Starting plants - Rapid Rooters or pure coco

[WaterFarmFan]

I am getting ready to start my second coco run, and I have a question about starting seedlings. I have always used rapid rooters with my hydro grows with much success. Is there any benefit to using them over starting in a small cup of pure coco?

Thanks.

WFF

 

[solarz]

From my personal experience...i would start in the rapid rooters and then move them to the coco. EVERY time, and i do mean EVERY time i've tried to start in straight coco i've fucked up and stunted my plants...never fails. So my advice would be to start them in the rapid rooters...also the rapid rooters will decrease your chances of drowning the little ones.

solarz

 

[greenatik]

going to disagree here. i always lose seedlings in rapid rooters partly because i dont have time to baby those water-hogging rooters. place your seeds in a cup of water let them sink and show taproot. plant it just barely in the coco. I water the first few days with a spray bottle just remoistening the surface. after about 4 days above the coco i water half strength w/ runoff. full strength before long

GL
ps i prefer peat pellets over rooters

 

[THC123]

i also tried germing seeds in cocos , they germed very well but like solarz says , compared to other mediums they where small and stunted.

i start mine in soil for seedlings , never had problems with that

 

[Bigbillyboy05]

I have probbably taken over 600clones in this last year. I have lost about 10.

Take cutting, dip excessivly in CLONEX, and pop it right into a rapid rooter cube.

take the clone (which is of course secured in the cube) and pop it into a 16oz cup(party cup) filled 2/3 100% coco. and BOOM, pop it in the humidity chamber.

This eliminates a whole step of wating for roots in the cube to pop out, they just grow right into the coco.

The trick is to water very little, after10 days in humidity, give them 30mL of water daily, and make sure it is a weak solution. hope that helps.

 

[WaterFarmFan]

Thanks guys. I will pick up some new rapid rooters over the weekend.

WFF

 

[solarz]

I have probbably taken over 600clones in this last year. I have lost about 10.

Take cutting, dip excessivly in CLONEX, and pop it right into a rapid rooter cube.

take the clone (which is of course secured in the cube) and pop it into a 16oz cup(party cup) filled 2/3 100% coco. and BOOM, pop it in the humidity chamber.

This eliminates a whole step of wating for roots in the cube to pop out, they just grow right into the coco.

The trick is to water very little, after10 days in humidity, give them 30mL of water daily, and make sure it is a weak solution. hope that helps.

He's talking about starting seeds...NOT taking clones.

solarz

 

[Bigbillyboy05]

i use rapid rooters for for seeds, for sure

 

[freeride high]

coco works great for me!

 

[3dDream]

I've done both and I fuck up less w/ rooters. If you use coco and a dome you have to squeeze the water out of the coco and keep it loose. I've killed seeds w/ too much moisture.

 

[hilbie]

rapid rooters ruined my grow for about ten days, id just use straight coco, about 25 percent of a beer cup full so it dries out quickly n needs to be re watered. make sure your intial tap or r.o water has a ph near 6 and u should be ok.. a mild seedling feeding or some fish emulsion(not too much) as its very acidic also works. dont over water seedlings in coco unless your only useing a very little bit and they need it.

 

[THC_Decapitator]

I would start in the rapid rooters .or a nice rockwool cube

 

[headfortrinity]

When I first started using coco recently, my first batch of seeds were over watered and got poor results, only one survived, it was one of the godberry (bottom left in pic), second set saw better results (the rest of seedlings in this pic) still not good enough survival ratio, I'm used to near 100%.


Then I went back to rapid rooters for the initial start (I plant the rooter as soon as the tap root shows, because the rooters like to dry out fast), much better results. The pic on the left shows the first and second batches started in coco as well as the third batch which were started in rapid rooters. The other two pics were taken two weeks later.



I believe similar results could be achieved from either medium given some experience, I noticed charging the coco with canna coco 2ml A+B seemed to help. I'm going to try root riot plugs next, they shouldn't dry out as fast because they are bigger.

 

[tehtrapster]

Pure coco for me, I take a pair of wire strippers put the seed in the grabbing in with the outside edge of the seed with the ridge in the ridges on the wire strippers. Squeeze till i hear the lil pop, then into coca, close to the surface, works very well for me. Paper towel, rapid rooters, ect never worked well for me, haven't looked back since