I suppose this is half a terminology question, and half asking for clarification about the somewhat ambiguous stickies but here goes. Had three bag seeds, one of them hilariously old (found in a dime bag from ANCIENT times, it looked like dead grass), put them in a container between two moist paper towels to germinate. In darkness (wrapped in a towel). In about two days I checked on them and saw one had a tiny white bit of "tap root" poking out. (Understand the root part, not so much the tap part.) Got excited. Couldn't get pots, soil, etc. together until exactly two days later at which point I checked and a second seed had one, and both roots were two inches long. (They're called seedlings at this point, right?) I read that at this point (and perhaps a bit earlier) they need to be put in soil, so I got two small pots, and doing my best to be gentle and also to face the roots downward, planted them just underneath a thin covering of soil. My question is this: do they need light yet? I've read that you want 24/7 CFLs as soon as it sprouts or they're in soil, so I don't know whether I need to wait for something to poke out before turning the lights on. (40w across two CFLs, hoping that's enough until I can buy some proper bulbs) Also, somewhat unrelated, will litmus strips work for testing water pH? I've heard that if you water the plant until it starts running off and measure the last bits of runoff you get a good estimate of soil pH. Is this accurate? Thanks for the help and for your time.
The plants won't need light until they grow out of the soil, as far as the litmus strips, they will work, but there is to much room for speculation on reading the colors of the strips. Get yourself a digital ph meter, they are a lot more accurate.
Ok, good -- I have a little more time to rig and lightproof then. Regarding a digital pH meter: a quick search turns up the Luster Leaf brand, are they any good? Seeing prices under $20 kind of makes me nervous.
No. A seedling is a baby plant that has actually grown up out of the soil and has started to produce leaves and is starting photosynthesis. Next time, you want to plant those when the tap root is 1/4 to 1/2 inch long. Don't worry about the word "tap", it's the only root put out by a seed so the only one to be concerned with. While it's true that the germed seeds do not need light while under the soil, I always recommend to do so anyway. They will want light the moment they do pop through, so better to have that light available for them as soon as they are ready rather than have them wait for you to come around and turn the light on. Plus, the light can add a bit of warmth which is helpful to get a germed seed to sprout. That's right. The pH your plants experience is not just from your input water but the interaction of that water with your ferts, your soil, any amendments, etc. So you want to measure runoff. And I agree you want something more precise and accurate than the little paper strips.