seeds seem to produce more females,thats why I sit them on something warm, like the top of a light hood, heat mat works good too,For popping seeds arundo 80 to 85 degrees is a good temp,

Sounds like a free jewel to me.

 

[max420thc]

free jewel?

 

[TBoneJack]

Rapid rooters work great. Leave the seedlings in them, don't try to remove and transplant them though. You don't need RO, that's nonsense. Keep them warm and moist and leave them alone up to 10 days before you go poking around.

Agreed. RO water is not needed to germinate, and neither is ph'ing your water if you use Rapid Rooters (unless you have extremely acidic or basic water).

My guess is the rockwool was too wet in your case, or it offset the ph too much. Rockwool is bad about altering ph too much, unless there is ph compensation in the water you soak it in.

 

[ArthritisPain]

Rapid rooters work great. Leave the seedlings in them, don't try to remove and transplant them though. You don't need RO, that's nonsense. Keep them warm and moist and leave them alone up to 10 days before you go poking around.

Got it, thank you, 10 days is so damned brutal, just waiting, watching the clock lol....

 

[ArthritisPain]

Agreed. RO water is not needed to germinate, and neither is ph'ing your water if you use Rapid Rooters (unless you have extremely acidic or basic water).

My guess is the rockwool was too wet in your case, or it offset the ph too much. Rockwool is bad about altering ph too much, unless there is ph compensation in the water you soak it in.

Yes sir, I have read over and over, AFTER THE DADGUM fact, about rock wool not maintaining the correct moisture and not letting enough air penetrate, how the hell do so many others make these damned things work then????? Just curious, guess it is not relevant since I will never use them EVER freaking ever again....

 

[TBoneJack]

Yes sir, I have read over and over, AFTER THE DADGUM fact, about rock wool not maintaining the correct moisture and not letting enough air penetrate, how the hell do so many others make these damned things work then????? Just curious, guess it is not relevant since I will never use them EVER freaking ever again....

Rockwool cubes are used most often in hydroponic systems, where ph'ing your water is pretty much a daily necessity. And there, they work well.

In the soil world (organics in my case), rockwool is probably not used very much. I use Rapid Rooters, but there are alternatives, including planting directly in soil.

 

[ArthritisPain]

Killed 80% my first try (last week) so take this as a show of solidarity rather than advice, but I would worry about the lights and the heat.. The heat pad will keep the seeds warm enough on it's own....too much heat can dry the medium or effectively cook the seeds. Too little, so long as it isn't below 18°C (65°F) will just slow them down a bit.

Also, seeds germinate in darkness... the use of lights is common in larger scale production so the seedlings have light when they emerge when the grower might be busy elsewhere. You are, if anything like me, going to be watching your seeds pretty much all the time. When they sprout you will see it right away, and can move them out of the dark/humid propagator and into a more moderately humid (RH 50%) environment with a grow light. This reduces the risk of fungal infections and diseases that can attack young plants when the humidity is high and gets your new plants into the ideal light envirnoment.

Basically... the advice that worked for me was, ' you are a small grower, so take advantage of the attention you can provide to give your germinating seeds what they need, then quickly move seedlings into an environment they need as each plant sprouts'.

Got it. so right on so many levels, nailed it....My rock wool cubes were dry in 24 hours, and I couldnt figure that out for the life of me...going to have to watch that after they sprout, make sure I dont fry my little ladies....also yes, this is only for me, so small, but I was taking after these GINORMOUFUCKULUNGOUS grows we see on youtube....so yeah, I will kill the lights, thank you....I also washed the living crap outta of everything just after I trashed everything....might even just buy a new tray, these damend things are so cheaply made they rip at just a tiny itty bitty twist...ridiculous when you consider the price for this damned germ station.....

 

[ArthritisPain]

the bean will pop without light, when it throws a tail , you poke a hole into the rapid rooter with a pencil end drop it tail first into the hole,then lightly squeeze the rapid rooter around around it and it will take off,, like to use perlite in a cup for seed starting , you can use dirt or what ever,
If you use a solo cup with perlite make a couple of holes about 1/3 up from the bottom pour phed balanced water into it with LIGHT feed ,maybe a quarter strength every three days,
This is called a hempy bucket,,but its in a cup, when the roots hit the water level In the bottom of the cup the plant will take off like a bat out of hell,
You can also grow this way, with a larger container, Make sure if you go this method you put the drain holes up far enough from the bottom to make a decent res at the bottom,
If you use a RO water system make sure you add a little cal mag to the water, the plant will need it,
When you put the seedling under light at first just make sure the light is not to strong in it to begin with,
Hempy is kind of like DWC ,
when you pop seeds if you keep a little heat on it , the seeds seem to produce more females,thats why I sit them on something warm, like the top of a light hood, heat mat works good too,For popping seeds arundo 80 to 85 degrees is a good temp,

Awesome sauce many thanks....
1st Q..How often should I be adding water to the rapid rooters after planting? Just a splash?
I am using 3 gal smart pots and then moving to 15 gal smart pots if all goes well, but I will get some solo cups to start off with...is that too many transplants though?
Rapid rooter too solo cup too 3 gal to 15 gal that is 4 transplants, ugh....I am worried that would kill some of the ladies with so many moves, no?