seedlings burnt? help

[baet]

my friend placed our germed seeds in peat pellets, that were apparantly watered too heavily when expanding the pellets, the seeds have been outside in pellets in a portable greenhouse that stays open during the day, they receive sum direct sunlite but not much, outside temps have been around 80s, maybe 90s, and first day we left plastic cover on top of tray, so the pellets are pretttttty moist still... its taken like three days i think to see any sproutlings, which are slitely discolored, but the majority havent yet popped outt of the pellets...
could we have destroyed the seedlings?! if we didnt destroy just messed em up and they will still pop out, will that have effected long term growth and health of the plants when theyr vegging and flowering??
ahh this sucks, i know it was only like a week of work and anxiously waiting, but the main concern is will the plants later in life be affected by this hot wet conditions while seedling/sproutling?

if so, i guess we'll have to buy more seeds , 15$ isnt much of a loss i guess.

 

[Guest]

Hey baet

Im sure there are different opinions on the subject and as with any topic, i would recommend taking a number of views into account before reaching conclusions.. Having said that, let me share thoughts of your scenario, based on my personal experiences.

I would advise all to avoid peat pots. They are acidic and too short to allow the tap root to unfold when the seed germs. They are why your seelings are yellowish. Poor growth and more males come from peat pots. I would recommend a 16oz styrofoam cup or a pot that is at least 4" deep, filled with about any brand of seed starter mix. Further, I am not aware of any circumstance where placing a lid or top on a container of seedlings or cuttings is either necessary or a positive thing. It is in fact, a recipie for damping off and bacterial growth. Never cover clones, seedling pots or seedlings with a lid.


Once you have a reasonable sized pot of balanced soil, there are 3 things to pay attention to:

Moisture, not water. Seeds in nature that fall into a puddle of water die. Just guessing, you may be a little wet. The size of your peat pots would suggest that remoistening the soil would be a daily act considering your temps, but you indicate that after 3 days they were still wet. No circulation of air and the development of bacteria accompany overwet conditions.

Overwet conditions, combined with 90 degrees is a recipe for damping off.


Consistent temps are critical during germ. Cannabis seeds germed atm 76=78 degrees will germinate quickly. At 84, many seeds wont germ. Starting at 74 degrees, germination slows and effectively stops at 60 degrees

Light stimulation is very helpful during germ, but yours sounded fine.


Finally, if you take 10 very viable seeds and plant 5 of them point first and the other 5 butt-end first only 5 of your seedlings will pop up.

good luck baet

 

[baet]

Darn! Much help silverback, exactlyy what i was trying to figure out. looks like ill be buying more seeds, which only sets me back like a week anyways, but all that is good to know.

Ill germ the new seeds using the paper towel method and then put them into styrofoam cups with light warrior, and will have them under two t5 lites and a t8 lite ina closet instead of outside in a portable greenhouse... any suggestions? wil those lites produce enuff heat, and shuld i keep the lites like an ince above soil to keep em warm?

I wanna do it rite, considering me and my two mates have spent around 100$ on good lites, id like to grow sum sturdy plants.

 

[fatcat666]

certain strains don't germinate as quickly so dont be too quick to pass them off as dead. ive had particular strains take almost 2 weeks to pop.

 

[baet]

good point fatcat. sum of the seeds werent germed when we put em in the soil, but prolly 65% were, so today im gonna go check em, and its been like 5 days now since we've put em in pellets. plus we didnt them germ much,the longest tail out of the seed was prolly like quarter inch. and its not that i think theyre all dead, its that i think theyre either almost dead or moldy... i mite dig one up a little to see how it looks if no more have popped out...

 

[del...]

i believe the less the seeds are handled the better off they'll be so i always plant directly into the soil they'll be growing in. seeds take longer to pop in cool temps so i like to warm the soil up to 80-85 degrees by running hot water thru the pot then place the seed into a hole about half an inch deep and loosely cover with soil. they usually surface within 5 days but some have taken as long as ten...and once in a great while the soil that has a seed that didn't pop gets tossed but it'll pop up there next season!

good luck