Lost my Seedling Mojo!

Hello all.

For some reason the last 6 months I have struggled with maximizing the first 2 weeks of life, and have ended up throwing away so many young girls. I guess it's to do with my watering. I start them under a couple of 3500k Autocobs about 35 inches above the pots.

I have started using Solo Cups to help but I still can't get it. I have no issues germinating, I use a shot glass of water when planting the seed and that carries them through. It's after this I struggle. I have no idea why I am. When after this should I next be watering? I spray the soil every day, between 5-20 times, depending on what I think...

I am considering @lunarman s dunking method which I saw yesterday, or possibly a method I've seen on YT that uses a string to wick moisture up to the cup, like a self-watering kit.

My thoughts on the self-watering method would be, wouldn't that drown the seedling in the first few days, as the soil would be moist all the way through? Maybe it wouldn't matter. I wonder if I could combine the dunk method with a way to seamlessly transplant into the fabric pots after a week or two...

Any advice or help would be greatly appreciated, it's getting me down.

Cheers!

 

[lunarman]

That sucks man. I know what its like. Struggled for a long time with the first two weeks. Germination wasn't good as in didn't work half the time. And any that germinated became seedlings that were over watered and oxygen deprived. I borrowed some bullet proof ideas on what to do about it all from @slowandeasy and the past is now ancient history.

First of all how do you germinate?

 

[slowandeasy]

Hello all.

For some reason the last 6 months I have struggled with maximizing the first 2 weeks of life, and have ended up throwing away so many young girls. I guess it's to do with my watering. I start them under a couple of 3500k Autocobs about 35 inches above the pots.

I have started using Solo Cups to help but I still can't get it. I have no issues germinating, I use a shot glass of water when planting the seed and that carries them through. It's after this I struggle. I have no idea why I am. When after this should I next be watering? I spray the soil every day, between 5-20 times, depending on what I think...

I am considering @lunarman s dunking method which I saw yesterday, or possibly a method I've seen on YT that uses a string to wick moisture up to the cup, like a self-watering kit.

My thoughts on the self-watering method would be, wouldn't that drown the seedling in the first few days, as the soil would be moist all the way through? Maybe it wouldn't matter. I wonder if I could combine the dunk method with a way to seamlessly transplant into the fabric pots after a week or two...

Any advice or help would be greatly appreciated, it's getting me down.

Cheers!

What medium do you use? Let's start there.

 

[Simplicio]

Rapid Rooters, or some equivalent, are very effective.

 

[SmokexBreak]

Following I’m new to autos and definitely could use this info/advice.


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[lunarman]

Following I’m new to autos and definitely could use this info/advice.


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Do you have any known issues right now? Or you just want some general info?

 

[AutoWonders]

For soil, begin with watering to some run off. Let pots dry well before next watering. Get used to the weight of a wet/dry pot using thumb and index finger lift and that will tell you when to water. No need to spray soil that many times per day. If you were in coco, that would be more fruitful.

 

[7.62]

I'm a newbie myself and when I started, I was using rapid rooters and it didn't work the best. Trying to keep them moist, but not too moist was a hassle.
After reading more, I settled on dropping my beans in to water until I see them crack, then I put them in a paper towel until I have a tap root. Then I put them in my rapid rooter under the light keeping them warm and moist it has been working better for me.
Once I have leaves showing, I put theim in my grow bags with a humidity dome over them. I actually use a baby medicine syringe to add small amounts of water as needed.
It has seemed to work better for me.

 

[lunarman]

I'm a newbie myself and when I started, I was using rapid rooters and it didn't work the best. Trying to keep them moist, but not too moist was a hassle.
After reading more, I settled on dropping my beans in to water until I see them crack, then I put them in a paper towel until I have a tap root. Then I put them in my rapid rooter under the light keeping them warm and moist it has been working better for me.
Once I have leaves showing, I put theim in my grow bags with a humidity dome over them. I actually use a baby medicine syringe to add small amounts of water as needed.
It has seemed to work better for me.

That's pretty good but the root plugs suck IMO. I way much prefer to germ like you do and then drop them in solo cups of coco. I have tried plugs a few times and I find they are too small to handle moisture well. They can get soaked easily. They can dry out easily. Hard work IMO. The below I learned from someone on this board and refined it to my own purposes.

Once you have a tap root drop it in a solo cup of coco that was precharged with 1/2 strength nutes and calgmag. 1/4 inch down, covered loosely with coco. Put a dome on and keep it at 80F temp. Water it like once a day with a mister or a dropper. The cup of coco is better at handling moisture than the plugs period end of story. Once she pops above ground drop water or spray for 2 days and then switch to dunking the cups down in to water instead of top watering. That will make the tap root go down low and seek out water, which is a good thing. you just can't do that with a plug. Make sure you have lots of drain holes in the bottom of the cup or just cut out a square in the bottom of the cup. When you dunk, put it about an inch down in the water and hold it for about 3 seconds. I weigh my cups to gauge how moist they are. When they get to a certain weight that I know means they need watering, I do the dunk and bring the weight back up to what I want. That kind of precision watering you can't do with plugs.

Being a relative newbie still and having tried a lot of different ways I find this works the best. It helps a newbie to be able to control things like this. Eventually one would be able to do it blind folded. But at first you need this kind of control.

After 10 days you'll have great root development and its time to up pot.

 

[SmokexBreak]

Do you have any known issues right now? Or you just want some general info?

Well I’m trying to get these first few weeks figured out. I’ve got some autos in hempys and some in soil. The hempys I think have too much vermiculite and is causing some wicked overwatering symptoms.

These are chemdoggin in 2 gallon squat pots sprouted 2/4
(Fox farm happy frog/perlite 50/50)

Strawberry nuggets sprouted (2/16)
(Hempys)

Moby dick xxl sprouted (2/16)
(Hempys)

All the above plants were under (4)HLG120’s 3k and (2)HLG65’s 4k running them super dimmed and I figured out they were burning my leaves so I moved all except chemdoggin under a 2’ 12bulb T5’s and the two small grape walker kush plants got moved under a 2’ 2 bulb T5’s. The only plants left under my QB’s is the chemdoggin.

The hempys are in 1gallon buckets and the soil are all 2 gallon pots. I just feel like they’re really small for their ages the chemdoggin is throwing pistols. Idk I’m kinda at a loss. I really am just shooting for smaller plants yielding at least an ounce. I have a 3’ height to work with my auto box is 3x3x3. So I need to keep them small and squatty.



Grape walker kush sprouted (2/21)
Soil is a super soil with happy frog in the center. The other is a hempy. This hempy doesn’t have near the amount of vermiculite as the others so it’s staying pretty damn happy.

I know I’ve got a lot of different styles/methods going but I guess I’d just like a steady soil style that keeps them small and wide. I have Mega crop 2.0 and Remo nutrients to work with on the soil.

I’ve been also dabbling with coco DTW in air pots which I think I wanna give a whirl with these autos as well. I’m just trying to find the easiest and most efficient way to grow 6-9 plants around a 1-2 foot tall because I need to keep my lights 12” above my plants. So no taller than 2’ would be best. I grow photos in my 4x4x8 tent and I’ve gotten that down well with all these different styles. But autos are just finicky.

Idk any guidance would be appreciated... also how do my plants look for their age?

If you want PM me so we aren’t clogging
Up OP’s thread.


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