I’ve only germinated beans once, so far, with any success so I want to make sure not to blow it. I took 4 beans each of three varieties and soaked them in water for about 24 hours before they started to split. I put them in paper towels and the root started to appear in all. Into the rockwool they went and today when I got home I had three of one variety that had popped out. I have them in a seedling germination tray with a dome and have a seedling heater underneath.
This is where I need help.
Do I keep them all under the dome to pop together or do I take the ones that have popped out from under the dome and put in solo cups with soil(coco) and leave the rest to pop under the dome?
How much light do they need at this stage? I don’t want to burn them up. I have some 60W LED bulbs I have pulled the domes off of. Will a couple of these produce sufficient light?
Any suggestions as to how to proceed are appreciated.
I’d let them grow like one more week then transplant. Keep humidity dome on. Ditch the heat mat. Make sure your dome is not sitting on the floor. Make sur temps are 78-81f. Led should be up high (2.5 ft) above them. Lower light as seedlings stretch.
Looks like your rockwool may be oversaturated…be cautious.
The seedling will stretch super fast…be ready to start dropping the light at a moments notice, or you could run into some lanky seedlings…
Yeah a look back and you can see the cubes are full of water. Whenever I use rock wool for seed starts I put a bunch in a bucket with water and ph it. Then I grab each cube and I wring the cube by pretending I’m throwing a baseball. I don’t squeeze the rock wool at all but doing this removes a lot of water. Moist but not wet.
Sounds like I need to get some of the excess moisture out at a minimum. Hoping a few more pop overnight then I’ll feel better about putting them into some grow medium outside the dome with some light and go from there. Thanks for all the ideas. Hoping these beans survive to see another day.
I use same method as @Foreigner. No soaking or paper towels. Just straight into Promix and Bam, sprouts. Don’t 2nd guess yourself or get too complicated with it. Transplant at 2nd set of true leaves
Right now i have 6 of 12 that have popped so I put them in solo cups full of coco.
Just noticed this evening that one of the others has the root growing upward and I can see the first two leaves are underground. Should i try to re orient this one or give it a chance to right itself?
Out of the germ cube? Can you just flip over the cube and cut a hole in it so the leaves get light??
This is why I don’t mess with paper towels. I just feel all of these steps messing with a fragile seed and seedling is bound to end badly. Next time just throw the seed into the cube. Less room for error
Yea, @Meesh…Definitely! I’ve had miserable results in my germination efforts in my last two attempts so I am sort of paranoid. Time to chill, I suppose.
Happens to the best of us. Unfortunately, if nothing else too much attention means you’ll surely over water them. Fix the upside down sucker then step back and wait for 2 sets of leaves then plant. I totally get it. Go burn one and chill. For some reason this thought comforts me when I get in that mode… Some seeds just don’t sprout.
There’s a bunch of techniques out there I keep mine on the simple side and plant straight into soil with a cover to keep soil moist or rockwool or coco puck in a humidome until the cotlydons open then straight into full power lighting.
edit: shake all the water out of Rockwood or peat pucks so they are just moist never wet.
Like I said, just flip it over and cut a hole in the top and dog dammit, no more water for quite a while. If it starts to actually get dry, use a mist like a spray bottle
