@Angel1 , This thread is a great example of how this forum works.
It may seem some of the info conflicts, but in reality you have various growers posting their experience with similar problems. Most of us, myself included, killed off a bunch of seeds before we figured out what to do, and more importantly, what not to do. And at the price of seeds its quite distressing to kill em. I can plant and grow tomatoes with great success, but modern cannabis is a bit of a unicorn. I encourage you to keep interacting with us. I cant tell you how many members came here upset or baffled and finally figured this out and are now giving back helping others. Sometimes we get a little over exuberant, but we mean well. We really want you to be successful.
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Well said @Spiney_norman
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Nothing wrong with any of Fox Farm soils for seedling. I use a lot of Ocean Forrest from popped seeds to harvest. Have never burned a seedling like some claim. Number one reason for seedling failure is over watering. Number two not enough light with light to far away from seedlings. Here is a Ocean Forrest start.
Day 1:
Day 7:
Day 14 and transplant day:
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Hi, Thanks for your advice.
Can you please tell me how many inches you have your light above your pots on day 1, day 7 and day 14?
I see the syringe - do you measure how much water you give each plant?
How much water is that (another person recommended a shot glass of water)?
And how often do you water your plants during the first week and so on?
Thanks!
ok mr. blastfact What? I have had them burn frigging lights high enough to not burn them thimble of water. Yet the die. Peace Out dudu.
I don’t do things like most. I have two tents. Each tent has a main set of lights and a seedling early veg light that I store in the tent. My seedling early veg light is a HGL 100 V2 4000k. It’s light spectrum is 4000k so it’s on the blue side of the horticultural lighting spectrum. It’s a 95 watt light that I can only adjust height, no dimmer. It’s specialty is keeping plants short and developing root mass. So my light heights are completely backwards of what others have to do with full spectrum lights. While most go from low to high light heights. I go from high to low light height. This light does not induce stretch so day one seedlings lights are 22"-24" above the pots. Day 7 20"-22". Day14-21 days 18"-20". I never go more than 21 days before transplant into there permeant grow pots. I also run the light 24 hours during the first two to three weeks be them photo or auto plants or till the leaves roll up the very edge of the leaves, I call saw toothing indicating they have had enough light and they then go on 18/6 if photos and 20/4 if autos.
Watering and setup are all one item for me. I use a lot of Fox Farm Ocean Forrest soil. Some state it’s two hot / nutrient rich for seedlings. Never had a issue with it. When I go to float my seeds for germination I make up my seedling solo cups and permeant grow pots and water them in with my water ph’ed where I want it to get the soil working. If I’m going to germinate seeds in soil I water in the pots and put the seeds right into the solo cups. I use clear solo cups with four holes in there bottoms buried in the main pots with the same soil. The clear solo cups allow me to see the moisture and root development in the cups and also look at the moisture content in the main pots when I’m checking moisture and root growth in the solo cups. This also allows the moisture level to equalize between the solo cups and main pots which helps massively at transplant time. No shock, fuss or mussing about. I do use a 2 oz. syringe for watering the seedlings. I generally have a quart jar of water I keep in the tent ph’ed to what I want and keep the syringe full so all water is at tent temp. I generally water 1 oz. per plant every other day. By the time I transplant I’m at 2 oz. per plant every other day.
This is what my 2x4 looks like when it’s in seedling early veg mode. Well, other than the fact I have two of the big lights bolted together now. I temporally hang the small light from the bigger one on 1/4-20 I-bolts I have installed in the large light.
I have a new grow ready to go right now. Started floating the seeds last night after I made up my pots. Except this is going to be a organic dry amendments and worm casting grow in coco. That will make many hardcore coco grows beat keys and flail arms. Other than grow media and amendments it’s the same system.
Good Luck!
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Was starting to think I was alone on this.
Should chec out Strawberry fields for flowering. I stack my pot 1/3 SF and 2/3 OF. I uave a single auto in a 5 gal Im trying out bottom 1/3 SF middle 1/3 combo 50/50 SF and OF and top 1/3 OF all cut with 25% perlite.
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This kind of interaction isnt ok here on this forum. You are welcome to disagree with @Blastfact name calling and confrontation not permitted. FYI, @Blastfact is correct in his statement. 19 months straight and only had one sedling I thought I burned, turned out to be a mutie. Most new growers overwater and it kills the seedling. Just because you had an issue does not a too hot soil make. It is sound advice, also, to recommend a less nutritional soil for seedlings, especially for new growers.
