first germ, 12 hours later seeds are already showing root??

Hey guys, so im 12 hours in to my first germanation and all ready 8 of the 20 seeds have cracked and are showing root. Now i made a kind of simple incubator basiclly i put my radiator on stacked 2 plastic boxes one on its back and the other on its side directly facing the radiator then i covered it with a black towel and put my plates with paper towels inside the box facing the radiator that was 12 hours ago. checked this morning and the plates were both mild warm and the paper towels were also a little warm but still had loads of moisture on them, now around 8 of my 20 seeds have broke open and starting to show root? i thought it like 24 hours to 3 days??Do u think this is a good method guys? and should i worry about the paper towels been a little warm??

It's normal. I've had em crack like that. Also had a stubborn one take about 10 days. I gave up on it and tossed it. Days later I was messing around and hey look a seedling I'll be damned. Also next time you can just stick em on top or right under a router. Keeps em perfectly warm.

Sounds like a typical distribution of crackin' times to me, in the last couple batches of seeds I always had a couple quick-starters and the later ones took a couple days.

When I was a kid I had a science class where we tried germinating hard-shelled mimosa seeds using over a dozen techniques. It's so strong in my memory even now, was the first time I understood the "scientific method". My lab partner and I soaked ours in 100 degF water. Things never cracked, they just molded. Almost every other technique was somewhat successful. The most successful by far was just dropping them in soil. I've had the best success germinating MJ seeds directly in pre-conditioned rockwool and placing in an 80degF / 80% RH chamber. I can't imagine an advantage to the paper towel method other than being able to watch it. Disadvantages include potentially damaging the young tap root when planting.

NeonTetra said:

Sounds like a typical distribution of crackin' times to me, in the last couple batches of seeds I always had a couple quick-starters and the later ones took a couple days.

When I was a kid I had a science class where we tried germinating hard-shelled mimosa seeds using over a dozen techniques. It's so strong in my memory even now, was the first time I understood the "scientific method". My lab partner and I soaked ours in 100 degF water. Things never cracked, they just molded. Almost every other technique was somewhat successful. The most successful by far was just dropping them in soil.

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well looking at it all my seeds have now cracked, about half u can see the root coming through the other half you can actually see a root, would u leave it another 12 or just str8 up plant em? oh and when i do plant them, ill be planting in baby pots, should i start by just feeding em water? or shall i start to give them there vegging feed str8 away?

ItsJustMe84 said:

well looking at it all my seeds have now cracked, about half u can see the root coming through the other half you can actually see a root, would u leave it another 12 or just str8 up plant em? oh and when i do plant them, ill be planting in baby pots, should i start by just feeding em water? or shall i start to give them there vegging feed str8 away?

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I don't think there's much difference whether you wait to put them in or not, other than having even more exposed tap root to damage. Stay away from the nutrients for sure, the seedlings are self-sufficient for a while and are very sensitive to nutrients. I'm a hydro grower, but others can fill you in on when to start adding nutrients based on your soil composition, etc.

MonkeyGrinder said:

It's normal. I've had em crack like that. Also had a stubborn one take about 10 days. I gave up on it and tossed it. Days later I was messing around and hey look a seedling I'll be damned. Also next time you can just stick em on top or right under a router. Keeps em perfectly warm.

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thanks for reply dude

NeonTetra said:

I don't think there's much difference whether you wait to put them in or not, other than having even more exposed tap root to damage. Stay away from the nutrients for sure, the seedlings are self-sufficient for a while and are very sensitive to nutrients. I'm a hydro grower, but others can fill you in on when to start adding nutrients based on your soil composition, etc.

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thanks for the advice man. Im brand new to this but i think i can pull it off with a bit of friendly advice. How much water should i give them? Like a paper cup full orr?? Is it true u grow the monster buds from hydro?

ItsJustMe84 said:

thanks for reply dude
thanks for the advice man. Im brand new to this but i think i can pull it off with a bit of friendly advice. How much water should i give them? Like a paper cup full orr?? Is it true u grow the monster buds from hydro?

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Best of luck. I'm a really new grower myself and am going for a somewhat challenging hydro technique, and I've managed to do very well based purely on reading online and books. Take advice on boards with a grain (make that a chunk) of salt and try to cross-reference with other materials.

The most challenging thing about being a new grower is having very little base-line by which to even take people's advice. I could tell you to just keep your soil moist, but what does "moist" mean to you?

The best way around lack of experience is to focus on numbers. When I started seedlings in rockwool, I used a "water by weight" technique and followed a guideline of keeping the cube's weight between 60% - 80% of the saturated weight. Maybe there's a nice means of doing this with soil.

You'll want to err on the side of dryer soil than wetter soil. As long as the soil isn't bone dry, your seedling is much more likely to survive than if it's swamped.

