New Grower Heat mat question! Germing problems!

[atpmixx]

Hey there, so Ive been attempting my first grow. My first seed was a loss, due to my own fault, I germed it, but did not pre-soak my airpot, essentially having my girl sit in dry soil for a week.

Tried again, germed a seed, and this time placed it into a jiffypot (pre-soaked), and put her in a humidity dome. I have three CFL's going, 2X23watts and 1X64watt going 20 on/4 off. Along with a heat mat going. The reason for the heat mat is that it is still cool where I live, more so in the basement where I have my set up.

I put my germed seed into the jiffypot, with jiffy seed starting mix pre-soaked, a week ago, and gave a does of reverse osmosis water now twice, after checking the moisture of the mix with my finger. It seems to dry out pretty quick, and yet again, one week in soil and no sprouting! :cry:

Frustrating, YES! Wondering if my heat mat was a bit much for the seed. Did I bake it? Any tips? Obviously not giving up on this seed yet. But I did unplug the heat mat today after watering. Trying to figure out how I keep going wrong!!!

 

[Bikini Fettuccine]

Dude I don't know exactly why it didn't germ, i doubt you baked it though. my cousin planted 4 seeds in jiffy seed starting mix and all of them are about three weeks old and look about 3 days old. They have been growing so slowly, you can check them out in my grow box on my thread. they are in the mcdonalds cups. If you want me to post pics of them i will. We tried the jiffy pucks and they are looking damn good. Check out his thread, we've got a first timer here to see them they are the prototype gigglyjuices. I don't know what the problem was with the jiffy seed starter but the plants are stunted as hell. Maybe yours just got messed up before it ever sprouted.

 

[Mr Piggy]

Have you been fussing at it the whole time? Sprouting seeds like to be left alone and the most common problem with them is being loved to death. I germ mine in peat pucks in a humidity dome on a heat mat. As soon as their little heads poke above the pucks I transplant them to 18 oz party cups and place them under cfls or the Blackstar.
If you're soaking your medium before transplanting and watering after it sounds like you may be drowning them. You want your medium moist like a wrung out sponge, not wet or soaking.
Are you using an actual seedling heat mat or substituting with one from around the house? Seedling heating mats are made to run lower temps for seedlings so they don't burn them.
That's a lot of cfl power for something that hasn't even broke soil yet, that may be what's cooking them. One 26watt cfl is plenty for a seedling's first week of life.

Lacking pictures that's about all i can come up with. Good luck

 

[atpmixx]

Bikini-Hoping mine are slow starters as well! Ill check out your post.

Piggy-I added pics to the post. Check them out and let me know what you think. I am using an actual heat mat for plants. I wouldn't say Ive been fussing, besides checking soil moisture every few days. Perhaps a quick spray of the dome for humidity. I also checked the temp, which was sitting at 88 with the heat mat, after an hour of it off it is at about 72. Perhaps kill the CFL's? Maybe just one? Take a peek and let me know. THANKS!!!

 

[Bikini Fettuccine]

Hey man nice pics, my cousin is straight808 I saw you posted on his thread he will help you out with his suggestions too. I would say you only need one cfl until it sprouts but I don't think the ones you have are burning it through the dome. You could be overwatering or its just the seed starter, Anyone else use this by jiffy??? His are so stunted they probably won't do anything anyways. Do you have any more seeds?

 

[atpmixx]

Thanks! Ill go ahead and kick off the 2 little CFL's. Im sitting on 2 more seeds, one more WOS AKR and a freebie from Herbies. Im thinking "there is NO way I can screw up FOUR seeds". lol Well, maybe I can! My first attempt, was into a soilless mix (that was when I didn't pre-water it properly), so I figured maybe a little jiffy pot with jiffy mix in a dome would be better. Perhaps not!

 

[Bikini Fettuccine]

Well if it was me and they had been under 7 days. I would germ some more especially if they aren't feminized. Try the pucks if you can only get basic soils where you live, my germ rate in them with seeds from herbies is 3/3 and those gigglyjuice germ rate was good too. Maybe someone else will say wait but thats my

 

[atpmixx]

Holy shit balls! Since I've been obsessing over this all afternoon...googling a lot. I hope to god I really didn't just make such a rookie mistake! Tell me...after you have germed, you see that little tap root, do you plant the tap root DOWN or UP?

 

[Bikini Fettuccine]

down brother

 

[Mr Piggy]

Roots go down.