Thank you for sharing all your good points. Run-off is needed when adding nutrients and the soil EC is high... IF you have triple beams check yourself and you will see it's easy to be fooled by water weight.
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Sure fire seed sprouting
- Thread starter Creeperpark
- Start date
I bought a bag of Happy Frog potting mix. Let's see what I can get out of it by using it as a seed starting mix for outdoor Fall flowers. I'll start some seeds in dixie cups and when they get big enough I'll plant them outdoors.
Why would I need triple beams, when a 20 dollar scale would do.IF you have triple beams check yourself and you will see it's easy to be fooled by water weight.
No I'm not "fooled", thanks. I have been doing this for a while too.
This plant, this year, (documented in another thread) for the most part has been well below "ideal" temperature, given only low powered (t8) light to start, and only 16 hours on, in soil, and NO extra nutes, has averaged a node every 4 days. Here's a pic at 37 days old, has 9 nodes, I can see the tenth set of leaves.
With the exception of hydro, or maybe 24 hours of light on, you'd be hard pressed to do better. And that's not using a scale to weigh the wet/dry soil.
I gave you a compliment, said it was a great way to do it. But it is just one way, your way, and not the only way to do it.
Just like your idea of not packing the soil at all, that's your way, and frankly a tad ridiculous. Take soil blocking as another way, quite the opposite of your way, where the soil is quite compressed, and is shown over, and over to out preform plants in pots. That is what I'll be doing next year, 4" soil blocks to start.
Having seen some past threads, and how nasty you can be I'll be adding you to my ignore list now.
IF you had half your face blown off, burned over 48% of your body, and missing some leg flesh and not able to see, you would be a little cranky too. I see you have 2 photos to show for your work. Nice thanks for sharing. .
I will use the same method I used above but with Happy Frog. I will weigh the cups dry first and write the dry weigh on the cup. Then I will water the cups with rainwater until the cup is saturated. I let it set in the water a little while "one time only" to soak up as much water as the cup can hold. Then write the wet weight next to the dry weight on the top of the cup.
ceylan
New member
Hi Creeperpark, thank you for writing this method. I am a complete newbie and this makes a lot of sense to me, especially the weighing the cups part so I can always know how hydrated my soil is.
I planted 7 seeds today following your method, mandala & ace strains mainly, in a mix of 50/50 old presumably depleted miracle-gro that I used for houseplants and fresh FF ocean forest. both soils were sifted to remove large bark/wood particles from the mix. Hopefully it will be a good soil for them. I'm gonna make my own soil for indoor grow later...but I am very excited to pop these seeds and they will go outdoors in guerilla locations.
I'll upload some pics later when they sprout, cheers!
I planted 7 seeds today following your method, mandala & ace strains mainly, in a mix of 50/50 old presumably depleted miracle-gro that I used for houseplants and fresh FF ocean forest. both soils were sifted to remove large bark/wood particles from the mix. Hopefully it will be a good soil for them. I'm gonna make my own soil for indoor grow later...but I am very excited to pop these seeds and they will go outdoors in guerilla locations.
I'll upload some pics later when they sprout, cheers!
Dirty Joe you planted your plant a little too deep in the pot. I like to plant veg plants in their flowering pots where the root flair is exposed just a little. Root flair exposure keeps mold down and helps with gas exchange in the roots zone.
I'm starting some seed and I'm using Happy Frog potting mix with old Indica seed. The seed is 12 years old and just stored in a bag in the fridge. I don't expect all the seeds to germanate because of their age and being in poor storage. The seed are from some old blue indica's from way back and will be perfect for an outdoor Fall garden.
Using Happy Frog or any organic mix as a seed starting mix can be tricky if you overwater. So one basically has to be precise when it comes to watering the dixie cups when sprouting seeds. After weighing the cups dry and watering and reweighing the cups wet, I collected a little runoff to get an EC reading. The ppm is 2736 and seems high but in reality, the available salts in the liquid that a plant can use are very low. The high EC are salts that are unavailable at the moment but will feed the plant in the near future. Don't overwater your organic soil or you will wash out super nutrients that can be used in the future.
By being precise with watering, I can maintain a high EC in the cup longer. If a seed is born in the high EC mix it will adapt, however, once born, if I overwater, I can burn the tiny plant roots. In the beginning, it's important but after 2 or 3 weeks just water and go without weighing anything.