Yeah hydro is great. You can really optimize the grow. It's challenging because you don't have the same buffer of stability you have with soil, but once you "dial in" your system you can produce some happy, luscious plants for sure.

NeonTetra said:

Best of luck. I'm a really new grower myself and am going for a somewhat challenging hydro technique, and I've managed to do very well based purely on reading online and books. Take advice on boards with a grain (make that a chunk) of salt and try to cross-reference with other materials.

The most challenging thing about being a new grower is having very little base-line by which to even take people's advice. I could tell you to just keep your soil moist, but what does "moist" mean to you?

The best way around lack of experience is to focus on numbers. When I started seedlings in rockwool, I used a "water by weight" technique and followed a guideline of keeping the cube's weight between 60% - 80% of the saturated weight. Maybe there's a nice means of doing this with soil.

You'll want to err on the side of dryer soil than wetter soil. As long as the soil isn't bone dry, your seedling is much more likely to survive than if it's swamped.

Yeah hydro is great. You can really optimize the grow. It's challenging because you don't have the same buffer of stability you have with soil, but once you "dial in" your system you can produce some happy, luscious plants for sure.

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well ill be using coco soil in 9cm potsd to begin with ive looked and it tells u just to use a spray bottle spray the soil and the plant around 10 to 15 times, a few times aday checking that the soil dont get to dry, sounds fair enough to me. as for the nutrients am gonna leave them a week or 2. so do u sog scrog top or anything like that? if im asking to many questions just tell me lol

ItsJustMe84 said:

well ill be using coco soil in 9cm potsd to begin with ive looked and it tells u just to use a spray bottle spray the soil and the plant around 10 to 15 times, a few times aday checking that the soil dont get to dry, sounds fair enough to me. as for the nutrients am gonna leave them a week or 2. so do u sog scrog top or anything like that? if im asking to many questions just tell me lol

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NP, I never mind shootin' the shit. That sounds like a pretty reasonable technique to start with--spray isn't as likely to drown your seedling for sure. And keeping the number in mind is a nice approach--again, always numbers when newbie growing--even if measuring them yourself, it allows you to make precise adjustments to your technique. Avoid the temptation to overthink your grow, imagine something is wrong, try to fix it, and fuck up your plants. Sticking to numbers helps alleviate some of the newbie hysteria.

I'm doing a SCROG because of height (I'm growing sativa). On this run I'm trying everything--topping, main-lining, alternating nodes, and various defoliation. I have no doubt it's important to train your plant to get more light exposure. However, most of these exotic pruning techniques seem more to do with trying to force cup winning bud formation (while actually slowing down veg time by sometimes weeks). Also, removing fan leaves stunts growth a lot--keep every healthy fan leaf you can. In the future, I will almost always SCROG and neither prune nor defoliate with the exception of removing the 2-3 sets of node shoots below the screen line.

Guessing you're growing indoors unless you're in the southern hemisphere. Have you thought about training your plant, what's your setup like?

NeonTetra said:

NP, I never mind shootin' the shit. That sounds like a pretty reasonable technique to start with--spray isn't as likely to drown your seedling for sure. And keeping the number in mind is a nice approach--again, always numbers when newbie growing--even if measuring them yourself, it allows you to make precise adjustments to your technique. Avoid the temptation to overthink your grow, imagine something is wrong, try to fix it, and fuck up your plants. Sticking to numbers helps alleviate some of the newbie hysteria.

I'm doing a SCROG because of height (I'm growing sativa). On this run I'm trying everything--topping, main-lining, alternating nodes, and various defoliation. I have no doubt it's important to train your plant to get more light exposure. However, most of these exotic pruning techniques seem more to do with trying to force cup winning bud formation (while actually slowing down veg time by sometimes weeks). Also, removing fan leaves stunts growth a lot--keep every healthy fan leaf you can. In the future, I will almost always SCROG and neither prune nor defoliate with the exception of removing the 2-3 sets of node shoots below the screen line.

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Yes well i have a total of 4 ft in height but im growing indicas, scrog isnt really an option as theres only 1 way into my grow room and i dont think i could move round the plants so im gonna stick to topping and gently training my plants to grow out. Since i started to set up its all i think about. Constantly reading and watching ways to flurish. Have u completed a grow yet? And if so how was it

ItsJustMe84 said:

Yes well i have a total of 4 ft in height but im growing indicas, scrog isnt really an option as theres only 1 way into my grow room and i dont think i could move round the plants so im gonna stick to topping and gently training my plants to grow out. Since i started to set up its all i think about. Constantly reading and watching ways to flurish. Have u completed a grow yet? And if so how was it

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I helped my brother grow in soil years ago and had the opportunity to see several grows all the way, learned all the basics and got to see what works, what doesn't. I'm just now 1 week in to flowering my first hydro grow ever and growth rates, node spacing, lusciousness of the plants, seem almost unnatural. Unfortunately, I'll have to wait another 8-9 weeks to let you know the outcome. Judging how quickly these girls started showing their sex, they seem pretty eager to flower.

