Germinating in Coco

[whodi]

How do you all germ in coco or start seedligns in coco?

When do you start giving 1/4 strength nutes? Do you soak the coco in 1/4 nutes or just rinsed coco? When should you start watering after they sprout above the coco?

I've sprouted seeds in coco before just fine.. usually paper towel method, then put into the coco. However, it seems like my seedlings end up falling over and the stem gets real skinny.

I rread it could be some fungi or soemthing. Should I be germing in rapid rooters then transplant to coco?

 

[Rosy Cheeks]

Here's my way of doing it, I haven't lost a single coco seedling, ever, since more than two years.

I mix 1/4 to 1/2 strength of organic nutrients (I use BioBizz Fish Mix, 6-2-4) with a full dose of root booster (I use Plagron's Roots) and soak the coco coir with it, not until run-off, but about 3/4 of that.

I germ the seeds in a glass of water, half a day for fresh seeds, then put them between cotton wads on something warm, such as a TV or whatever emits light heat. When the seeds crack, they go instantly into the soaked coco coir.

Works like a charm.

 

[SirSmokalot]

Here's my way of doing it, I haven't lost a single coco seedling, ever, since more than two years.

I mix 1/4 to 1/2 strength of organic nutrients (I use BioBizz Fish Mix, 6-2-4) with a full dose of root booster (I use Plagron's Roots) and soak the coco coir with it, not until run-off, but about 3/4 of that.

I germ the seeds in a glass of water, half a day for fresh seeds, then put them between cotton wads on something warm, such as a TV or whatever emits light heat. When the seeds crack, they go instantly into the soaked coco coir.

Works like a charm.

yup

 

[Rosy Cheeks]

I forgot to say that the cotton wads should be moist, and boxed in.

 

[petemoss]

I followed Mike Mandala's recommendation and put the seeds straight into moist coco. Kept root zone temp at 80F and four days later, all five Apollo 11 seeds have popped up.

 

[~fvk~]

Everyone has a different method Whodi, find your own man because what works for other people, might not work for you. I learned that the hard way.

 

[moses224]

exactly what FVK said. There is allot of read or threads take the best of each and tweak it till it fits your 1style and comfort level

 

[Mister Postman]

Whodi I just dealt with the issues you speak of, and learned a tough lesson with a good bit of seeds trying to start them in the coco recently... One of the mistakes I made was watering on the day of planting my seedlings into the coco. I truly believe the failing seedlings as you describe is caused by planting into to moist coco coir, and water-logging them at an early age.

Try wringing the medium out a bit before planting, so its not so wet, and try keeping a regular wet/dry cycle as you would in soil just until the roots are established in their starting cups enough to deal with the daily waterings they will need later. I made the mistake of remembering back to when I started clones in coco, and didnt realize how long and how wet the coco would stay after a good watering, and without a sufficient root system. Maybe in the summer it wouldnt have been much of an issue for me, but with the cool nights, and wet medium I screwed up a good handful

 

[whodi]

Exactly MR. P

I knew something was strange with germinating in coco. Everytime I do it, it messes up. I never have a problem germinating in soil. I agree that you should probably let the coco not be too wet. I usually soak the coco really well before I put the seeds in. Guess that's a mistake.

 

[Mister Postman]

Yeah, whodi I fucked up a good bit of seeds like that. I Planted my seedlings into to big of cups, and soaked em real good when I did too. As I always done with soil, and with my clones I rooted in coco too. It just made for a really shitty start for the seedlings though.

Not only that but I specifically had my problems in the sunleaves brand coco, and after breaking up a block of cocogro I can see that they are different textures. The cocogro being a bit courser, and even in size more like coffee grinds while the sunleaves was more like fine peat, larger n longer fibers. It just held the moisture a hell of a lot longer.

 

[whodi]

What a coincidence, I, too, am using sunleaves coco. I'll have to give the cocogro a try.

Thanks for contributing.

 

[Dee9]

Funny ol'thing with seedlings -

when doing 'normal' gardening, seeds sown in fertile soil outperforms seed in poor soil from day one. That got me thinking since I too have had problems growing seedlings in coir. Coir being similar to ultra poor soil (nutrient wise).

So, I did a little test.

I added 1 tsp of high Phosphorous Guano to 2 liters of coir, and germinated some seeds in the mix.

The seedlings in the guano coir are outperforming seedlings planted a month before them.

I found guano to be a poor fertilizer for the actual grow/flower using coir, but for those first few days, the guano actually seemed to have a positive effect on the seedling growth.

I started feeding 1/4 strenght hydro food about a week into growing.

For me, this method seems to work the best, as seedlings really like phosphorous.

I am not advocating guano for the rest of the growing/flowering, I have tested it and the results were poor in comparison to proper hydroponic fertilizer.

As for the moisture level - I water when I plant, and then only again when the medium seemed to dry a little.

 

[EddieShoestring]

Here's my germ method-the stir fry-
throw the seeds in paper towls and neglect them until it's too late to do anything except eat them
bung them into some Canna Coco and shazam
miraculously they all make it.
I just moistened the coir a little with tepid water (ph6.0)-then feed them around 1.0-1-2 when the first set of true leaves grow. Yeah good point about overwatering when the seedlings are establishing. They can go 3-4-5days without water at first. There is no fixed time it just depends how quickly they are drying out.
cheers
eddieS

 

[Cannasmoke]

lately ive just been putting the seed in pre-watered, 100% coco and letting it do its thing, longest ive waited for a seed to sprout from the surface would be around 72 hours, my first set of leaves do tend to yellow pretty fast though, I should have been feeding earlier in small dosages.

 

[charlesweedmore]

Here's my way of doing it, I haven't lost a single coco seedling, ever, since more than two years.

I mix 1/4 to 1/2 strength of organic nutrients (I use BioBizz Fish Mix, 6-2-4) with a full dose of root booster (I use Plagron's Roots) and soak the coco coir with it, not until run-off, but about 3/4 of that.

I germ the seeds in a glass of water, half a day for fresh seeds, then put them between cotton wads on something warm, such as a TV or whatever emits light heat. When the seeds crack, they go instantly into the soaked coco coir.

Works like a charm.

i'll use coco pellet to germinate,bu first i'll put the seeds in a glass of water untill they crack.Then i'll drop the seeds into pellets.

as you said.

 

[ChaosCatalunya]

I have been running a few tests with seeds this year. Planting cracked pips like Eddie Shoestring [with slightly less of the chilled-as laissez faire] straight into Coco has worked well, as have Root Riots [a copy of, but v similar]

The all time clear winner is a pack of 12 seed rooting cubes from my local growshop, it is a really fine light foam that is clearly kinder to babies than the Root Riots.... my SD IBL just sulked in the propagator after cracking, one fell out of it's RR and so I put it in a seed rooting cube and it, to my great surprise, came round ... further proof to me that these things are better than anything else.

I transplanted straight into Coco as soon as roots appeared, they seem to be really loving GHE Floralicous, possibly more than Canna....a side by side test is called for there....

 

[drdee]

Hi Whodi,
That's called "damping off" in horticultural circles. It is a fungus and usually the stem gets red also.

It's my opinion that the relative humidity is the biggest cause of that. I always put pans of water near my seedlings to vreate a little micro-climate close to the seedlings. I know people usually don't use a dome with seedlings but if your grow area is too dry, that is one way to incread humidity. Once I recognised this and acted on it, my seedling loss almost stopped. Still lose an occasional one.
Good luck,
Dee

PS: I also start in coco (make sure it's flushed of sodium) but I don't think that is a media issue. Increase RH and they'll survive.