~ How to ~ Germ and sprout seeds

So this is my simple guide to starting seeds.

I like to use rockwool cubes since they are sterile and provide a very nice starting place for seeds. Coco starter plugs are also a great option. I'm not a big fan of jiffy 7 peat pellets but have used them once.


So first I start with a cup to which I will add some water. then I take the bamboo skewer and dip it in the bleach and then pull it out with a drop at the end I add this drop to the water and give it a stir with the bamboo skewer. Use this to wet some paper towels.




Now we add our seeds into the dampened paper towel.




and then fold it up

into the zip lock and puff with breath on top of a warm place - I use my cable modem


In the mean time mix up a few quarts of water, a few more drops of bleach, and maybe a little nutrients. adjust ph to 5.8 or so and take a third and use to soak your rw cubes. save the other 2/3 for later, 1/3 for washing perlite and the other 1/3 for filling the nice new wick unit you just built with perlite, disposable tupper ware, and rw cubes like I did in this thread.

http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=36345&highlight=wick

this time we are doing a larger version for 8 rw cubes.

so usually I wait 36 hours (start on monday morning - now tuesday evening) and then check them and find most everyone has cracked and started putting out it's tap root.

So I give each of my presoaked cubes a good shake and assemble my perlite and cube top unit.

now I place the seeds very gingerly into holes in the rw cubes like this. I will use the bamboo skewer to manipulate them a little as needed to get them all just barely in the hole with the tap pointing down.




I think this is key - I find the root just grows right down the hole branching out into the rw walls as it pushes the shell and top up.
by 48 hours I expect everything viable to have cracked and they should be in the cubes inside the wick unit in your veg area hopefully warm.
so here they all are marked with thines of a plastic fork.

I have this little cabinet (see the link in my signature "sugabear's den") and I adjust the temps in here to get high 70's by turning down the voltage on my exhaust pc fan.


so I left them alone for 4 and a half days cause I had to go somewhere..

and came back and all 8 were sprouted. half still had their seed shells on them, half needed some help. If I was able to tend to them daily I would have pulled the shells off as they came up. but nonetheless they survive and here they are after the shells are removed.


here's a hashberry that needed the most help

later the same day they had mostly recovered


here's a picture of the wick setup - this time I just cut holes in the bottom of the top container and then corresponding holes in the lid of the bottom container - 3 wicks.


so that's my little How to for folks - this was an 8/8 seeds to seedlings run of 2 each ak48, bluemystic, whiterhino, and hashberry.

-suga

Great how to guide! I love how you have taken the time to take the pictures and put up some good notes on the different stages. I have some sprouting in the future to do and will surely use this info.

sugabear:why do you use bleach when germing your beans?

does it help them germ better?

yts farmer said:

sugabear:why do you use bleach when germing your beans?

does it help them germ better?

Click to expand...

bleach helps to provide a sterile environment which helps to prevent fungus such as damping off.

damping off is a common fungus that will strike seedlings (and cuttings) shortly after germination usually just as the first true leaves are coming out. The stem will darken near the soil line and then shrivel and the seedling bends over, droops, wilts, and just dies.

usually when people have successful germination and they complain that "the seedlings just stop growing and then die for no reason a few days after they're above ground" it is damping off - germing with a little bleach and sterile medium (as opposed to a cup filled with soil) will cure this problem.

Hydrogen peroxide is another option, however I've always used bleach since I read it in the instructions heaven's stairway used to send with seed orders.

Organic folks out there will say bleach is bad - and I can see their point - I guess if they're ok with loosing a few seedlings to the organic fungus's that prey on seedlings than that is the price they pay for not using bleach.

But I for one prefer to get as close to 100% of my seedlings to the next stage. Sometimes all I need is one seed and it produces a female I can clone for a while... and the rest of the pack is saved for another time.

-suga

Here are those 8 seeds, now 8 seedlings well on there way.
from left to right; nirvana blue mystic and white rhino in the small round containers, mandala hashberry in the square ones, and nirvana ak48 in the white round containers.


I transplanted them into these containers last week and it was a bit of an adjustment to soil for them.

Normally I would have gone into hydro dwc and these plants would be growing much more quickly but these are for a friend and he does soil so I'm using straight promix plus extra perlite.

I use the perlite to germ and clone. I see you are using it too. Yet, you use the rockwool and you have a perlite wick setup. Nice....
Why not use the perlite without the rockwool?

chosen,

you can use perlite. I like the RW cubes as they give the plant a base so to speak. They also give me something to grab when transplanting. Surely you can use straight perlite in the wick system and just scoop out the seedlings for transplant and this will work well but for me I'm so clumsy I'd likely damage the plant in the process - whereas with the rw cube the plant is protected from my clumsyness a bit more.

Thanks for asking that good question.
Suga

SugarBear II,
one thing really good is to use coffee filter instead of this kind of paper,you will never damage any roots using coffee filter....
I also like to use peat moss recipient ,so I do not damage any roots while re-transplanting and I can even re-transplant lower the plant which I love to do with no damage at all.....

This thread has solved my germination problems!! Thank You!!!!

Mine too....I tried 5 seeds and they are either really slow or not working out...two had taps showing quickly and the others still really havent done much after a week besides cracking...put them in rw 2 days ago so we'll see what happens.

