Sure fire seed sprouting

[Creeperpark]

Its going on a week since I planted and no need for watering until today The only water I have given was on the first day and re-weighed on the 2[SUP]nd[/SUP] day and only added 10 ml of water. The water weight can go down as low as 20% in the cup before watering. Now using this method, you and keep discharge to zero and keep all the nutrients available for the plants for a long time. I’ve had plants live in cups for over 30 days without nutrient deficiency.

I run my temps at 80 to 82F or 26.6 to 67.7C and my humidity between 40 and 50. When the sprouts are up, I put a fan on them with a very gentle light breeze so they can start exchanging gases and transpiring moisture. I put duct tape over my fan, as you can see above, to minimize the wind velocity. As the sprout gets older, I slowly remove the tape increasing the air flow. This also gives the sprouts stronger stems, and keep's gnats from landing on my sprouts. Yellow stickies with every seed germination in every grow is a must. You check the stickies daily and you can see bugs before they’re a problem.

 

[Creeperpark]

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Day 8, the first watering day, and here’s how I do it. Weigh the cup and subtract Dry weight from the Wet weight. “[/FONT]Cup example[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]” [/FONT]dry “178[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif] grams and [/FONT]wet 281 grams. [FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Eight days later cup [/FONT]only weighed 187[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif] so 187 minus 178 = 9 grams of water weight left in the cup. With 9 grams of water weight left in the cup, its time to water. These cups will not be over-watered using this method. [/FONT]If I would have guessed, and watered, these cups before 8 days, I would have over-watered, and hurt the spouts delicate root system.

Put the cup on the scale, and set the scale, to 20 grams below the wet weight, and take a turkey baster, and slowly, add enough water to bring the weight up to 20% below Wet weight. Never let the water weight go back to the original dry weight. Now that its watered, I can check back in a few days and check the weight. As the sprouts turn into seedlings and the roots fill the cup you will need to add water more often. No need to allow any runoff using this method since its organic. I oxygenate my water with the turkey baster, by blasting 4 blasts of air in the water before watering. ​

I'm using a 4 ft. 4 bulb, T8 florescent shop light for 20 cups, and are the best for seed sprouting.​

 

[Creeperpark]

Watering is so easy just set the scale for 20 gs under max weight, take the turkey baster and add water until the beam balances.

 

[Creeperpark]

Here's something to think about! Mold can hide under the epidermis of the leaf, or stem, and can lie dormant, for a long time, without being seen. The mold spores look for a dark, cool place where air does not circulate well, then the spore sinks its little feet, called "hyphae," into the spaces that make up the surface of leaf. When using clones you are most likely transporting cuttings that have these hyphae attached under the epidermis. Every clone from a infected plant will have hyphae attached to it, and infect any other plants it can call a good host. Before the hyphae become mycelium and start growing on the tissue, it will wait for the just right conditions. "Boom, mold problem" . I don't use anything that is cloned ever! I only grow from seed every time for this reason!

 

[Creeperpark]

Sure fire clones doesn’t exist yet. ​

Clones exhibit heritable genetic variation for resistance to a variety of plant diseases caused by fungi, bacteria, oomycetes or viruses. The only sure-fire way to know you have a disease-free clone, is if it was cloned using a vitro method. That will probably not happen anytime soon because of the time it takes. Only tissue culture will produce sure-fire disease-free plants. I’m not even going to talk about spider mite eggs on clones. An alternative is to only grow plants from good seed.

 

[Creeperpark]

Plants only have one of two types of roots, "taproots or fibrous roots". When planting out-doors in the Wilderness over many years, I found that plants grown from seed had a nice taproot and clones didn't. Seed plants have a tap root and will dig down deep in the soil looking for water and nutrients and take care of itself. Cloned plants will only produce fibrous plant roots, and dry up before flowering and fail. I recommend only use seeded plants if your growing outdoors.

 

[flylowgethigh]

I got 6 / 6 this last run by making sure the fines were what was on top, so the seed heads didn't have to fight their way up. Not having a killer red mite infestation helped also.

 

[Creeperpark]

Plants grown from seeds have the ability to adapt to changes in their environment, and so does each future generation of the plant. This adaptability helps the lineage of the plant be strong enough to grow in different environmental conditions. A cloned plant is exactly the same genetically as its parent and can’t change its own genetics to adapt to a changing environment. You can stick a seed in most any mix and it I will adapt. However a clone has only its single parent adaptability and needs the same media for success.

