It’s always an issue apparently I mean how many times a day do you water your seedlings?
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A day? I water maybe a couple of times a week.
If you water daily, just a little squirt or two.
I have a feeling they may be overwatered bud, but you said your soil was dry.
60 rh really isn’t that bad. That is weird man.
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Same as Badger maybe twice a week.
What’s your temps like, I find I have to put my seeds in temps around 80f for good germination rates. So I stick my seeds in wet paper towel in a plastic baggie, in an envelope, and pin it to the roof of the seedling cab. Once hatched they go into peat pucks, under a dome for 3 or 4 days, with temps about 76-80f and a 75w equivalent flouresent light about 2 inches above them, resting on the dome.
I find they don’t do well if you get a lot of temp variation. Once they are 3-4 inches or the roots are coming out the bottom of the peat puck, they go into a party cup, and about 2 inches of stem gets buried, I find it speeds up root growth and helps them stand up easier.
Some seeds need soil to germ for some reason, I had Orange Goji that would not even crack when soaked for a week but germinated in a couple of days in a peat puck. It’s strange, maybe, they needed a more acidic environment.
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As far as your humidity goes and your humidifier, not exactly sure what your setup is, but somehow try to get your rh sensor near your plants? Maybe there is a big difference between the sensor on the humidifier and what the rh actually is at the plants?
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I went in and checked the soil was barley moist but I had poured water on them earlier that day it would’ve been dried out by the next day again it’s crazy bs
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Temps were great rh was great just for whatever reason its so dry here in this house even with the humidifier running how does that even happen its 65% rh and the cups are drying out very quickly and that was me spraying the tops everyday with a water bottle till it’s wet. I have some peat pucks never used them was going to try with clones ill throw some beans in soon and see what happens still going to use the propagator dome for now on though
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The room isn’t even big though maybe a little over 100 sq ft and that thing is rated for 3400+ sq ft
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I’m in a predicament here I have to remove the propagator lid because they’re starting to reach the top of it now but if I leave it off they’re probably going to shrivel back up and die very quickly because rh is so low and ive tried running a humidifier but it doesn’t seem to do anything I read the fine print it’s rated 3400 sq ft for a tightly sealed house and yeah these places are not sealed at all any suggestions I’m stumped and don’t want to lost more beans I’m already out so much money
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Find a clear plastic cup tall enough to put over the top.
If the circumference matches it should be super easy. If not, find one a little smaller.
They will get larger and more tolerant.
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Maybe also some foliar spraying?
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Large ziplock freezer bags if you dont have clear plastic cups, you could probably get 2 in each bag. Or 1 clear garbage bag and 4 sticks, and mist the inside of the bag 
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I’ll see what I can manage thanks for the ideas 
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I use the plastic 2L pop bottles.
Pepsi is better than Coke. 
Just cut the bottom out & adjust height as required.
I usually cut triangle sections out of the bottom edge to allow some air flow.
Cheers
G
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Got lucky found a clear tote that just fits over the tray just trying to maintain till they can get in the dirt then should be ok I hope
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I suggest you harden them off and slowly adjust them to the lower humidity. Leave the dome off for a couple hours longer each day.
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You could also prop the dome up on something, maybe an inch or two off of the mulch so it is not fully sealed (although I guess it’s not sealed because of that mulch but still) for some time as well to also help harden it off. This will give a lil air flow but not too much as you start transitioning it to fully taking it off for longer and longer. Well, I imagine it would 
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I read/skimmed through this whole thread in the last hour or so.
Overall, great job jumping into organic notill living soil! Your flowers looked great. Glad you enjoyed them =)
I understand your frustration in trying to keep things simple, and seeing poor results.
The only thing I can recommend: cease permanently all use of coco coir and peat based liners and pucks for seed starting.
Cup of water, paper towel, direct sow in beds are all fine. But to save time and start seed under another light elsewhere, using simple plastic pots do well. The square 2" (32 to a tray) and 3.5" (18 to a tray) work well. Solo cups are commonly used too.
