Rockwool soaking question

Hey guys i have a question for you hydro experts...im in the process of starting a new grow and have already placed my germinated seeds in rw cubes but they havent sprouted yet its been like 3-4 days, i read somewhere that you shouldent squeeze your rockwool cubes as it crushes the cubes thus not allowing any air circulation. I soaked my cubes in phed 5.5-5.80 water for 24 hrs then squeezed excess water but my cubes didnt look crushed or anything but im trying figure out what my proplem is since they still dont sprout. I tried same method my last grow and i had sproutes. If i shouldent squeeze the cubes how would i get rid of the excess water without squeezing them?????

all i do is soak the cubes then put them each in an individual plastic baggy and set em on a window sil...all mine sprouted after three days...do you have a greenhouse effect goin? helps alot

open the bags once a day to let fresh air in ...and voila!!

It's probably not because you squeezed your cubes. If they weren't all compressed you probably didn't do much damage. You should shake the cubes to get the extra water out though. The seeds may have been bad in general, maybe it wasn't warm enough for them, maybe the cubes were still to wet. There are way to many possibilities to tell you why your seeds didn't sprout but I doubt it has to do with you squeezing the cubes. Just in case though don't squeeze them anymore, just shake the water out.

stickyburke said:

open the bags once a day to let fresh air in ...and voila!!

Click to expand...

whats the temp of the cubes...seeds need warmth and moisture to germinate

Never squeeze a RW cube... you will crush the airspace that makes it so great...

Never keep your cubes soaked.. NEVER..

Cubes should be damp.. not wet...

My RW cubes weigh 4grams dry...

I wet them to 40grams DAMP... any more and you are too soaked...

The best way I found to remove water from the cube is to use Paper Towels... fold one in 4 and gently place the cube onto it...

The paper towel will absorb some water from the cube, then you move to the next dry spot on the paper towel and repeat until you have your target weight...

After a few batches (I do clones) I kinda "picked up the weight" and ditched the scale...

RW is great, but 99% of the people start out by way overwatering, and possibly killing their seeds/clones...

NOW... I AM A DUMBASS... GO WITH WHAT YOU KNOW... lol

But I do speak from experience...

Cheers..!

ya know what im thinking its this guys first time with rw and likely what he has done is dropped the sprouted seed down the hole in the cube.this is way to deep!! often people plant with the root up instead of down as well also delaying sprouting time.punch as shallow hole in bottom of the cube about i/4 of a inch deep,use a pair of tweezers and gently put the sprouted seed root side down in the hole press the edge of the opening to gently close over seed.your all set,good luck!