having trouble starting seeds in coco

Stonerinchina

Active Member
Had 2 seeds in between two plates in a polystyrene box, came home and my Mrs was wrapping it up as a fake Xmas box under the tree !
They fell all over the place , and looking good . Who knows ??
 

THE KONASSURE

Well-Known Member
did you ph ?

A lot of people buy unwashed coco and it can have salts in it

Also it can be easy to over water coco, I like to soak a seed or just put one in to damp coco that I`ve mixed up ages before hand and added benifical microbes and a tiny bit of plant food or sugar to

Also vitalinks "plant start" is good

The seed go`s into damp already watered soil and you just give it a tiny bit of water and then place it under a lid and light keep warm temps anything over 16c will do but 5 to 10c above the ambient temp is good 30c is around the max I`ll try to germinate in

So yeah with coco you want "washed coco" as it causes less problems and you`ll want to make sure your water has some buffers in it, a lot of people use distilled water pure with coco when they germinate and the ph swings big time and the plant has no nutes so after a few days or a week it starts to die
 

JimmyIndica

Well-Known Member
so after doing a 4 month battle with myself vs. miracle gro, I decided to go the coco/perlite route this time. I figured having total control over the nutrient contents would make things easier than the guesswork surrounding pre-ferted soil and all that. I still feel that way, BUT I'm having trouble getting off the ground. I've already lost 5 seeds to damping off, and by that I mean the seedlings falling over under their own weight after a day or two or breaching the soil. What I've tried this time is rinsing the medium with a 1tbsp per quart hydrogen peroxide solution, but I'm still coming up with damping off and other weird stuff, like in the picture. That one looks like it made it through so far, but has moldy leaves. UGh!

I started using a humidity dome/heat mat incubator thing I bought, but have since re-thought that idea, because if my problem is 'damping off', then having the dampest environment possible doesn't sound like any solution. I guess I should also mention that they are damping off whether germinated right there in the coco, or in a paper towel. Whether humidity dome is on or off with a fan blowing fresh air around. And it shouldn't be overwatering because the 4" containers have plenty of drainage and they do it after only the 1st watering. Sounds like contaminated coco right??

Has anyone experienced this or know of a way to stop this crap? I'm going to run out of seeds soon. I've heard putting the coco in the oven at 200 for 45 minutes is good, but ive already mixed it all up with perlite. would this make a difference in the oven?
I start my seeds soak em for 24 hrs, wet paper towel in baggie check daily and after 2-3 days into rapid rooters with no dome! mist seedlings 2 times every day
 

JimmyIndica

Well-Known Member
I believe all this damping off is caused by dome too much moisture. 2 inches away from t5ort8 and just mist until they develop roots. Make sure you use small pots -I use 6 inch from rooters then into 4-5 gallon fabric! In coco you gotta watch pot size compared with root size. and waterlogging!
 
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