Ok im def hoping someone reads this and can help me out. I have been interested in growing for years now and I finally decided to just try it. A friend of mine gave me 4 seeds and I germinated them by taking a paper towel and wetting it and putting the seeds inside and folding paper towel in half and put it in a ziplock baggie, I then stuck the zip lock in a drawer which is bitch black. The seeds were at about 80-90 degrees and humidity inside bag was nearly 80%; all four seeds sprouted. This past sunday I planted each seed in a 16oz solo cup. For soil I used miracle grow seed starter miracle grow organic mix as well as perlite. The cups are in a rubbermaid bin that is completely lined with foil. Inside with the cups is one small fan pushing up and out as well as another fan above the bin pushing air down into the bin. I currently have 6- 100 watt CFLs 5 inches above soil running on a18/6 schedule. Inside the bin it has been 78-82 degrees with lights on and fans running; as well as 70-72 for dark hours with fans on. I also have a heating pad on low running 18-20 a day. I have the bin sitting in a window cut out in home that the area is 2x3 with a 10' ceiling and a window. I completely blacked out the window with several layers of black garbage bags. I put a trash black underneath it for the time being since its in a room with carpet. And since it is in my bedroom I put a black curtain up that covers from ceiling to floor. It has now been 7 days and I really don't see any change. I took the plastic off the top of the cups last night. One of the cups I can see the sprout but not sure if i should keep waiting or give up. Id love some feedback or any suggestions
Do the solo cups have drainage? You can suffocate your babys without. How far did you push the sprouts into the cups? Other than those few things I cant see a reason why your babies are still not showing well. Could be too many nutes from the miracle grow mix. 6 true 100 watters? Or 6 27watters with equivalancy 100 watts?
1. did you wait till the taproot came out before planting? 2. dont use miracle grow. - if your going to make the time investment, invest some money in real soil. 3. Get the CFL's closer to the soil - can almost guaruntee you have the 27watters that are 100 watt equiv. in reality you only have around 100 actual watts 4. keep em on 24/0 5. dont over water them, just make sure its very humid until they sprout
Solo cups have plenty of drainage holes, bottom and sides. I put them in no more then 1/2 inch. And yes the lights I have in there are 6 27 watters that are equivalent to 100 watts. Any suggestions on switching lights and which lights I should go to? Also suggestions on which soil you have had the most luck with. I am going out today to get a humidifier for the area because the humidity in the air around the cups I know has only been at highest 49% even though inside the cup its probably high due to the bags being over them.
i suggest foxfarm soil, ocean forest is my favorite ... if your not lookign to buy a lot, or you have a sensitive strain, happy frog might be the best choice. I start my seeds in 4 parts happy frog, 1 part ocean forest. i then move to a 1 liter bucket, 3 ocean forest, 2 parts happy frog. Final transplant to a 5 gal bucket, 4 parts ocean forest, 1 part happy frog.
While miracle gro isn't recomended, it isn't neccesarily the reason your plants arent sprouting. Im using miracle gro organic as well, and sprouted 8/8 seeds without problem. What spectrum are your lights? I would get those lights.within a couple inches of the soil. They are cfl's so they arent putting out much heat, and you want the light to penetrate as best as possible. 24/0 light schedule for sure. Good luck.
Actually man if they havn't broke soil yet then they don't neeed light... How cold is your grow space?
Sounds like the seeds rotted. Take a tooth pick and dig around. See if you can find it and check what it looks like. See if the tap root is even growing.
my grow space ranges in temp from high 70s low 80s. Try very hard to never let it get above 85. I noticed even in the mid 80s the soil was mid 70s so i out the heating pad under it to keep soil at the same temp as air temp. The humidity is now above 50%. I checked all my cups this morning to see what the deal is. Two of the cups I couldn't even find seed or sprout so i guess that those two rotted. As for the other two, They have sprouted and one even has little leaves and they are pretty much right at surface but just won't stand(if that makes any sense). The cup that has little leaves actually has roots. I just don't understand for the life of me what the deal is. Im not expecting to get it the very first time but I know I'm doing it right so I'm just not understanding how things could be this bad. The cfl's are 3 inches above soil for the last two almost three days now. I bought MH but had no idea they needed different ballasts and no where near me sells the ballasts.