 

[Creeperpark]

I don't work or have any affiliation with any seed company's or test grow for any company's. I don't know any seed breeders or have any association of any kind, with any breeders. I get my seeds the same way most everybody else does (buy them). This thread is based on growing experience from the early 70s till now. Its almost over for me.

 

[Creeperpark]

Here's 4 Hashberrys
Fill the cup with any good soil and weigh the cup dry. Write the dry weight on the cup and then water the cups thoroughly to saturation. Use a pencil to make a hole and plant the seed. I only use pure rain water.

After all excess is drained off, weigh the cup again wet, and write the wet weight next to the dry weight.
Put in a dark warm place for 48 hrs and check them for any evaporation. Keep the Max water weight for the first 48 hrs., by adding 1 ml of water for every gram lost.. If you lose 10 grams of water in 24 hrs., add it back by adding 10 ml to maintain max water weight.

After 48 hrs, cut the water, and put them under the lights on a 12/12 cycle sprouted or not.
When you see a sprout put a gentle breeze, just enough to move a little string so they can exchange gases..
Don’t water until you get down to 20% water in the cup. Then add just enough water to fill to 80% water weight. That’s it. .
The runoff is over 2500 ppm or 3.2 ec., on these cups but the seeds will adapt.

 

[Creeperpark]

Next morning I checked the weight and lost a lot of water last night. In order to keep the max weight for the 1st 48 hrs I added water.

 

[Switcher56]

Did "my" tried and true. 1/2 tails. 1 day soak, 2 to germ. I expect their little heads to poke on Wed (std). To me that is the litmus test.

 

[Creeperpark]

After 48 hrs., I put the 4 Hashberrys under a light, even without sprouts because the warm temps will make the seed sprout. They will sprout, because they always do, I've only had 2 misses in 10 years using this method.!

 

[Creeperpark]

Here are the results of the first and second gemmation using this method. I planted 10 safari mix seeds, I have 9 cups but 2 plants in one. The blue cups are Ganesh seeds and they are very tiny seed and small plants.

 

[Switcher56]

After 48 hrs., I put the 4 Hashberrys under a light, even without sprouts because the warm temps will make the seed sprout. They will sprout, because they always do, I've only had 2 misses in 10 years using this method.!

Don't get me wrong I totally support what you are doing and have bookmarked this thread. Spending money on "premium beans" I can't say I blame you. I simply haven't found the necessity to do that yet

 

[Creeperpark]

This thread is for one that's interested in learning how to grow seedlings without lag time. Its not for pros. like you Switcher56. Its to help anyone germinate their seeds without over or under-watering their tiny deliquiate plants. I noticed a lot of people over water their plants with kindness, not knowing they're cutting the oxygen off from the roots. Gnats, fungus, slow growth, plus the waste of time, energy and money. This method stops over watering and the seedlings get a super start in life as you will see. Its so easy its ridiculous.

 

[Switcher56]

This thread is for one that's interested in learning how to grow seedlings without lag time. Its not for pros. like you Switcher56. Its to help anyone germinate their seeds without over or under-watering their tiny deliquiate plants. I noticed a lot of people over water their plants with kindness, not knowing they're cutting the oxygen off from the roots. Gnats, fungus, slow growth, plus the waste of time, energy and money. This method stops over watering and the seedlings get a super start in life as you will see. Its so easy its ridiculous.

Sorry if I mislead you good buddy. I am far from a pro, but I will openly admit I did my research prior to popping the 1st bean. Does this sound familiar "just pop my seeds now what"? One thing I did do this time around was to simply allow the "weight" of the medium to fill the pot (although I understand a soft touch (e.g don't ram them in LOL)).

I do agree that most issues come from over watering, we kill them with love.

 

[Creeperpark]

The 4 Hashberry's germatinated without any problems. The whole point of this thread, is to avoid over, or underwatering sprouts. In the mean time anyone can learn water managment using wet to dry cycles, that are so importaint. If you use this method you will succeed without failure. I hope it helps someone else, like it's helped me. Thanks for checking out this thread.

 

[Creeperpark]

Here's a little update. I up-potted the S mix into one-gallon containers but keeping the Ganesh in cups. I always use the same soil for the first transplant for speed growth.

 

[Creeperpark]

When the dixie cups have to be watered every day, it's time to transplant them into a bigger container. I'm using the same soil I sprouted them in for the fastest growth. I will convert the females into hydro before flowering.