One only needs to weigh one cup out of the whole bunch because they are all general in weight.
One only needs to weigh one cup out of the whole bunch because they are all general in weight.
The cup above 24 hours later, I weigh the cup and found that I lost 15 grams of water last night. That matters a lot and this is the reason to know the weight of the cups. In the beginning, all the water lost will be from the top surface, and that's where the seed is laying. I don't want that to dry out because it can cause the seeds to fail. I add enough water with a turkey baster to maintain the original wet weight of 305 grams.
I have to keep the top soil wet for the first 48 hrs so the seed will have enough water exposure to germanate. Water enters the seed through tiny holes in the testa (seedcoat) called micropyle and activates enzymes. The water also softens the seed coat to allow it to split and release the new shoot. It's so important not to let the top surface dry out until you see a sprout. Maintain max water weight for the first few days or until I see a spout.
The micropyle or a small opening allows water to enter and reach the embryo. It is located at one end of the seed, opposite where it will sprout. Google
The micropyle or a small opening allows water to enter and reach the embryo. It is located at one end of the seed, opposite where it will sprout. Google
Using only rainwater. On the first 2 days the cups lost 15 grams of water each day. Since I weigh the cups I can know this and add the missing water. After 48 hrs of max water exposure, I can back off the water and turn on the light and wait for sprouts, using a 14 hr photoperiod.
When I first see a sprout, I STOP adding rainwater and wait for the others to sprout. Here's where some people mess up by adding water to the sprout. Don't water the sprouts because the water will release the nutrients and burn the roots. Let the cups dry out so the roots will fill up the cups searching for water.
When I first see a sprout, I STOP adding rainwater and wait for the others to sprout. Here's where some people mess up by adding water to the sprout. Don't water the sprouts because the water will release the nutrients and burn the roots. Let the cups dry out so the roots will fill up the cups searching for water.
When I have sprouts growing, I must have a gentle airflow over the top of the cups for transpiration. Without gentle airflow, the sprouts will fail or fall into a weakened burnt state. In order for a sprout to move water and nutrients, it has to have an air exchange capacity. By adding airflow over the top of the plants the plants can transpire the excess water in the cups and keep what it needs. I use a string to monitor the airflow on the other end of the light. As long as that string is moving everything is good.
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There are a lot of different views when it comes to humidity and temperatures during seed sprout to seedling growth. I use a dryer warmer environment for two reasons. The 1st is keeping the sprout drier will make for a tougher tissue that keeps mold and pests away. The 2nd is because the dryer environment will help move more feed water through the plants. As time goes by and the sprout turns into woody stems, I will allow the humidity to get even lower for the fastest growth. NO need to weigh the cups at that point.
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The major key is the seed has to be planted and germinated in the high EC soil mix and adapt. Paper towel seed sprouts have a hard time adjusting because they're not born in the soil mix. I always start the seed in the high EC soil and allow the seed to adapt to the soil. The seed always adapts with the right water management and gentle air flow.
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Every seed germinated and is actively growing under a 4bulb, 4ft, T8 fluorescent light (132Watts). When I weighed the cups, I found that the cups still have 50 grams out of 150 grams of rainwater in each cup. They feel lightweight by hand, and if I hadn't weighed them, I would have watered them and burned the roots. When adding rainwater to the cups, it's the same as adding fertilizer because the water will release nutrients. I will check the weight of one cup this evening to see when to water again. When I get to 20 grams of water left in a cup, it's time to water again. I'm keeping it hot and dry for water transpiration to move water and nutrients through the sprout
Three Berries
Active member
Tore the root balls apart on the last two I picked yesterday. I used the peat disc that expand in a solo cup of Happy Frog for the start. But on both I saw that no roots went through the bottom of the disc, rather all side growth. So there was a root void directly under the plant where one would normally see a tap root.
Using the peat disc, don’t plant in the solo cup until roots show out the bottom. Place disc on a plate or ina bowl. Add water to the bowl, so it wicks up the disc instead of down. I use the disc method and wait until I see roots out the bottom, usually several days at least. Roots always poke out bottom this way. Also I remove the mesh cover before Up potting.
Three Berries
Active member
