Struggling with seedlings

[DabbedOutDemon]

So I have no prob sprouting seeds when the come out the cup is where I fail and stumble at what point do you feed I’m in coco feeding Remo

 

[PolyChucker]

Can you start in dirt and move to coco?
I germinate in damp paper towel, as soon as root tip is out I move to 2” pot with good potting soil and perlite, on 24 hr single led grow bulb for 2-4 wks. I don’t start feeding anything until about wk 3 or 4. The soil needs to be damp but not soggy the whole time. Once the canopy is bigger than the rim of the pot, it’s time to start thinking about uppotting. You can also use clear party shot glasses for seeds if you drill drain holes in the bottom. Then you can see the roots reach the edge of the pot, and at that point you could pull it out and rinse off the roots and switch to coco I’d think - I do dirt the whole time

 

[Creeperpark]

Follow the first part of my seed starting method and you will have no problems. I always start my seeds in a good organic mix in dixie cups first. When they get big enough with true leaves, I can transfer them over to a hydro environment. The paper towel method is hard on sprouts and cause's delays from root damage repairing itself. These plants in cups are ready for coco.

 

[DabbedOutDemon]

So I started feeding the seedlings and things are looking better going to have 5 or so new strains 3 or 4 per strain

 

[Creeperpark]

What Ec or ppm are you feeding?

 

[DabbedOutDemon]

So tbh I don’t even check ppms I use the Remo bottle and they started looking like real plants lol I do a low dose tho

 

[Creeperpark]

The very best investment anyone can make in the growing world is an EC meter. They're good for finding the purest water, knowing the amount of fertilizer you are using, or reading electric conductivity in the runoff of the soil. This one can read ppm or EC and temperature. About $35 US dollars. I test everything!

 

[Cuddles]

So I have no prob sprouting seeds when the come out the cup is where I fail and stumble at what point do you feed I’m in coco feeding Remo

I´ve had no luckin coco either and lost lots of seeds/plants this way. Can you grow in soil instead? coco is pretty tricky to grow in imo.

 

[f-e]

So all's good now you are feeding at full strength?

I tend to start low. In soil or compost they have food, so why not in coco. My biggest issue is not using enough. My second biggest is getting it right, then adding more. If you think about it, you need a reasonable feed to make fake soil. Then most of the drying out is through surface evaporation. That's water leaving, not the food. So unless going to run-off it's only water you need put back. Or you have a double dose of feed in there, then tripple... as you add feed they are not taking and you are not running to waste.

I want to get half strength to them straight away. I will give them this again after a few days. Then the next time I want to see some waste and measure it. I keep containers small so I'm running off a good amount as soon as I'm able to. At that time, 75% strength should be fine.

All this is rough numbers as it's not going to go the same way every time.
You should buy meters as a twin EC/pH pack is $10 from China. Then you should write down exactly what you do, along with temperatures. Keping records shows us what failed and what worked. Once we see what works, we can start altering that recipe a little to get better.

A pack of hemp seed can speed this along. You get 1000s of seeds for nothing. You can do 10 at a time, beside other trays of 10, all fed differently. In just a few weeks you can look at the trays and see how the seeds liked the different circumstances.

Coco needs some feed. It's already full of some things, so not feeding just makes an imbalance. I'm always cautious, but if they can't take half strength, how do they survive in soil.

 

[@hempy]

I´ve had no luckin coco either and lost lots of seeds/plants this way. Can you grow in soil instead? coco is pretty tricky to grow in imo.

Are you using a pre washed coco core medium ?.

Even the pre washed coco core i flush as coco core can have salt.

I love coco core best medium out there for hydro and great for organic mixs also.

I have never had a problem with seedlings in coco apart from very old seed but that has nothing to do with the medium.

I germ my seed and place the seedling directly into coco core and give it water 7Ph until i see color in the leaf then start feeding them hydro nutrients at half strength mix that's it. Soon as the seedling starts to grow you can then go to full feeding.

 

[Cuddles]

Are you using a pre washed coco core medium ?.

Even the pre washed coco core i flush as coco core can have salt.

I love coco core best medium out there for hydro and great for organic mixs also.

I have never had a problem with seedlings in coco apart from very old seed but that has nothing to do with the medium.

