Need Help big time! Cant get past seedling stage Damping off!! So frustrating...

sre you soaking in the shot glass. If so cut to 12 hours. skip the paper towel go into your soil. they say ffof is ok for seedling. I like seedling soil. shallow hole. cover lightly with soil. I use a spray bottle. wet the soil well very well. put under a cfl about a inch off the cup. Oh only fill your cups a little over half full with soil. you'll see sprouts 12-72 hours. If the top soil dries before sprouts give them ONE light spray. don't water again for 3-6 days let it dry alot. use the dry cup to tell when to water.

If the sprouts shoot up fast and want to fall over you can add soil at your next watering. even if they don't shoot up they will grow enough to add soil.

thanks should I go 24 or 18? Why only half full? Just asking. Are we ok with using a bag to cover? Humidity is very low where I live.

hudman said:

Ok so I have probably wasted at least 30 seeds now...and I am talking some good strains and some wasted $$$. I am about to give up and dont want to. Here are the facts.

I have germinated at almost 90% but once I transplant them they are dying within the first week to 10 days from what I think is damping off. I am growing in my garage with stable temps of 70 degrees. I have used the paper towel method, plate method, in a bag method, presoak method, seed warmer in a dome, pretty much done it all.

I have used peat pellets and party cups. I have tried Happy Frog, Light Warrior, and FFOF...i even mixed them and still cant get past the F-ing first week without the stem shriveling up and falling over or dieing even earlier than that.

Using 4ft flourecents 1 at 6500 the other at 3000k. Putting seedlings that get this far within a few inches from the lights.

At this point I am very frustrated and ready to quit. Can someone please help me figure this shit out. I am so tired of buying weed when I know I can grow my own.

I will answer any questions and welcome all feedback.

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People cause all kinds of problems by listening to all the idiots that tell them all kinds of ways to germinate your seeds. Less is more when it comes to marijauna. I don't ever germinate my seeds & I have been growing hybrids for years. Once in a blue moon I have a seed that doesn't come up (bad seed) otherwise they all come up hardy females ( I buy only feminized seeds) so as not to hassle with males. Take your index finger & make a dent in your growing soil 1/4" deep & drop in seed. Cover well & then spray with a spray water bottle to keep soil on seed damp daily & avoid moving your seed with a water plunge from a spout. I use Ocean Mix soil from Foxfarm, but any good soil will do. Your plants will pop in 4-5 days. Don't over-fertilize either, I use Foxfarm fertilizers which are great. All my friends listen to all the bull online about tweaking your plants & they all fail every year. It's maddening to me. Marijuana is very simple to grow, don't screw with it. The genetics are in the SEED!

snakebit said:

people cause all kinds of problems by listening to all the idiots that tell them all kinds of ways to germinate your seeds. Less is more when it comes to marijauna. I don't ever germinate my seeds & i have been growing hybrids for years. Once in a blue moon i have a seed that doesn't come up (bad seed) otherwise they all come up hardy females ( i buy only feminized seeds) so as not to hassle with males. Take your index finger & make a dent in your growing soil 1/4" deep & drop in seed. Cover well & then spray with a spray water bottle to keep soil on seed damp daily & avoid moving your seed with a water plunge from a spout. I use ocean mix soil from foxfarm, but any good soil will do. Your plants will pop in 4-5 days. Don't over-fertilize either, i use foxfarm fertilizers which are great. All my friends listen to all the bull online about tweaking your plants & they all fail every year. It's maddening to me. Marijuana is very simple to grow, don't screw with it. The genetics are in the seed!

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do not use peat pots>>>use good soil.

I find the genetics of hybrid seeds to be very prolific. They are fresh & ready to pop in most cases, not hard to grow in soil. The only problem I have found with hybrids i.e. white widow etc. is their arms break off very easily in the early stages if you bump into them or strain them. This is because they are not bred for rope, but for THC!!!! However, they become stronger as the buds grow & gain weight. Still, I ty up some arms that are too heavy so as not to loose a budded branch.

I am also of the school of thought that for millions of years plants did just fine without shot glasses full of water and paper towels. It's unfortunate that these methods work at all because it allows good growers to think they need to germinate this way.

You do not need to germinate with a pre-soak or in paper towels.

I place my seeds directly in coco coir. It is mostly inert, holds ideal levels of both moisture and air, and has a 100% germination rate for me. Other people who use this method will report exactly the same thing. Peat pucks, glasses of water, rapid rooters, rock wool, all of them cannot shake a stick at Coco. It is easy, and beyond that, it makes perfect sense to plant it and forget it.

From the point after germination you just let the coco go from moist to dry, I add about 2 ounces of water every 2 days. When it dries out in a day it is time to transplant. You can then transplant to almost any kind of system, soil, or hydro. Hydro requires the use of a Cocofiber planter inside of a net pot but works fine.

When I started growing I tried every method under the sun to start my seeds. I've surveyed the field and found one method to be clearly superior.

