Sprouts have gone dormant -

Sprouted 6 Afghan and 4 bag seed. All of these germed. Had them on the back of my computer under my desk to crack and sprout them. Everything looked good.

I planted the 4 bagseed in Jiffy cubes just to try them out and the 6 Afghan in 16 ounce cups full of FoxFarms OF. They are all at a depth of about 3mm, and the cover is not hard packed.

I placed all the cups in a germination tray with lid to keep the humidity even. Placed the tray under a 2 foot 4 bulb T5 fixture with 4 6500K tubes. This fixture is 1bout 1/2" off the cover.

That was about 6 days ago and nothing has come up. Everything is contained in a grow tent. The temp at the top of the tent stay at around 80-85F, but the bottom is a bit cooler at around 75F.

This morning I pulled the soil away that was covering the sprouts and find that they have not grown at all. Same 3/8" root coming out of the cracked seed casing, but no progress. The root is a healthy white, but not making any visible sign of growth.

Any thoughts on what I am doing wrong? Possibly too chilly in the tray?

make sure the pointy end is down

6 days is quite a long time.... Take the covers odd, I have never needed them to sprount anything. I grow lots of plants/flowers, and never cover my seeds, only my clones. They may be really hot with the lids on.... Try and take the temp of the soil to see....

Vanslyke, the pointy ends were down when I put them in. I may have tussled them a bit this morning. Will check to make sure they are aimed right again.

MN: Cool, will do that when I get home. I am an outdoor soil grower and this is my first foray into the "indoor" world. Thought it would be easy, but it is making me go hmmm a lot.

Never thought that I could be getting it too hot! for sprouting.

Feels like I am learning it all over again. Have another three weeks before I would sprout for an outdoor grow. If this does not work, I might switch back.

Okay, I removed the cover and raised the light. Temp of soil was 86F, which is too high I think. It is going to take a little while for things to cool down. Hope there is no permanent damage.

A little more research on the site revealed another possible issue. I did not consider it at the time, but the cups were really heavy. I had watered the soil mix before planting the sprouts. With the cover on, there was almost no evaporation. Everything was staying really wet. With the cover off for two days, the cups are still heavy. May have been too much water. They are drying out slowly under the T5's. Too much heat and over watered. Hopefully addressing these two problems will yield me something. Time will tell with this grow.

I keep thinking back that I never worried about this sort of thing in the "wilds". Had a secluded yard and could grow in the open (almost). Sprinklers took care of my watering and soil temp was whatever mother nature provided. Now I am gaining a new respect for how much she has to manage!