Hello Grass city...after spending a ton of time on generic hyro forums, I was told about this forum. specifically, "the cannabis guys KNOW THEIR SHIT!" I'm currently growing several bushsteak tomato hybrids in a small E/F set-up using rockwool/hydroton in 2 gallon smartpots. I've been trying to start some hybrid peppers but have lost all 10 due to damping off,2 at a time over the last month. It's driving my nuts and I only have 5 of these seeds left. I'm not doing anything different then I did with my tomatoes. I've done a few other hydro veggie grows and have only experienced this once before. Funny thing is, I start all of my seeds the exact same way: 1.5" RW start cubes, soaked in 5.5 ph RO h2o for 24 hours. Pull them out, give them a shake or two, then plant the seed. No light till I see the seedling emerging from the cube. Use a small 100W equivalent clf. usually have roots showing within a few days of seed planting. At that point, they go into 4" RW cubes that have been PH adjusted as well. All looks good for a few days, then I notice part of the stem seems to be a bit thin compared to the rest of the stem...Sure enough two days later, the stem is bent in half and the seedling dies. It's not due to stretch, and I use a small fan to help with rigidity .. Bleach is added to the RO (2-4ppm) 24 hours before soaking. RW spends an hour in a 350 oven before the soak to sterilize. Seeling tray gets sprayed with h2o2 and wiped down. I just dont understand this. I've read that many people love RW and find it really easy to work with. Others have said its horrible for daming off and other stuff. Whats the deal?? Is there a better option? COCO? Peat plugs? This is really frustrating. I'd like to start growing your plant of choice sometime in the future, but I need to get a handle on the seedling stage before investing the $ in high quality seeds. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks
Id say the simplest solution is to not use wet mediums. A simple dwc bucket, two airstones, a netpot (6 inches or less), and a medium like hydro balls, grow stones, etc will suffice. Keep it simple. Never heard anyone using smartpots with hydro tbh.
Before you start changing everything..follow what potsmoke said. Smart pots are for soil growing as far as I know.
Thanks for the thoughts...I'll clarify. Roots grow fine out of the 1.5" rw. Then they go into a 4" grodan cube. Nothing goes into the smart pot till I have roots growing from the 4" cube. The damping off is happening prior to putting them into the smartpots and hydroton. My problem occurs between sprout and beginning of week 2, just before putting them into my flood table. On a side note, smart pots may not be made for hydro but the tomatoes like them. Flood for 15 min 2x-3x a day. Flood level just below rw cube.