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Small pot for faster sprouting?
- Thread starter Superauto
- Start date
Bird of Hermes
Member
Rootbound is where the plant outgrew its container and has nothing to do with germination man. Smaller pots are easier to manage as far as moisture content though which is good for seedlings. I start mine in 12oz foam cups filled with perlite and poke a hole in the side 1" up for drainage. Then water once a day or two depending on humidity until water comes out the hole.
temperature, humidity, and hormones are influencing the germination process mostly
Bird of Hermes
Member
Agreed and if the seeds are old or didn't fully mature that could slow things down too. I've also found that some seeds have too thick a shell and trained my fingers to carefully crack them open. Takes a lot of fine motor skills to do that though and I only do that for seeds that don't crack after a overnight soak.
Get Jiffy Peat Wafers for seed starting. Get 2 6" clear vinyl saucers. Get a botanical heating mat. Soak the wafers for a few hours in one of the vinyl saucers until they no longer absorb water. Drain excess water. Place seed in center hole of wafer, now expanded and plenty moist. Place the vinyl saucer on the plugged in heating mat. Cover with the other vinyl saucer forming a mini greenhouse. Wait 5 days you will have sprouts.
I did a few side by sides with Jiffy pot peat containers and 8 oz styrofoam cups. No additive potting soil is used for germination.
The styrofoam cups have a two to one size advantage at two weeks. The first set of serrated leaves have fully twice the surface area as the Jiffy pot plants.
I suspect the Jiffy pots dry more on the sides, restricting root growth in the beginning.
After transplanting, the rate of growth equals out but the Jiffy pot plant runs a week behind the foam cup plant for the rest of its life.
G
Guest
Some strains will show sex faster if they become rootbound in a smaller pot. Is this possible what you meant?
Thanks for all answers so far I will try to explain better why I asked the question
Germination will of course be the same in a small as for a big pot, and then the tap root start to find it’s way downwards
Then to my point: Some people claim that the sprouting starts when the plant have reached the bottom of the cup(or the boundary of the taproot)
If so a seed in a small cup would sprout faster than a seed in a deeper cup(as long as all other factors are the same)
I don’t claim this is right, just asking
No that's not how it works. The seedling will emerge far before the tap root hits the bottom of the container.
I start seeds in a 50 plug circular seed flat. As soon as I see a second set of leaves I transplant to a solo cup or a 4" square pot.
Think of planting seeds in a garden, direct sowing, seedling emerge just as fast as started in a flat cell.
Heat is your friend for best germination results. Get a heat mat if you want to greatly increase your germination rates.
When the seedlings are in their second container and growing, I will give them a very diluted feed of high phophorus food, or bloom food. This encourages root growth. The faster the roots are established the better.
I start seeds in a 50 plug circular seed flat. As soon as I see a second set of leaves I transplant to a solo cup or a 4" square pot.
Think of planting seeds in a garden, direct sowing, seedling emerge just as fast as started in a flat cell.
Heat is your friend for best germination results. Get a heat mat if you want to greatly increase your germination rates.
When the seedlings are in their second container and growing, I will give them a very diluted feed of high phophorus food, or bloom food. This encourages root growth. The faster the roots are established the better.
G
Guest
Maybe a picture might help as a reference. This 'seedling' as I call it at this point is in 18 oz. solo cup, seed went directly in dirt and is about 20 days since breaking through. At about 4th node.
Excellent, Lester! Spot on.
G
Guest
Superauto, I take your question as this...the seed germs and out comes the cotyledons as the taproot shoots down and when it hits bottom, maybe signals the seedling to start making first leaves. Then a shorter pot would start growth sooner? In my experience the taproot does hit bottom very quick, so I can see why that might be considered. I doubt this is the case, and a smaller pot would make little difference in gaining time, even if true.
You got me right
I accept it if it's not the case, just a crazy theory out there then(not my claim)
I've done side by side experiments with jiffy's, 2 oz pots and 16 oz party cups.
The results were:
- I had best results with 16 oz cups: at 2 weeks since sprouting they are ready for transplant with the cup full of roots and plenty of leaves.
- 2 oz pots get rootbound in less than a week, and even then the seedlings are too delicate for transplant at that stage. Not recommended.
- Jiffy's is where I've had the worst experience; I've seen seedlings unable to break the mesh; other times the acidic nature of peat have stunted the root development (peat pH is by itself between 4 and 5).
The results were:
- I had best results with 16 oz cups: at 2 weeks since sprouting they are ready for transplant with the cup full of roots and plenty of leaves.
- 2 oz pots get rootbound in less than a week, and even then the seedlings are too delicate for transplant at that stage. Not recommended.
- Jiffy's is where I've had the worst experience; I've seen seedlings unable to break the mesh; other times the acidic nature of peat have stunted the root development (peat pH is by itself between 4 and 5).
Looks to be growing well!
What strain?
What strain?
G
Guest
Thanks LB,
It's 1 of a dozen Panama STD from ACE that I'm hoping to find a nice Mom to work with this Summer. All 12 are coming along pretty nice, very uniform in size and shape at this point. Probably gonna take cuts from all and hoping to find at least 1 red bloomer.
72 cell tray also dries out really fast, especially seed starter mix.
Heat mats work well, and good quality rooting medium. We always used mat with hand towel on top of mat...heat, good humid medium....that's part of the trick of seed germination. Jiffy's a bit too acidic from our experience. Instead of phos, we use willow water for root growth.