For growing autos specifically, there are a few options some have had success with:
- The Shallow Root Approach - Small shot-sized solo cups filled with ProMix HP. This very small volume of soil in a plastic cup with no holes makes for a very quick wet/dry cycle. Fast germination results, without risk of rot or damping from oversaturation. As well, the root system quickly reaches the container wall(s) and may be inoculated with microbial products such as EM1 for rapid root expansion. Developing a vigorous, dense tiny root ball with many little roots shooting out of it in the first 3-5 days of a seedling’s life can prepare autos for efficient use of the media throughout the entire life cycle; more lateral roots from an earlier point in time, results in exponential gain.
- The Deep Root Approach - There are several specific container technologies which may be employed:
I. The most rudimentary is a 20oz paper cup. They’re typically 5 1/2 to 6 1/2 inches tall. Cutting slits in the bottom will allow the paper cup to hold together long enough for the first 10-15 days of seedling growth, before transplant.
II. A mode advanced professional option are the several models of deep pots tree seedling nursery containers manufactured by Stuewe and Sons. The ideal model depends on the performance of your media, and the duration of time you will have plants in the pots for. One such exceptional model for autoflowers transplanted in the 10-15 day window is the 7" deep pot with open bottom and wide angled side holes:
Their full lineup of custom tree pots can be found here:
If I may be excused for a moment, I would digress to promote this company and their pots–for I am very grateful to their innovative pots and have been inspired many times over while using them.
They have excellent track performance records with hemp, and in working with these pots over the course of a season doing 16,500+ transplants with them, they are an absolute joy to work with. They store, transport, and wash easily. They transplant so easily too.
For single cola growth autoflowering Sea of Green applications, I also recommend checking out their 11" wide by 24" deep 8-gallon pots:*
I have also used the 4" width by 14" depth pots in field hemp production using a post-hole digger (2018).
But yes, the 7" model with the wide-angled side holes and open bottom allows you to see at a glance when the roots have reached the bottom of the pot. The very day an individual plant pokes a root tip out through one of those bottom openings, the pot is ready for transplant. Transplanting too soon with tall thin channels of soil can cause them to quickly crumble if roots do not hold them together. To reduce the chance of this happening, I transplant while the media is very dry, so it is lighter and less likely to crumble from soil weight as I perform the transplant.
The key with transplanting, and autos so much more specifically, is in the timing and delicacy of it. Those of us who grow photos constantly can be pretty rough and not perceive any difference. But with autos, there seem to be a lot more genetic triggers related to root zone stressors, which all seem to cause early flowering and the correlated dwarfism/yield penalty.
But the coir liners and peat pucks I have seen terrible things with. We have done thousands of seeds, and seen the different in the field year after year trying different products. In summary:
-Jiffy pucks made of 100% peat: acceptable for photos, but the mesh has been observed to impede root growth rates. because the puck was compressed and made entirely of peat, it is inferior in performance to an equal volume of loose peat+perlite. The roots grow through pure compressed peat more slowly than they grow through porous airy peat and perlite mixed, and the peat holds moisture longer and at times a lower dissolved oxygen PPM in the root zone becomes a limiting factor.
-Jiffy pucks made of peat and coco coir mixed: extremely hydrophobic and caused massive dieoffs from said hydrophobia, as well as N deficiency (potentially from calcium depletion).
-Plastic pots (2", 3.5", 4", 5", 1gal, 2gal): For autos any plastic pot with lots of inner textures is poor choice; excessive air holes or grooves or plastic fins are all complex textures which root hairs can wrap around, causing root tearing during transplant, and causing the root stress response we want to mitigate. Smooth lined plastic pots for autos help maintain roots in pristine condition, thus maintaining vigor throughout transplant and afterwards.
-2" and 3.5" plastic pots are too shallow for starting autoflowers*, and a high rate of early flowering and dwarfism was correlated to the assosciated sown fields. As well, the shallow root zone faired poorly in frost (were the roots deeper they would not have entirely froze) and similarly in drought. We observed that the dwarf plants of low performance found in the fields which received transplants from 2" and 3.5" pots each had taproots that were re-directed in a lateral or circular or confused growth habit.
*With larger scale there is a greater diversity in root growth rates and management of the mean crop root growth rate results in optimal performance for the majority of the plants, but detriment to outliers of differing vigor; at a smaller scale with only a few plants, the perfect timing may more reliably be achieved on a plant by plant basis. It is critical that loose soil does not crumble and disturb roots, nor are roots re-directed by physical obstruction.
