anybody here heard of using straight vermiculite

[kgb424]

to start seeds, I say this on the net, you take a 16 oz plastic party cup put some holes at the bottom on the sides, and fill them with straight vermiculite, then put the cups in a bath of 1/3 strength bloom nutes like 5-55-17, it is supposed to keep the roots moist, plus they get a lot of oxygen, this method is supposed to have a high success rate, I 'm thinking about trying this method and was wondering if anybody here has tried this,or heard of this way, my only thing is how do you transplant them, I know I can cut the bottoms off of the cups, but isn't wet vermiculite just like wet sand, so when you cut the bottoms doesn't just fall out, I'm using 6" pots do to limited grow space and was wondering if you put the cups in a mixture of soiless potting soil with perlite,and vermiculite, will they still draw moister to the roots and grow,what would happen if you tried to turn them upside down and slide it out as a mold, would the roots hold it together long enough to transplant them. never have had any luck with the paper towel method or the direct soil method, so I wanted to try something completely different, any input would be great.

 

[0verkil13r]

I use it for cloning, don't see why it wouldn't work for germination as well. However, my preference is to remove the vermiculite from the roots before transplant. My method is to

1 poke holes in the bottom of a container of vermiculite
2 place said container into another container filled with an inch of water/LK solution
(after 5 minutes the medium will be wet from the capillarity of vermiculite)
3 drop in seed/cutting and place under a light source
4 when you see roots (7-10 days) wash off vermiculite & gently place in growing medium

This has worked quite well for me. Then again, I am new to this so take heed.

Here's a clone 11 days after cut


I always get similar results using the $10 DIY Cloner https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=42847&highlight=$10+diy+cloner

Yes, they come out like a mold. This probably depends on root colonization. Your medium will probably fall apart (when you remove the container) if there is too much medium vs root mass.

Btw, I would not use any kind of nutes aside from a bit of Liquid Karma (if that). With seed germination, I do not use anything but, water.

Hope this helps. Good Luck.

 

[0verkil13r]

An addendum to step 3 above. Your seeds won't need light until they poke through the surface.

 

[L~B]

I haven't run vermiculite but I have ran straight perlight worked great as a inert medium. Aside from hand watering daily.

 

[zymos]

Vermiculite holds a lot of water. I don't see any reason why you'd need to keep the cups in a bath- it stays moist very easily.

Seeds don't need any nutrients to sprout or grow for several days. I'd nix the 1/3 strength bloom formula.

Root balls won't hold together too well with pure vermiculite- mixing peat or coir with it is better imo.