The problem with the perpetuation of these ideas is that often times it is new growers assisting other new growers using information from another new grower.

SNOW. I love your thinking. I can tell that you know what you're doing. There's a hydro shop near my house. What is it exactly that I'm asking for when I go in? I'm gonna go with coco. If you don't mind could you tell me what lights you start with? Do you use a fan during the germination time? What is a good temp for me to shoot 4 for the first few days/ weeks?

Fo shizzle.

My coco brand of choice is Botanicare CocoGro.

General Hydroponics CocoTek and Canna Coco are both what I consider to be worse quality. I build this opinion on the run off of the CocoTek being far too high (it requires a lot of flushing). The Canna Coco I got recently had an unusually high amount of sticks and leaves, nuts and trash, inside of it. In addition I am still washing 300ppm to 400ppm every time I feed right now. In is 700ppm, out is usually around 2000ppm. This is after tens of gallons of run off over the course of 4 weeks.

A lot of people dis Advanced Nutrients JUST because they advertise. I would argue that a great majority of information available on Coco Coir/Fiber comes directly from Canna's advertisers and much of what they espouse I've found to simply not be true when it comes to coco. Personally, I've been burned on Canna (during flowering) too many times to ever consider using them in coco again for Cannabis.

You can use any of these products though but the other stuff you will need to rinse very well before using.

Botanicare CocoGro comes compressed. You will need to expand it with water. Sometimes I'll mix 5ml of Cal-Mag plus in with the solution I use to expand the coco. This has had great results for me with the first two weeks of life being powered by what little nutrition is attained from those. In coco it is more about electrical equilibrium of elements (say that 5 times fast... Shit... I can't even say equilibrium "fast") and the charge of calcium and magnesium aren't going to burn your plant up. Rather they provide a healthy CEC and allow the seedling to keep what little nutrition it starts with in the plant.

A charge imbalance between the plant and the media will force ions from inside the plant to be leached into the media in order to establish a balance. This might sound familiar if you ever took HS Chemistry, or Biology, and you understand osmosis.

For lighting I use a variety of CFL bulbs, all daylight spectrum. I have some 5000K, 5500K, and 6500K bulbs ranging in wattages from 23w to 27w. I place these bulbs in Clamp Light Reflectors. All of this equipment is available at a hardware store like Home DePot, Lowes, or Ace, though sometimes you won't be able to find diversity in your light spectrums. That is okay, but I do get better growth from a little variety in my CFL spectrum as long as it is all over 5000K.

I also use a fan on my plants. This is something I haven't worked out perfectly, but a 6" oscillating desk fan or clip on fan is perfect usually. You just need a gentle breeze to knock them around a little, and you don't want it to be constant. I have made the constant breeze mistake before and it forces the young plants to transpire too quickly. The immature root system cannot move enough water to the leaves which are "sweating" and as a result you get a little wind burn on those precious first leaves.

I try to keep my seedlings always over 70 degrees, even at night, and during the day time I find they do best at 78.5 degrees. You can range from 76 to 80, but do your best to keep it just under 79 and they will flourish. Humidity is one of those things... Sometimes I have it really high... Sometimes it is really low... Either way they seem to do alright. Aim for 50% and they'll be alright. I think the proper humidity range for these plants is somewhere between 60% and 30%. Anywhere in there is fine.

Personally I also find Canna Rhizotonic to be an exceptionally good root zone conditioner. It is a bit expensive for the Liter, but a 250ml bottle would be fine for you and the root system you get from that product makes it worth its weight in gold. Let's just say I haven't managed to find out where "too much" is and I've used it up to 30ml per gallon on week old seedlings.

Here's a picture or two that might help bring some things into clarity for you:



So here is the process:
Expand CocoGro
Fill small sized "containers" with about 4 ounces of coco. Party cups work too but are better for people who will transplant to coco as you'll need to feed it before you transplant and you'll need those nutrients around.
Poke a hole about 1 inch deep. 2-3cm is the area to aim for.
Drop in a seed.
Cover it with coco, ensuring the seed is completely in contact with the media.
Place a CFL bulb a few inches above the coco. This keeps the media a little warmer at the top and will provide light to the plant if it pokes out when you are not around.
Every day add approximately one ounce of water over the spot where you placed the seed until you see the cotyledon (seed leaves) above ground.
Once above ground keep your bulbs within 2 inches of the plants.
Also being using the circulation fan immediately.

I prefer an 18/6 light schedule.

Everything after that point is just a matter of not over watering, over feeding, or over loving. Plants do surprisingly well with LESS attention. This process will take at least 50 hours, with almost every plant above ground in under 100 hours (~4 days from planting).

I hope my method an experience can benefit you. There are a lot of ways to grow and I'm not going to say my way is the best (because I might find a way to do it better) but I cannot think of another method that has worked better for me, personally, in my own garden.

