Hi all, I don't post much and prefer to lurk, but heres something that newbies may find usefull.
This is my surefire method of germinating seeds in rockwool, I've been using this method for many many years and posted it on the ol' O.G back in the very late 90's.Some of you may have seen it before.
All you need are some 3" rw cubes, the ones with the 1" hole on top, perlite, a mini green house and some 1/4 strengh ph 5.5 nutrients and of course viable seed.
Also adding 10 drops of h2o2 and a teaspoon of Nitozime/litre of water will work wonders too for strong healthy seedlings.
Ok first things first,
start with the perlite, you'll need about 5 cups worth for 10 seeds.
Spread perlite out on a large flat surface and crush it with a rolling pin or glass bottle, it needs to be dust like.
This can get a bit messy and dusty, avoid breathing the dust.
Personally i do it on a large baking tray under the rangehood fan, filters removed.
Once you have the dust, fill all the holes in the cubes to the top and place the cubes in the lower tray, then mix up your solution and ph adjust it to 5.5 and fill the tray from the bottom.
For 10 cubes you'll need about 2 litres of solution.
Just keep adding to the bottom till the cubes are soaked and the perlite has wicked the solution up.
Next remove the cubes carefully, trying not to squeeze them, drain off access from the bottom tray and place them in the draining tray.
The cubes should be full but not dripping.
Were almost done now, just need to make holes in the perlite and add seeds.
To make the holes in the perlite i use a plastic eye dropper from the hydro store, its a perfect size but anything the same size as your seeds will do.
Make the holes 5mm deep and try to get the depth even in all cubes, insert seeds, cover and place tray in the mini green house
with all vents closed.
The seeds will germ faster if you have a heat mat and can keep the temp inside the dome around 25-27 DegC.
Once the first seed germs open the vents, this should lower the humidity inside from 100-80%.
Heres a tray of Nivarna PPP on the left and Papaya on the right that i germed last week on the 18th of this month.
As you can see all 10 germinated.
I usually have a 100% germ rate with this method using Nirvana seed.
Hope you find this usefull.
Cheers Ol'skool.
This is my surefire method of germinating seeds in rockwool, I've been using this method for many many years and posted it on the ol' O.G back in the very late 90's.Some of you may have seen it before.
All you need are some 3" rw cubes, the ones with the 1" hole on top, perlite, a mini green house and some 1/4 strengh ph 5.5 nutrients and of course viable seed.
Also adding 10 drops of h2o2 and a teaspoon of Nitozime/litre of water will work wonders too for strong healthy seedlings.
Ok first things first,
start with the perlite, you'll need about 5 cups worth for 10 seeds.
Spread perlite out on a large flat surface and crush it with a rolling pin or glass bottle, it needs to be dust like.
This can get a bit messy and dusty, avoid breathing the dust.
Personally i do it on a large baking tray under the rangehood fan, filters removed.
Once you have the dust, fill all the holes in the cubes to the top and place the cubes in the lower tray, then mix up your solution and ph adjust it to 5.5 and fill the tray from the bottom.
For 10 cubes you'll need about 2 litres of solution.
Just keep adding to the bottom till the cubes are soaked and the perlite has wicked the solution up.
Next remove the cubes carefully, trying not to squeeze them, drain off access from the bottom tray and place them in the draining tray.
The cubes should be full but not dripping.
Were almost done now, just need to make holes in the perlite and add seeds.
To make the holes in the perlite i use a plastic eye dropper from the hydro store, its a perfect size but anything the same size as your seeds will do.
Make the holes 5mm deep and try to get the depth even in all cubes, insert seeds, cover and place tray in the mini green house
with all vents closed.
The seeds will germ faster if you have a heat mat and can keep the temp inside the dome around 25-27 DegC.
Once the first seed germs open the vents, this should lower the humidity inside from 100-80%.
Heres a tray of Nivarna PPP on the left and Papaya on the right that i germed last week on the 18th of this month.
As you can see all 10 germinated.
I usually have a 100% germ rate with this method using Nirvana seed.
Hope you find this usefull.
Cheers Ol'skool.
