my cups have a little gravel, little sand, some fertilizer, and alot of topsoil. Sound good ? but how long do my roots have to be before i plant?
Spouts should be planted in an inert medium with no fertilizers. They burn very easily and even average amounts of fertilizer can kill them. Seed starter soil is always a good choice to plant seeds in. There's no benefit to the gravel either, that I know of. The root should be sticking out about 1/4 of an inch before planting. The way I like to start seeds is to fill plastic cups with moist seed starter soil, about an inch from the rim. The soil should be wet enough that a handful drips a few drops when moderately squeezed. Much more moisture can drown the seedlings. I poke a hole in the middle of the soil with a toothpick, stick the root in and very gently press the soil snug around it so all that can be seen is the seed sitting on top of the soil. The cup is then covered with plastic wrap. Two finger-sized holes are punched into the wrap; one on each side near the rim of the cup. The wrap gets removed once the seedling sheds its shell. When the first single-bladed leaves are grown and the three-bladed leaves just begin to form between them, the plant is moved to larger containers of nutritious soil.