I seriously grew healthy seedlings in the cheapest soil they sell at home depot. I didn't try, I didn't touch, I only replanted once when the plant was small from a tiny paper container into a 3 gallon container. Below is a pic of my plant a month or so old in the 3 gallon container outside. I never brought this plant inside and the temps went down to the 40s! I don't think temp has much to do with it, it's too much babying, touching, watering, chemicals.



If I were you, I would get some of those cups that you can plant directly into a large container and forget about trying to replant, paper towels and shot glasses.

use a diffrent medium perhaps roots organic the camo looking bag that stuff is perfect for seedlings, ffof is to hot for some strains

its the natural organic

Roots Organic is actually an Organic Coco mixture, not as much "soil" as other brands.

I'm going to be moving towards Roots Organic in my next grow. I cannot directly comment on it at this time but on paper it looks baller and many, many reputable growers (Subcool, Chemdog) swear by the stuff. Definitely what I'd consider to be of higher quality than Fox Farms. I just don't think Fox Farms has been able to keep up with demand and maintain the quality of their product. Over the last 2-3 years I've seen a lot of experienced growers switch off of FF for this reason. Just not what it used to be and it is still riding on that reputation.

It is good stuff, don't get me wrong, just not quite what the hype would have you believe. There's other stuff around that could be better, and Roots Organic mix is a good contender I think.

Yes there are many ways to germ seeds. I like throwing them out back. but without coco I Like this method. When I've soaked for 24hr the seedlings seem to get some type of rot and die. just found that 12 is long enough. It doesn't matter how you do it as long as it works for you. I've used coco in the past and it works well. We went with the lowe's brand porch and patio added perlite, lime, and Epsom salts. I went to this cuz I grow outside in the summer.

Ok...so I hit the hydro store and picked up some coco. I came home and pulled out the seeds from the shot glass....only in there about 10 hours or so. Watered them into the coco and put them under the lights. I also have them on a heat mat but layered towels under neath to keep the temp from getting to warm. Suppose to get cold tonight so I dont want my babies getting cold. I guess it is wait and see now. According to Snow I should have some sprouts in the next 4 days. I will not water as I think there should be plent of moisture to get them above ground. Fingers are crossed. If this works then I will get Hawaiian Snow and Pineapple Express going.

You'd be surprised how quick the coco will get dry.

Did you follow my directions?
Did you buy compressed coco?
Did you expand it?
Are you letting the tap water rest 24 hours before using it to let the chloramines off gas?
Did you pH balance the solution?

I don't think I said to "water them into the coco." I said to place them at a specific distance in and to add water afterwards. I do hope that is what you actually did.

Good luck man.

Well, if you give up, I'll take whatever seeds you have left over.

I can't really add more than the peeps here have, but I can let you know that about the first half-dozen seeds I popped died quickly just like yours. Still not sure what i did wrong, but I changed a few things up and found a system that worked. I kept the sprouts a good 12" to 14" away from the fluoros for the first three or four days. I think for my setup this helped because a combo of heat and drying out of rockwool over night. Point is, don't give up, listen to the folks here, tweak a few things each time, and eventually you will get a working system. I might suggest experimenting on bagseed before the expensive stuff.

Snow..sorry a little vague on the details... Yes I got the coco and yes I expanded it. Sorry I should not have said watered in the seeds...i just placed them in and covered. I used heated distilled water...i never use tap water so that I dont have to wait on chlorine to die off. I did not add any nutrients at this point. I placed the planted seeds into a plastic container with a dome. Then set them up under flouros about 4 inches from the lights. They are also sitting on a heat mat with a towel buffering between the container and the mat itself. I dont plan on touching them until they pop or dry out and then and only then will I mist the coco to re dampen.

Jim are you the guy with the watch bears?? lol You heard about the guy they busted that was using Bears to guard his weed crops... if thats you in the picture you are one brave mother fucker...hahah

Snow Crash said:

Roots Organic is actually an Organic Coco mixture, not as much "soil" as other brands.

I'm going to be moving towards Roots Organic in my next grow. I cannot directly comment on it at this time but on paper it looks baller and many, many reputable growers (Subcool, Chemdog) swear by the stuff. Definitely what I'd consider to be of higher quality than Fox Farms. I just don't think Fox Farms has been able to keep up with demand and maintain the quality of their product. Over the last 2-3 years I've seen a lot of experienced growers switch off of FF for this reason. Just not what it used to be and it is still riding on that reputation.

It is good stuff, don't get me wrong, just not quite what the hype would have you believe. There's other stuff around that could be better, and Roots Organic mix is a good contender I think.

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I agree on Roots Organic, they are the shit. I have been using them since day one. I wanted a local Oregon company, and low and behold, we have one of the best! I think they have soil and coco. Great stuff nonetheless. Good luck getting those seedlings going....If you are using their soil, I think you will have success, I just always plant my seeds deeper now, and they all do great! 4 of 4 up and at em for my OG Kush and Headband. Wooohooo!

Distilled water is not for growing with.

Use Reverse Osmosis filtered water if you need something clean.