I germ my seed and place the seedling directly into coco core and give it water 7Ph until i see color in the leaf then start feeding them hydro nutrients at half strength mix that's it. Soon as the seedling starts to grow you can then go to full feeding.

The only coco I managed to get hold off in the shop was coco bricks. I did wash them, in the sense that they obviously need to be soaked in water before you can use them and I squeezed the excess water out before I put it into the pots.
Maybe I should have put the babies into a small pot first but as it was an auto plant I just didn´t bother. In hindsight this was a mistake, I reckon.
Coco really is so different from soil and is something I hadn´t anticipated even though I did some reading on the subject before trying it out.
I had trouble getting the watering right - in other words I got it wrong even though I tried to keep a better eye on it. I also didn´t feed at the beginning as I never feed my seedlings when in soil. However I did start feeding when the seedling just wouldn´t grow and watered more frequently too.
Sadly the seedlings all died on me before they had a chance

I´d do things rather differently if I were ever to try coco again - I did learn one or two things from this experience

I´m considering mixing coco and soil one day...

The only other time I grew in coco was peanuts and that was in a balcony box They really love the coco

 

[@hempy]

Coco Core is an amazing medium all you need to do is put it in a normal pot and you cant over water the medium it will drain. It holds a good amount of nutrient rich water while allowing for good air ration for the plants.

The problem with the coco core bricks is this. Some bricks are a poor quality coco core.There are many grades some finer some are more stringy .

Some even have slow release chem ferts in them also

The stuff i use comes in a bale and is pre washed.

 

[Cuddles]

Coco Core is an amazing medium all you need to do is put it in a normal pot and you cant over water the medium it will drain. It holds a good amount of nutrient rich water while allowing for good air ration for the plants.

The problem with the coco core bricks is this. Some bricks are a poor quality coco core.There are many grades some finer some are more stringy .

Some even have slow release chem ferts in them also

The stuff i use comes in a bale and is pre washed.

tell me about it! It does require much more watering than soil and I ended up finding this a little irritating at the time. I guess I need a lot more practice witht his stuff than I anticipated when I tried it out last year.
And if I do I´ll keep an eye out for a better quality.

 

[Creeperpark]

Besides washing your coco enough, I've found that if you start your seeds in small cups using an organic soil mix and then transplant them into coco coir you will have better results. The roots grow out of the orgainic soil and into the coco very quickly. I start all my seeds that way then transfer them into a hydro median. I do the same with one-gallon pots for larger plants. It's amazing how well a cannabis plant will adapt to conditions.

 

[airplane]

Can you start in dirt and move to coco?
I germinate in damp paper towel, as soon as root tip is out I move to 2” pot with good potting soil and perlite, on 24 hr single led grow bulb for 2-4 wks. I don’t start feeding anything until about wk 3 or 4. The soil needs to be damp but not soggy the whole time. Once the canopy is bigger than the rim of the pot, it’s time to start thinking about uppotting. You can also use clear party shot glasses for seeds if you drill drain holes in the bottom. Then you can see the roots reach the edge of the pot, and at that point you could pull it out and rinse off the roots and switch to coco I’d think - I do dirt the whole time

great method - use this myself some times witjh a heat mat - turn off and on depending on the amount of heat 0 just want to keep the babies warm ,not hot

 

[-OSAKA CASIO-]

What kind of light are you people using for seedlings. I normally give them full blast off my 1000W gavita or 600W, but now I was gifted a 300W blurple led, so should I use that led instead of HPS? What would you guys do in this situation?

 

[-OSAKA CASIO-]

What kind of light are you people using for seedlings. I normally give them full blast off my 1000W gavita or 600W, but now I was gifted a 300W blurple led, so should I use that led instead of HPS? What would you guys do in this situation?

Can someone please answer fast, im bit of hurry in here.

 

[D. B. Doober]

Can someone please answer fast, im bit of hurry in here.

Seedlings don't need much light...shoplight works

 

[goingrey]

Can someone please answer fast, im bit of hurry in here.

LOL, they'll grow into big plants and not be seedlings anymore if we don't answer fast enough?

600W HPS for seedlings is a total waste IMO.

If the blurple has a lot of blue it could be good for veg? Should grow nice compact plants..

 

[-OSAKA CASIO-]

Yeah i know but what would you use if you only had those 3 lights, im just little worried of that blurple leds spectrum..