Hello everyone, First ever grow here, I watched about a million growing videos, read about a hundred articles, and surfed a bunch of forums before ordering everything. I bought 4 autoflower seeds from Ministry of Cannabis, 2 mandarin haze and 2 blueberry domina. I germinated them in a cardboard box next to a space heater in plastic bags wrapped in damp paper towels. They all 4 grew taproots and i planted them in gro blocks (3 had tiny taproots so i just dropped them in the little holes in the gro blocks, one had a long root so i broke a block in half and sandwiched the seed and root in there. From what I'm reading now this was the wrong way to do it, I should have waited for the seeds to actually sprout, whoops! My next mistake was watering... i figured since the gro blocks don't retain water, I would probably have to water the block daily to keep the seed moist, so I did a small amount of water every day while waiting for sprouting (again it's my first time and anticipation and excitement of doing something new cause me to be a busybody and try to make something happen, wish I just plant directly in soil ARGH!). BTW they're all in 5 gallon grow pots with Dr Earth Pot Of Gold soil, I didn't add the starter fertilizer to the soil because I didn't actually read the instructions until after the blocks were already in soil with seeds in them, so I tried to just sort of add it after the fact, which undoubtedly won't help at all, it looks like the veg and bloom stuff (also dr earth) just gets added on top of the soil and mixed down with water. The grow room is a tiny understairs closet with (hopefully) just enough height for autoflowers (photos are out of the question as they grow too tall). After about 4 days one of the seeds actually sprouted more of a rush than i thought it would be. I'm now at 8 or 9 days since planting the germ'd seeds and the other 3 haven't sprouted yet... I'm pretty sure I drowned them or rotted them, or whatever it is that makes germinated seeds fail to sprout. Today I covered the tops of the pots with dropcloth plastic (read something about that on a forum post here) in a last-ditch effort to make these things sprout. My question is, should I give up on the 3 that didn't sprout, or is there even a small chance they could make it? I REALLY don't wanna grow just one plant since I'm unlikely to get any kind of yield since everything I do will be wrong. my temps were around 73 degrees for the first 5 days or so, then they went up to like 80 so i opened the door and ran fans and AC to get the temps down, which worked but didn't appear to do anything. I don't mind if these 3 plants are a week behind the miraculous one, I just want them to sprout any suggestions? my wife and a grower buddy of mine keep telling me to wait (he's in another state and can't really help beyond advice, and he only grows photos), but i'm not sure if I should start giving the one sprouter nutes and water now, or wait for the other 3 to (hopefully) sprout. There seems to be an obscene amount of info on sprouting/germinating/veg/bloom/harvest, but very little about making planted/germinated seeds in the ground actually sprout, does everybody else just have immediate success? am i just a blackthumb? any help would be appreciated.
I've had some seeds start their taproot after about 7 days or so. The general average time it is said to wait is about 10-12 days, and after that you can just give up on them. If you want to be extra safe you could give 15 days but by then I'd say the seeds don't have a decent germination core, or they were drowned. Good luck!
You need light when you go to soil. my germination process is simple. I will use small pint mason jars and clean with peroxide. I will soak my seeds for a minimum of 24 hrs and maximum 48 hrs. I do this just to soften the outside layer of the seed. After that I simply plant the seed 1/4" deep for photos and 3/4" for autos into the pots with soil. Make sure you use a high quality soil. NO TIME RELEASED SOIL!!! I use Roots Organics Original. You said you used Gro blocks. Did you soak and PH your blocks? As I said I like as simple as possible and soil is the easiest way I have found. These are the pots I use to germinate below. I will set up my pots with soil a few days in advance. I will add my water to the pots (maybe a 1/4 cup of water) and let sit ( 2 to 3 days) until I am ready to plant my seeds.You don't want your soil fluffy but you don't want it so wet that it's compact. If your not sure how wet the soil should be you can go to your local store and get a moisture meter. They cost around $15 US. After I have healthy plants I will transplant Autos into pots like your 5 gallons to finish in. Photos I will transplant up to 3 times or more. Don't give up. People think you put a seed in dirt with water and light and you grow cannabis. This is where the term "weed" comes from. Growing good cannabis is a learning experience. Have fun and happy growing. Sweet Cheese and Durban Poison Grow
Thanks, Toker.... no I didn't soak or PH the gro blocks, wasn't even aware that i needed to... in fact i don't even have a PH meter yet, i was originally going to grow in coco, but I heard that you don't need to PH when growing in soil. but that was Niel from growpotcheeply.com saying that, and I think he meant that HE doesn't need to PH when growing in soil, cuz he's basically a master grower, but I probably should, since I've never grown anything... I looked at PH meters and it seems the choice is either laughably cheap and probably not functional, or hysterically expensive and probably works great, but i'd have to sell my car to afford one. either way too late now for the 3 probably dead seeds, was wondering if i could maybe take them out of the gro blocks and put them directly in soil, or if they're already dead... i dunno, i'm just lost in the sauce, I think I'll just leave the 3 alone and if they don't sprout by the time the one that did is at a week of growth, I'll give up on 'em
Most grow blocks will screw your pH way up. I would still put a light on your 3 that aren't sprouted with your new sprout and see what happens. This is a very hardy plant that can take lots of stress!! Give em at least another week before trashing them. A PH meter is a necessity even for soil potted plants depending on what your adding to the soil. You can check your runoff water to see what the PH is. If you use straight soil it's not that necessary and makes things easy.
I would give your seeds a week or so more and cross your fingers. I suggest next you don't pre germinate your seeds - either plant them direct or use rapid rooters or jiffy pellets. I use rapid rooters and have nearly 100% pop. Also you don't need a pH meter - I haven't used one in many years - just get the GH pH drops - they are never wrong and very cheap.
Thanks for the advice guys Where do i get those GH pH drops, never heard of them before and google just brings up regular ph up and down?
oh.... a test kit... still have to use pH up and down though, might as well just get a cheap meter and hope it's accurate, I estimate a 0-0.01 % chance i'd be able to use a test kit based on colored paper strips
Is it RO water or distilled water? I have checked the distilled water where I am at and the PH is 7.5 which is high for cannabis.
If you get a meter General Hydroponics has a 7.0 standard solution for calibrating your meter. It's cheap.
Are you color blind? That would be the only reason to not be able to see the color - and they're not paper strips - it's liquid in a vial that you add drops. A cheap meter is not a good idea - you will have to calibrate it regularly, you will need 7.0 and 4.0 calibration fluids, and storage solution. I found the color chart on the bottle to be off - so I use this. The drops are never wrong.
no, just bad at stuff like this, i'm better with numbers on a screen, is there a brand you use regularly?
www.amazon.com/GeneralHydroponic-TestKit-1-ounce/dp/B000bt32UA They also make an 8oz. refill size that lasts forever.
