It’s been a while since I had a proper grow season, and I have been wanting to share this problem I have with you all for a long time. I am curious as to what I could do better to prevent this problem I have. I know there are many different ways to sow beans, but I would like to get better at sowing and germinating straight into rockwool. I use a pencil to poke a hole in the rockwool, maybe up to 2 mm above where the pencil gets its full diameter, and move it around in a circular motion to make the hole a bit wider near the top of the hole, so that the seed has enough space in there to flip itself around. I used to cover it with a little piece of rockwool so its dark there and humid in the hole, but I haven’t found that tech to make much difference, so I have been just sticking them in the hole, and bottom-watering the rockwool.
Often times, I think some of the beans themselves are the problem, because I get ~99% good looking seedlings sometimes, and other times they do strange things like stick their root up in the air instead of the cotyledon, or rip their cotyledon right off when trying to come out… Is it because there is too much moisture in the air or? Why can’t they figure out which way is up? What can I do better to get awesome success rate? Some of these start to rot and fail in there, and I am not even keeping the rockwool soaked, but watering when it visibly starts to dry, and weighs much less.
I hope to start a little journal to put up here and share what my plants become, regardless of how this turns out. It’s hot in here now, but I think the Fall season is the best time for me to grow due to the temperatures in my place.
Below you can see some of the problems I am talking about. Thanks for your time and energy in advance.
IMHO
Good seed starter.
Put your beans in that, the very act of germination
And coming thru soil will weed out The weakling.
I usually use a solo cup, put about 3 inches of
Seed starter in cup, throw beans in and cover
With 2 or so inches of medium.
Wet well, drain excess water and place in a room
That’s not Air conditioned.
In 2 to 4 days if the seeds are good they should break on thru.
Good luck
I have the air conditioner in this room bringing it down from about 30C to 25C. Perhaps that is worsening the problem, and something I have not considered. I’ll try again soon and keep that in mind. I also had this issue in my still-air basement, in the propagator with the lid on and without the lid on, with wind, and without wind.
In other mediums I don’t have the problem of them sticking their root up into the air. When it happens, someitimes I take the seedling out gently, and flip it over sticking the root in the rockwool, and tuck it in, and they seem to do fine.
It would make a bit more hassle for me to transfer hundreds of seedlings from paper towels to rockwool, or to rinse off the soil so many times and shock them in transfer into the hydroponics. It would be great to figure out what the culprit of them sticking their root up in the air might be. Is it that I don’t give them enough space to turn around? Maybe I need a bigger pencil/hole-poker?
Maybe somebody else has had this same experience as me?
Your cubes are too wet. The tap roots don’t know which way to grow. Typically, you can soak seeds for 24 hours in water, to soften them. Then place directly into your Rockwool cubes. There is a starter hole in the Rockwool cubes already. They should be between Half and 3/4 of their wet weight. If they are too wet tap roots can figure out which way to go. Keep in mind you want relative humidity in the environment about 60 RH a little more is ok but it just compounds The problem. In the plant mind more relative humidity means deeper into the soil or substrate. You want the relative humidity decent in the environment but More moisture should be in the Rockwool cube than in the air.
I never really liked sprouting directly in rockwool. But when I’ve done it I found what worked best for me was putting the seeds in a shot glass of water and letting them sprout in there. Then as soon as they sprout I would transfer them into the rockwool cubes (when the tap root is still only 1/8” long, or 1/4” at most) with the tap root facing down into the cube. You have to check them often to make sure you catch them before the tap root gets too long otherwise it can be a PITA to get them in the rockwool cubes.
I always use a paper towel and after the tap root comes out I plants in soil with root down and it works every time. My problem is when the tap root starts to come out then it is like they just stall or stop they never progress any further, I always chalk it up to. Bad seed but it could totally on me.
Thank you very much! I’ll try to do it much different this around with much drier cubes and in a dryer room. It is tricky to keep an eye on them enough to not to let them dry out too fast, so I have kept them pretty wet.
I have been doing this for a few years, and I still learn new stuff every run. I know people that have been doing it longer and still learn. It is ever changing. We only fail when we quit. This is a place full of friendly, cool people. Don’t be scared to ask questions the knowledge is here I promise you.
Hard to say it is so early in there seedling stage. Some could easily be winners later on if they make it. However, I do think some seeds are just more able to adapt and thrive. We are definitely searching for those winners. However, that’s really early to judge that short into there seedlings life. Usually give them all a little time to catch up before any judgment calls. Some seeds come out of the substrate racing and others are slow to start but catch up reasonably well and offer similar results to their racing neighbor in the end. We usually wait for Several nodes to grow out before any real judgment calls on their future are made. If you’re at the third or fourth node of growth And things are still twisted And have issues but their neighbors do not would be a red flag for us.
I have been popping seeds in rockwool since the early 90’s; as was mentioned above by @BTYGMO, the rockwool is too wet. The rockwool needs to dry out so that the seedlings can grow into it, only re-water when the cubes have lost at least 50% of their wet weight. I wouldn’t water them again till they dry out 50%
I water with a spray bottle for 1” cubes. Easy to over do it with cans or wands ect. I actually have it down to the number of squirts they will receive based on weight. Usually 2 or 3 squirts only after proper dry back time has occurred. This is when the cubes have lost half there wet weight. In my case it’s pretty long I use a very controlled environment. You may have a faster dry back time but be careful over watering gets even the most seasoned gardeners. My clone / seedling chamber below. Makes everything easy to control when I am away for extended periods of time. I don’t water for a week minimum with tightly controlled environment.
Float them til I see a tail then straight into the soil. I used to go straight into the soil but my curiosity always had me digging up seeds to see if they popped
Hey man are you set on running hydro bc shot glass to paper towel or straight to soil or coco is foolproof. Just make sure there’s decent warmth and moisture and they’ll do the rest
This is exactly what I wanted to know. My life is now changed forever… 