Sugar: after the 36hours and putting the seeds with small taps into the cubes did you put it straight under the light? or wait until they sprouted?

Oh and what about using a humidity dome... have you had any experience with this?

donatello22 said:

Oh and what about using a humidity dome... have you had any experience with this?

Click to expand...

humidity domes are good for clones - but in my experience are a bad idea for seedlings - the extra humidity causes problems like damping off

- remember the seedling has a root whereas the clone doesn't and therefore needs a high level of humidity to stay alive until it can generate roots.

seedlings in my experience grow more vigorously when they're allowed to dry out pretty well between waterings - it gets the plant to put out more and more roots looking for water.

-suga

I know not to let Pro-Mix dry out completely but definitely drier than wet, I call it moist.

donatello22 said:

Mine too....I tried 5 seeds and they are either really slow or not working out...two had taps showing quickly and the others still really havent done much after a week besides cracking...put them in rw 2 days ago so we'll see what happens.

Sugar: after the 36hours and putting the seeds with small taps into the cubes did you put it straight under the light? or wait until they sprouted?

Click to expand...

Don't give up too soon. I'm doing the T*HazexSkunk thing. Out of five seeds, two popped and one cracked and died within three days. The remaining two eventually popped at 25 and 33 days respectively.

FreezerBoy said:

Don't give up too soon. I'm doing the T*HazexSkunk thing. Out of five seeds, two popped and one cracked and died within three days. The remaining two eventually popped at 25 and 33 days respectively.

Click to expand...

Did you use rockwool too FB? I have been using Rapid rooter cubes with 100% success. I sprouted 5/5 T haze x suink1 in three days. Gave them to my bud though cause he wanted to grow a long flower sativa. Just cant let seeds dampen off. Have to let the cubes dry out but water at the right time right when the cubes are about to be bone dry. Very vigorous root stretching when you let cubes dry out you just gotta wet them at the right time is all. Very great thread on growing in RW from seed.

Great thread Sugabear - Thanks (yet again) for all the excellent info!

There are quite a few folks out there with nothing but ill to speak of rockwool, though it apparently seems to be suiting you well. Any caveats or tips I should be aware of when using it? Would you consider coco starter plugs or rockwool better for a total newbie?

You mentioned that seedlings tend to grow better if you let them dry out quite a bit between waterings - Is it safe to assume that you're referring to the stage after you've taken them out of the wick starter / cloner? My understanding of this handy little device is that it keeps the perlite pretty moist all the time, though I could be wrong...

Followup question (or two!): I understand alot of folks aren't fond of Jiffy 7's for seedlings, but it seems to be all I was able to find during phone calls around to all the local nurseries this afternoon; What specifically is undesirable about them? Will they work, being all that I have access to? Can I replace the rockwool cubes with them in your wick sprouter method? How much hydrogen peroxide should I add to my water (per liter or so) to keep the nasties out?

hi ambrosia,

the jiffy 7 pots will work, but they have two issues,

1 they tend to have high acidicy
2 they tend to stay too wet

the comment about letting things dry out a little bit between watterings is for after they are out of the wick cloner.

the wick cloner will keep the seeds perfectly moist... perlite holds just the right amount of water while still having plenty of air space. using jiffy pellets you may find that the pellets wick too much water and stay too soggy to use in a wick setup.

that said I use jiffy pellets for my veggies without the wick cloner and they work pretty well but require daily checking.

you can also just use the perlite as discussed on the first page of the thread

h2o2 or hydrogen peroxiode should be mixed at a few ml (2-5) per gallon depending upon strength... I am assuming you will use the standard dilution available at pharmacies and the pharmacy section of the supermarket

sugabear_II said:

the jiffy 7 pots will work, but they have two issues,

1 they tend to have high acidicy
2 they tend to stay too wet

Click to expand...

Any tips on countering these two issues? I had one of five RGD beans germ *much* more quickly, putting on a 3/4" taproot before the others even cracked, so it was added to a Jiffy 7 pellet last night and put it under a single 23W 6500K CFL in a desk lamp. Should I should let the Jiffy pellet dry out pretty good before I add more water, or do seedlings typically need to stay reasonably moist? Can I add anything to my next watering to counteract the acidity of the J7?

sugabear_II said:

h2o2 or hydrogen peroxiode should be mixed at a few ml (2-5) per gallon depending upon strength... I am assuming you will use the standard dilution available at pharmacies and the pharmacy section of the supermarket

Click to expand...

Perfect - This is to simply be added to the same water I'm using on the J7 to keep it from dampening off, correct?

Thanks again!

hey ambrosia,

I would try having the jiffy cubes only half buried in the perlite of the wick to keep them from being overyly moist. Otherwise if you have the luxury to check every day you can just hand water the j7 pellets as needed and make sure to drain the excess water off. You can let the j7 pellets just get dry on the outside edges before re-wetting. After you transplant is when you want to start stretching the waterings out.

good airflow is important if you've got them in a cabinet or something - but if they're just under a desk lamp with a cfl they will do fine. When I did my veggies in j7 pellets this spring they were just in one of them trays under a 2' shoplight like this in promix which I transplanted them into after 2 weeks or so...