It’s definitely my most successful method
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Same, a little hydrogen peroxide as well and always great results
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I need more likes lol they go so fast. Then I am like ok what do I do now lmao.
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I like to soak in peroxide for a few hours then right into soil.
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I have seen others say they use peroxide what does that do? I have never tried that before
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Ensures you’re not germinating in a filthy environment full of pathogens and mold, which could kill a fragile seedling.
I don’t use peroxide. I germ straight i peat cubes under a dome. Survival of the fittest. No babying seeds and dealing with weak plants for me.
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Yeah, if they don’t want to live, I don’t care how awesome it tastes or how potent it is. Vigor is the number one priority in traits. That being said, there are some special strains that lack vigor, and are worth keeping the best of that pack of seeds. Vigor could be perhaps bred into it?
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Yes I learned the hard way trying to save fragile plants. Wasted time and resources
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I have germinated that way before, I feel you. The first time I germinated, I did it liek they taught us how to do beans in first grade, with a wet paper towel in a jar on the windowsill. Then I tried on the hotwater heater, and it was even faster. While it works very well, and I would certainly do it again, It’s a lot of rigamarole when you deal with very many plants. I also grow in soil and do organics, and it’s a pleasure to plant them straight into the soil and put a lamp over it too.
The issue is that I want to save lots of time, to grow even more, and I would like to plant them straight into the rockwool, and move those cubes, straight onto the systems. So for this learning exercise, it’s about germinating straight into the rockwool for me to get them in hydro.
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I personally think peat cubes are far better than rockwool for hydro. No ph prep, no soaking, no dealing with the fiber dust.
I place my germinated seed plugs deep in a 6" netpot so the water splashes it directly, and surround it with hydroton all around. I’ve never had issues getting any to grow straight from seedling in hydro with peat plugs. The added benefit is if you decide to run a soil plant at the last second you can do that too. Rockwool, on the other hand, has given me some real issues in the past. And you definitely would have issues with rockwool in soil.
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As they mentioned, once they pop they get put through hell! I don’t care for weak plants and rather not have wasted space🙂
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Beautiful stalk there, very nice. it looks like you got a peat cube, in a net pot, in another net pot. It also looks like you vegetated that thing 3 months, or she is very vigorous.
Dang, look at that nice internode spacing.
What material did you use to make the lid?
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Yes, this one went from peat plug to 3" pot, to 6" pot.
lol 4 week veg. Like I said, starting seeds in hydro gives me fantastic results. The roots go bananas right from the start.
Strain is Mayberry by Blue Star
The lid is made from durabond (brand name). It’s a composite made by sandwiching a layer of plastic core between 2 outer layers of thin gauge aluminum. Ask for scraps at your local printing shops. The industry name is ACM (aluminum composite material)
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The issues with peat moss for me over the rockwool cubes: I can buy a whole tray of 150 of these and 1cmx1cm cubes, or buy bigger 2cmx2cm cubes, whereas these peat cubes take up more space. I have only been able to find them in about 3x3cm cubes. Also, I remember them being very expensive.
Man, no joke, look that’s awesome! I’m learning a lot right now. Either I need to try germinating straight onto a hydro system, or get them on there as soon as possible after I see sprouts, and stop babying these myself.
Thank you so much for that tip, too, I have not until now figured out a good material for custom lids. I’ll check that very soon.
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Happy to help!! Print shops are a GOLDMINE for grow materials. They use flat white material for everything, so ot comes ready to go usually.
Also ask for any vinyl banner scraps they have for a floor mat, that way you don’t ruin the one that came with your tent.
I hear you about peat plugs. I buy 1 gallon 50-bags every other month or so for around $15 at my local shop.
The most important thing to remember when starting straight in hydro is DO NOT LET YOUR SEEDLING DRY OUT!!! Fill it all the way to the rim if you have to so the bottom of your net pot gets splashed. Once you have healthy roots hanging down outside the pot, you can lower the water level some. Just never let the roots hang dry.
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You are using those expensive already moisturized and big jiffy fast rooter things, or the little discs or peat moss that expand and make a big mess when you add water?
I’ll get right back with you with some results over here soon.
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Right, rapid rooters are the way to go. No cheapos here.
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This is something I’ve done for many years! I swore by it for a long time but have recently been rethinking it.
Did you know plants store their best microbes inside + on their seeds? I didn’t!
I was listening to a podcast on plant science and heard them talk about it and how you should not use h2o2, so I started reading on it. I believe it was Leighton Morrison who mentioned it (he’s amazing btw) or Dr. James White.
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Interesting! I did not know that. I am exceedingly please to be learning with you now and to improve my craft.
My curiosity could not wait another minute, so I got this experiment started right away.
-I don’t have the resources I want, so a small number of the cubes I had were prefabricated, and the rest of I cut from scrap rockwool loafs, so the experiment is not perfect, but in any case, practice is good. I poked holes with a pencil.
-I chose the seeds I want to know right now, a cross that I carefully selected out of 80 regulars, and crossed with a handful of carefully selected males from a related family line of 80 regulars.
- I even weighed the tray dry at 200g, then soaked it was 1250g, then I shook it up and down twenty times and weighed it at 1160g!
- I got some metal tweezers girls do their makeup with and carefully stuck them in with the pointy end up this time. It was not as tedious and troublesome as I had imagined; not much more effort than just jamming them in random directions with my fingers. However, if I had resources I want, I would try to get some long curved tipped tweezers for crafts, stamps, beads, & jewelry.
-I’ll put these in a dry bathroom, and put the scale next to them to weigh them often, and start watering at about the 50% mark.
I wonder… Do you reccomend that I put a lid on the first day to get the humidity higher to soak through the seed hull, or leave the lid off to increase oxygen and fight enemy microbes?
I forgot to mention, that the reason I want to start in rockwool, is to immediatly transplant to NFT. I also use hydroton/hydrocorrals/expanded clay pebbles in net pots in DWC, but only for maintaining mother plants, not for blooming, so that’s why I’m trying to do it this way. I have found that it is so incredibly easy to cut holes in the lid of the NFT table, and stick these extra small rockwool cubes directly in the channel, and they stick there without falling down, so that eliminates one step of transplanting them into larger rockwool, and air pruning on growing racks.
I can keep you updated about how this goes for me this time, regardless of how this turns out, and perhaps follow up with a journal if I still got it in me. I have been looking forward to seeing how these beans do.
Thanks to all of you for your input; you are a treasure that I value very highly.
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Very good excited to see this experiment work out well for you… Keep the dome on my friend until the seedlings are a few inches tall and slowly remove dome. Either by pulling it off for gaps of time per day or if you have them start opening the vents little by little. Cheers !!!
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