It seems easy to underestimate how big your plants will get. Even these sativas are not only taller but bushier than I imagined. No idea how your plants will fit in to your room, but since it sounds like you've got some reasonably low ceilings, preparing for height control can't hurt--remember you need a fair amount of clearance from the light so you don't burn / heat stress the top buds.

Yes well ive heard its mega important to adjust your lights always keeping the lights around a foot away from your top buds at all time. Because of my height restrictions im gonna veg under 2 600 w lights. Probs only need 2 to week in veg. Defo dont want a long veg as they may grow to big then add 1 more 600 w when there ready to flower. I have 23 seeds at the mo but ill be picking the best 12 out of them so itll be 600w per 4 plants. Im doing afghan kush. And chronic lights. The afgans are 100% indica and the CL is 90% indica both come from extremly hot climates hence why ive chosen to go into veg hot

Oh i have 2 4inch filters and 3 fans. Im gonna be setting the room up today. Ill show u when ive done. See what u think. Ive made me room out of space blankets and black n white plastic. The space blankets r great for trapping heat but to creased to use as the walls hence why im going over them in black n white

Sounds like you've got all the right equipment, guessing you're talking inline fans, CFM matched to the filters, etc. Have you tested how hot the space gets?

One foot might be a little close. I run a single 600W and I'm keeping mine at 18" - 24". Any closer and I can start to feel the radiative heat hitting my hand. Your plants will let you know when you're too close though (leaves curl upwards). I'd follow what your lamp/hood manufacturer's recommendation is regarding distance. Moving closer and you're getting a greater light intensity, but you're also losing out on total spread--so your ideal light zone will be smaller.

Something I couldn't figure out and was insanely frustrated by as a new grower trying to interpret grow advice / instructions. When is day 1 of "vegetative growth"? Personally I determined that to be the moment I switched from CFLs to my MH light, which was as soon as I started seeing my first five-leaves appear (3rd to 4th node). And this was a few weeks after germination...

Ive got abit of a dilema. Im just figuring out were would be the best place to put my 2 4 inch carbon filters. And should i place my fan above my plants. Heres a pic of what my room looks like now. The 2 600w are so hot when i close myself in there. However 2 carbon filters and fans should do the trick. I think its a lovely tight space for indicas to flurish. I know it aint state of the art but i did what i could with what i had

Hey yeah that looks like a nice space there.

As for cooling. I assume you have some form of intake (can be an active intake with a fan or just an opening somewhere). Keep intakes low, outtakes high, and place outtakes opposite the room from the intakes if possible. Imagine sucking cooler air from the bottom below your plants, up through your plants in to the carbon filters. Makes for better odor removal and heat dissipation. Also, this might seem a little counter-intuitive, but you might consider rotating your lights 90 deg. You actually get more light spread to the sides of your hood than the other way, so you'll want the lights to be perpendicular to the length of the room.

I'm imagining in that space, putting your carbon filters parallel to your lights (which would be rotated 90 deg from where they are now), hanging just a little below the ceiling. That way you're getting the most rapid heat removal directly from where the heat is being generated. So you'd have light-filter-light-filter.

When you mention your fan are you talking about your oscillating fan or the inline fans? You're going to want to suck through your filters (I don't know if there's any other way) and run your inline fans in parallel, not series. Where you place inline fans doesn't matter since you can typically run the ducting however makes sense. You could even place the inline fans outside the room entirely, one less thing generating heat.

so in my room would you put the filters on the back walls at either side near the roof with the silver lining, and maybe have two fans blowing the opposite ways, see im a little clueless how this works, think i might have to wait for my friend to do it for me. lol

when u say
oscillating fans do u mean normal fans and the filter fans?

ItsJustMe84 said:

so in my room would you put the filters on the back walls at either side near the roof with the silver lining, and maybe have two fans blowing the opposite ways, see im a little clueless how this works, think i might have to wait for my friend to do it for me. lol

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I'd alternate the filters with the lights, keep the filters closer to the plants and lights to more rapidly remove odor and heat.

ItsJustMe84 said:

when u say
oscillating fans do u mean normal fans and the filter fans?

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Right, your normal fan is usually an oscillating fan so you're not constantly blasting all your plants in one direction. And the filter fans are the inline fans that connect in to your duct work.

NeonTetra said:

I'd alternate the filters with the lights, keep the filters closer to the plants and lights to more rapidly remove odor and heat.

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yes i get what u mean but its dountful id have the room to altrenate two carbon filters and 3 lights in a row