Well, I just started my micro grow 4 days ago and tonight I did probably the stupidest thing you can do with a new seedling.
My grow had been going pretty well for the first few days. Temps been remaining constant, light cycle is doing well (I'm going 12/12) and I've been happy.
However I have been concerned about my soil. I have an organic soil mix with hypnum peat, sand, perlite, and some minor compost additions specific to my region (which just happens to be regionally located where the strain I'm using originated).
It seemed to drain well at first, but after having it sit for 4 days I noticed that my soil was still very very mucky. I'm talking swampish material. No drying what-so-ever. So much so that I was worried that the soil would be TOO wet for the seedling to survive. I know that the number one cause of killing a new baby plant is over-watering it. I debated what to do and eventually went with an emergency transplant. <DOH>
I basically took the surrounding soil, cut a circle about two inches wider in diameter then the area I planted my seed in. Then I placed it on a surface and slowly dissected around till I had just a close area of soil in which I knew the seedling was located. (Talk about treating this like a surgical procedure). I know that I did not hit any of the budding roots or anything, I was more then careful.
I then took a spoon and picked up the soil of the seedling area and transplanted it into my smaller (slightly dryer soil) pot. The only issue was during transfer, the soil topping for the seedling fell off. Exposing the poor little baby. Once I transplanted it, I covered it up softly with a little fresh top soil, making sure not to crush the poor thing.
The thing looked good. Slightly green with a touch of red as if waiting to break through the dirt to accept the light above it. It had already completely shed the seed casing (which I left next to it).
I'm just concerned about the exposure. I did this during its regular lighting time period but I hate to think of the idiocy I just did in transplanting the thing at only 4 days.
To give you an idea, I went from this:
To this:
It should drain a little better and hopefully be okay.
I am just really worried about what I did and whether my baby will survive or not. So anyone have any comments on this? I know that if I don't see the seedling popping through the soil within the next 2 to 3 days time, I probably killed it (there is only a slight layer of soil covering it right now) but if anyone wants to laugh at me, console me, or scold me on what happened, feel free to for now until I know for sure.
My grow had been going pretty well for the first few days. Temps been remaining constant, light cycle is doing well (I'm going 12/12) and I've been happy.
However I have been concerned about my soil. I have an organic soil mix with hypnum peat, sand, perlite, and some minor compost additions specific to my region (which just happens to be regionally located where the strain I'm using originated).
It seemed to drain well at first, but after having it sit for 4 days I noticed that my soil was still very very mucky. I'm talking swampish material. No drying what-so-ever. So much so that I was worried that the soil would be TOO wet for the seedling to survive. I know that the number one cause of killing a new baby plant is over-watering it. I debated what to do and eventually went with an emergency transplant. <DOH>
I basically took the surrounding soil, cut a circle about two inches wider in diameter then the area I planted my seed in. Then I placed it on a surface and slowly dissected around till I had just a close area of soil in which I knew the seedling was located. (Talk about treating this like a surgical procedure). I know that I did not hit any of the budding roots or anything, I was more then careful.
I then took a spoon and picked up the soil of the seedling area and transplanted it into my smaller (slightly dryer soil) pot. The only issue was during transfer, the soil topping for the seedling fell off. Exposing the poor little baby. Once I transplanted it, I covered it up softly with a little fresh top soil, making sure not to crush the poor thing.
The thing looked good. Slightly green with a touch of red as if waiting to break through the dirt to accept the light above it. It had already completely shed the seed casing (which I left next to it).
I'm just concerned about the exposure. I did this during its regular lighting time period but I hate to think of the idiocy I just did in transplanting the thing at only 4 days.
To give you an idea, I went from this:
To this:
It should drain a little better and hopefully be okay.
I am just really worried about what I did and whether my baby will survive or not. So anyone have any comments on this? I know that if I don't see the seedling popping through the soil within the next 2 to 3 days time, I probably killed it (there is only a slight layer of soil covering it right now) but if anyone wants to laugh at me, console me, or scold me on what happened, feel free to for now until I know for sure.