I salute every member here at grasscity. Awesome community I must say! I have just started my first grow. I planted the seeds about a week ago but the growth seems to be stunted, correct me if I'm wrong. I germinated the seeds in rockwool placed over the soil. Once they popped I keep them on an 18/6 light cycle under 2 45w cfl's. The shell hasn't fallen yet and I'm wondering if I'm doing smth wrong. Here are the pics. The left pot is feminized SSH and the right one is also feminized lemon skunk. Both from Greenhouse seeds. Tell me what you think!
they could be bad beans. but do what most everyone else does. put them in a damp paper towl. inside a ziplock bag and in the dark.. no light until they have sprouted. then plant them root side down. and have fun oh yeah. welcome to the city. we are glad to have you
Nice little set up there. You're on your way! My thoughts…they aren't going to make it. Looks like they drowned or as previously stated are just “bad beansâ€. More than likely the former. Seedlings are extremely sensitive to their environment. Too much of any one thing at this stage of their life can easily kill. Give it a couple or more days and if they haven't started getting vigorous you might want to try germ'ing again. If you do, reread all the posts on germinating. Since you are growing in soil you can forego the rockwool and simply place the bean directly in the soil. Soil temperature is critical during germination. Ambient air temp does not equal soil temp. Often it's easier to germinate in small plastic cups, use a heating pad of some variety placed under the cups and, once the seed forms its first set of true leaves transplant in their long-term grow container. You know, there's a host of things that could go wrong at germination. Just curious, did you prep your rockwool cubes as it is recommended to do before putting your seeds in them?
Thanks for your input man! I rashed into it to be honest and I only read about soaking the rockwool after they were already in there for a couple of days. I've kept it moist though spraying it with water every couple of hours. At first the rockwool wouldn't hold the moisture so well but now it seems to be absorbing it better. If you look inside the cracked shell you can see a tiny leave trying to get out. Does it look like I watered the soil too much?
I think it looks like a drowning incident. If you look closely at your picture #2 you will see the stem looks brown. That's a pretty good indication of stem rot which is a result of too much water. I will guess that if you gently tugged on it the seedling will come right out and the tap root will also be brown instead of a healthy white. People have their preferences for germinating seeds for a soil grow. I've been 100% successful 100% of the time germinating using the paper towel method, placing the popped seeds (tap root exposed and tap root down) into 10 oz plastic cups (with drainage holes in the bottom), and putting under intense CFL and/or FLO light. The cotyledon will emerge from the soil in a few days and all other things being equal and generally speaking, will have started to grow their first set of true leaves within 1 week. Leave them in the cups until there is at least 3 sets of leaves, some would argue 5 sets, then do a correct-method transplant into their life-estate home. This will generally occur in less than 3 weeks from the time they stick their cotyledon out of the soil. Infant seedlings need special care but nothing too extreme. Just keep them warm and the soil moist – not soaking wet – and let nature run it's course. You could get away with watering with an eyedropper the first couple of weeks. I use a turkey baster and/or a measured shot glass and never more than 1 liquid oz. Use plain pH balanced water with no nutrients. Works every single time.
Carefully pry the seed husk of the tall seedling and hope. Sometimes they dont come off. That and those cfl's throw a lot more light off the sides than the top. If you can turn them sideways. Here's a pic of a rig I started for 85w cfl's. just add reflecting wings.
You would be hard pressed to "DROWN" a plant in rockwool. I would consider the poster that mentioned "conditioning" the rockwool. that stuff is VERY acidic and if you do not rinse it in a ph conditioner the level WILL go dangerously high. I lower the ph of my water to 5.0-5.5 and soak the rockwool in it, then remove the rockwool mix fresh water again and repeat ONLY after this will I use rockwool for anything. if you can cut a small piece of it out with the sprout in tact you can still condition it and put the small piece with the seedling back into the cube.
Thanks a bunch guys. I just took the weakest seedling out of the rockwool. Tiny brown root, tiny leaf inside the shell. I'm going to give the other one a couple of days and see if it makes it. I'll be using the paper towel method to germinate my new seeds and only use distilled water for watering for a while. A question that comes to mind. What do you guys think about the root up-root down thingy. Some say up some say down. I guess I'll do one up - one down and see how it goes Appreciate all the help!
Thanks man, I'm aware of this, I'm just waiting on some new sockets for a new light fixture I've built to be able to mount the bulbs horizontally. I can't keep the current one anyway because it leaves no space for vertical growth.
I've read the CFLs are much more productive hung vertically rather then horizontally. Read that they lose light when hung horizontally.