We found 1gallon plastic pots performed well, in that we could grow autos until sexing, and after identifying females we were able to transplant them. However this is not ideal for root structure.
If direct sowing, moisture management is key for crafting a desirable and high performance root structure. If the soil is uniformly moist, the roots will grow unimpeded in all directions, and little to no lateral root density develops. It is beneficial for the cumulative life cycle performance of the plant if dense lateral root structure is developed early on, so that exponential utilization of the rhizospheric space may begin and reach critical mass sooner in the limited timeline which autos have.
Living soil is great, but it limits one’s ability to root train using wet/dry cycles, water placement, and the directional influence of various sized containers. (Which should be viewed as the gardener’s tools; with which to craft the desired root shape and corresponding performance or plant response.) Living soil typically maintains its highest moisture content in the center and bottom. Roots will be drawn toward these areas, and will not likely encounter air-pruning response. No cultural influence on vigor is gained; natural seed vigor plays out.
To reiterate: I highly advocate away from using premade seed starting materials.
To keep things simple over here, I just use ProMix HP with Myco. Photos are started 18 to a tray in 3.5" pots, then later potted up to 8 to a tray in 5" 1gallon pots, before final transplant.
Autos intended for transplant into small pots (1-7gal) are started using 2oz mini solo cups, and transplanted in the first 10 days after initial selections, stem training, and root inoculation. For most people who grow autos in 1-7gal pots, if you are not going to make selections from larger populations based on germination vigor, it is often an advantage to direct sow seed in the final container, rather than risk handling error. I transplant autos dry indoors.
For autos to be transplanted into my meadow, I use 20oz paper cups with deep slits cut down the sides in 1020 trays. I grow them for 10-20 days in optimal conditions on 2x4’ heat mats for bottom heat, to speed root growth/wet dry cycling. On transplant day, I fill totes with the seedlings in paper cups and bring them through the forest to the field clearing. When the medium is a bit dry, everything slides out without a problem.
For field plantings I use a technique called “puddling in” which involves pre-digging the holes and filling them with compost tea, to create a downward channel of nutritive moisture which encourages downward root growth and earlier establishes drought tolerance. This has the advantage of not waterlogging the entire root structure; it remains oxygenated, and the roots wick whatever moisture they need from surrounding native soil and the downward channel.
But yes, all this yellowing and slow stunted early growth is due entirely to the coco coir liners, I believe. Switching to 2oz solo cups should see a huge boost! Would love to see some photos of the roots at transplant if you try it out =)
Thanks for reading! Has been some great fun seeing all that you’ve been up to. I’m excited to follow along.
-Dr. Zinko
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Thanks for that so much to say lol the coco and peat based liners youre referring to my fertil pots the biodegradable ones? From what I’ve seen they’re better than the peat based pots what do you think?
Also I’m going a lot of based off of KIS podcast and his findings that he posts and then whatever I can get out of you guys.
Ive tried using those little 2" trays and had bad time with them my tap roots grew out of them in a couple days and I tried transplanting but they didnt have enough time to wrap around the dirt so when i tried tipping them up all the dirt spilled everywhere and I scrapped that idea I guess I could’ve let them go I was just worried about the tap roots the was the fastest I’ve ever seen them grow they were 6" in just a few days of germination and I didn’t want them entangling.
I would prefer to continue using my fertil pots I paid a nice penny for them because shipping costs and they’re very simple to use I’d still like to hear your opinion if you get a chance to check them out.
The deep root pots I’ll definitely be checking out that company but typically I try to grow in a larger bed now but may still use some pots for other projects.
The wet dry cycle I seen recently KIS posted some results some other guys did and basically a constant moisture level gave them the largest yields I know before it was all about the wet dry cycle that’s how I’ve tried doing it in the past because that’s just what I always seen is there any other reasoning behind this?
I like your “pudding in” technique I’ll give it a go.
Oh and what specifically did you mean by this?
“To reiterate: I highly advocate away from using premade seed starting materials.”
Soil or my fertil pots etc.?
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@ReikoX @GnomeyByNature Kinda what I started doing the straw does perk it up on the sides just a little I’m still worried though low 30s RH is pretty low until summer time humidity will be through the roof
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