Seed Sprouting in humidity dome

PaulieWaulie said:

A very sad event triggers this post unfortunately.

I have been popping a lot of seeds in the last month and thought I had this down.

Well I had a freebie pack of Brown Sugar X Long Bottom Leaf from Bad Dawg, and I germinated as per normal, paper towel method, until they cracked open a bit, and then I put them into jiffy pellets as was becoming my favorite most reliable method. I have done a few pops like this recently but thought I would improve this run and put the dish of peat pellets into my humidity dome where the humidity was 95% and temps 70-80F. 1/9 came up 3 days later, and day 5 none of the rest had yet come up. I finally dug into them and saw that none had done anything, when squeezed they had the creamy puss inside explode. Some taproots just seemed to rot at the tip. Something happened to them in there, and based on sprouting development it happened day 1 or 2 of being inside the dome.

All these germination trays etc. come with humidity domes. I thought 99% RH was what you wanted until they sprout out of the ground.

I have no idea what happened here. I know you don't need to PH soak the jiffy. I know that regular tap water is fine. It has worked fine on the last 3 batches. So what the hell happened ? Should they be exposed to moving fresh air even when undergound still?

Click to expand...

Bobby Boucher said:

Been down that road. Sorry for your loss. Put $400 dollars of seeds under a dome once after taking a break to rethink everything. Super discouraging. Part of the learning curve, I suppose.

I know some dank growers clone without domes or might sprout seedlings with them, but I would wager that anybody who hasn't dialed in yet would benefit from covering their clones and uncovering their seedlings.

This hobby gets stupid expensive when you start to rely on the forums for information. Better to have friends or family with real world experience who don't mind holding your hand.

Anyways.. My belly button needs a warshing. It stinks.

Click to expand...

Switcher56 said:

My understanding is that "new seedlings" require high humidity because until their roots get established, their uptake is through the leaves. So I use the dome and never had any issues with seeds dying off (knock on wood)

IMHO one should sit down (unmedicated) LOL and figure out the common denominator when troubleshooting. So you have had success in the past then, all of a sudden... How deep are you burying them? Could it be associated with sub par seeds for whatever reason, etc? If you have any seeds (from successful runs) left, try striking those as a benchmark so to speak, and see what happens.

Forums are great but they can be a pain, regardless of topic. Opinions are like belly buttons! When faced with a dilemma, I ask myself if the entire commercial industry uses humidity domes and, as is well... Where did I screw up?

Click to expand...

Bobby Boucher said:

Been down that road. Sorry for your loss. Put $400 dollars of seeds under a dome once after taking a break to rethink everything. Super discouraging. Part of the learning curve, I suppose.

I know some dank growers clone without domes or might sprout seedlings with them, but I would wager that anybody who hasn't dialed in yet would benefit from covering their clones and uncovering their seedlings.

This hobby gets stupid expensive when you start to rely on the forums for information. Better to have friends or family with real world experience who don't mind holding your hand.

Anyways.. My belly button needs a warshing. It stinks.

Click to expand...

DoubleTripleOG said:

Pretty sure you "cooked them" to death. I say that because I have done the same thing a few years ago. Used one of those little 2" domes that come with a empty tray. Loaded it up with seeds, put the dome on. Didn't realize how hot is was gonna get that day. Dome had condensation all over the inside, soil was really warm to the touch. The seeds when squeezed were like a popped pimple, lol.


From then on, it was plant seeds directly in medium. No dome, and only a heat mat in the dead of winter.

Click to expand...

Nichead said:

If using a dome, you have to take it off every day for at least an hour, even when cloning. Mold thrives on the peat pellets in high humidity, and the plants (clones or seeds) will also wilt if you have never removed the lid and acclimated them to normal humidity.

Click to expand...

PaulieWaulie said:

Suprised at how many more people chimed in! Icmag is pretty amazing in this regard. I see other forums where newbies ask basic questions like this and get no response for years. So thanks everyone, youve helped steer me in the right direction again.

Ive been burying seeds 1/4" deep, and that top layer is added on very lightly to make it easy for the sprout to push its way through. It could have been the seeds but most likely I am to blame. 1/8 did come up right away so hopefully its a girl and makes me proud.

Yeah that makes me feel better that this was only a pack of freebies, and not a couple hundred dollar packs. In fact I popped a pack of Goji OG by bodhi right before this, got 8/8 germination and sprouting. I would have been devastated if they would have been the ones lost.

I would agree that they may have gotten cooked, I did have a hygrometer in the dome the whole time as I had clones in there. Temps did stay in the 75-85 Range. I was not airing it out so I think that was the doing in of this batch. I stopped using a heating pad as well as it seems to cause more harm than good lately for clones and like you said cooking seedlings. I have had success since this incident with more recent seedlings thank god!

Click to expand...

PaulieWaulie said:

Ive been burying seeds 1/4" deep, and that top layer is added on very lightly to make it easy for the sprout to push its way through. It could have been the seeds but most likely I am to blame. 1/8 did come up right away so hopefully its a girl and makes me proud.

Click to expand...