first time grow help

ok this is my first grow and it's been a couple of days (3) since i planted my germinated seeds, how long until they shoot up out of the ground? as of right now i only see just part of a leaf i guess? Also, should i be watering it? and should i keep my light on for 24 hrs or 12? i also didn't plant them in a red party cup like most others i see if that matters. thanks, all help is appreciated!

it can take up to 10day to sprout and no light till the sprout then 24 hrs of light if you want fast growth

Hello,

First of all if you start seeing leaf, this mean you are on the good way. Genetic, Environment can make result vary for shooting up ground.

You should water it when the soil start to get dry when you touch it with you re finger (insert it within 1 inch in the soil)

For the light schedule i would suggest you either; 18/6, 20/4 or 24/0 for complete vegetation (including you re seedling phase that you are in at the moment) Once you will start flowering (you switch to 12/12)

For the party cup it dont matter as long as you are using something lightproof and you poke some hole at the bottom to let run off water get out of you re cup.

Can i ask you, what kind of light are you using? You need 6500K for Veg and 2700K for Flowering

Do you use PH water? if not you should go to walmart or any hydro store and spend 10$ on a (PH- Liquid bottle) to get you re water PH to 6.3-6.5. (you need to mix the ph - with you re water in you re reservoir until you re ph is set at 6.3-6.5. If using nutrients you have to add the PH- After you mixed everything.

Once you will have few set of leaves (1-3) or you see roots going out of the cup from the holes you will have to transplant them into a bigger pot (1GAL or 3GAL should work)

I'm using a 130 watt flourescent light i've had for a while until i can afford a new CFL.

I'll look into the PH water as well.

Still hasn't grown and it's been 3 days since i've seen any progress. I don't think it's dead because i just put it in the soil 4 days ago.

is my plant dead? or am i just too impatient? bump

anyone else care to help?

If you see green leaf (and you really should see two small round leaves) then it's going. In my experience it takes a lot of punishment to kill a sprout that is showing green. A common issues I see with sprouts is that they have trouble sloughing off the seed casing to fully open their sprout leaves. If the casing is above soil on the stalk for 24 hours and I either don't see green, or don't see a full leaf or two worth of it, I take fine tweezers and see if I can softly remove the casing myself. You have to be careful, if it's not ready and you pull to hard you can rip those precious leaves inside, but if it's ready it should slip off at least one of the leaves fairly easily. Though it can take up to 10 days (a figure I heard and have read a few times), my experience is that if they aren't poking through the soil after 3 days from cracking, the odds of them making it go down significantly. Personally I suspect rot in these cases, and this is part of why I stopped using paper towels. I soak for 12-18 hours, and then plant in well moistened soil with lots of peat and fine perlite, then put them under 24/0 of T5's at around 82-88f. I have had much better success than when I do more manipulative methods of germinating.

If your plant is green, odds are good it's not dead. How bout a picture?

I would also suggest doing some more reading cause you're gonna get flamed on here for asking the same questions that have been asked and answered 1,000 times.

Only reason I point this out is because you don't know the difference between flowering and vegetative light cycles. That's pretty major....