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Thanks for looking out @Docnraq
@Bud_Wizer please watch the attitude. No need to address people in that manner when they are sharing what works for them. If it doesn’t work for you fine, state it in a polite manner and move on
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Your not alone used OF for many grows never had a seedling burn
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IMO weed is now harder to grow than ever. While it looks, smells, smokes, taste better than ever. It can be a pain in the butt now more than ever. Not to mention it’s not near as stony as it once was as descriptions would have you think otherwise. Why all the concentrates? The hardware even if it’s god awful cheap ultra china junk is better than just about anything we had in the old days. I grew my first plants when I was in the 5th grade, outdoor grow, now 61, so I’ve seen a thing or two in my years. One thing I’ve learned over the years is the problem is rarely what you think it is. Lets take your issue. We have a hot soil, we are watering correctly, doing everything we can to manage lighting. Not saying this is your problem, but whats the PH of the water your using? This is what we hear a lot. There using distilled water. The new grower read somewhere distilled water is good with a ph of 7.0-7.2 and in soil/organic grows one does not have to ph there water. There is in some circumstance truth to that idea. Very little to no truth to it when ph is 8.0 or higher. But with distilled water the gotcha is calcium, iron, sulfur and other needed basic minerals are stripped when water is distilled. Not to the levels of RO or completely gone like RO/DI water. If you have ever distilled water when your done it’s normal to see some white, brown and yellow dust in the bottom of the pan if distilled properly. So there lies the problem. If the ph is wrong the plant at any stage of life wont feed right. If the ph is right we don’t have the minerals to feed it at a simple level be it soil watering or foliar watering/feeding.
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@Angel1 I use this method I learned from @OGIncognito. I think I had four or five ceilings that just would not grow I was killing them. I use Fox farm soil ocean Forest. I stick them in water till the little tap Root is exposed and then I planted about a quarter inch underneath the soil and I spray maybe five to seven squirts with a spray bottle and I put a cover on top of it a clear Solo cup or a cut water bottle anything will work. And twice a day I go down there and I spray the dome and that’s it once they sprout. At the same time when they sprout I stick them under a 150 watt metal halide light. And I just my ppfd to be at about a hundred. I picked up this meter off Amazon for 60 bucks links to your phone. Best $60 I spent. Or the next 14 days I keep the domes on them I spray the domes every once in awhile I might spray the soil if it looks really really dry but for the most part I’m just creating a humidity dome. In this picture is my first set that I did it with and I will probably never stray from this technique. This is just an example of how I do it which I learned from someone on here there are many ways to do it. This one works for me.
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@Angel1 only before I forget about 2 or 3 times a day I take the tops off and just let him get some fresh air. I leave the domes on until day 14 or they start touching the edge of the domes one or the other
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@Spiney_norman that was me to a T. First 5 seedlings killed by me. Left me SMH there goes $50 down the drain. But you’re absolutely right this forum will educate a person and now I have four seedlins I’m about ready to transplant today or tomorrow and the attitude I had when I came on here towards growing versus now is changed 180°. Stick with it @Angel1 and use this forum as a tool in your arsenal. Good luck
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Thanks for your help; this is what I was hoping for - some step by step guidelines; also was wondering about the domes, how long to leave them on, etc. so that’s great info. Thanks!
By the time she spreads out and is touching the sides of the dome thats about time to let her free of dome as by that time she has had time to develop some roots now and is well on her way.
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If you can afford a 20 spot, grab a super sprouter. It comes with a T5 light and you can pick up a heat mat.
I use nothing but FF products. At least currently. Happy, Ocean and Coco Loco and have yet to have a single seed fail. I do like Blast and when I pop my seed in the water with a touch of Perox 3%, I make my seedling cup of soil and add my ph’d water til I see just a few drop come out the bottom. This cup goes into my super sprouter while I am waiting for the seed to pop. It is not necessary but my 2nd step is after she pops, I put her in a paper towel and moisten it with the water she popped in and place that in a ziploc and blow hot breath into the bag til it looks like a air pillow and back in the cupboard for another 12 hours. I like a nice long tail, 1-1/2" long. Once she has that, I put her in the cup in the dome. I use my index finger up to the first knuckle, bout 1/2" deep ish and place some light soil over her. This is the hard part for some folks, I do not water her the whole time she is in the dome!!! 2 weeks she will be in there and I maintain 80% humidity and 80ºF for those 2 weeks. The last week she is in there, I open the vents for an hour a day and slowly start dropping the humidity to harden her off for tranfer to the tent.
Birthday pick, 24 hours later and the 2 week mark where she was placed into the tent and transplanted to her 2nd pot. I can say one thing, The more you mess with them at this stage, the more problems you will have, We cannot do anything for them but enviro. She has to grow that tap root, we cannot do that for her. If you are a soil grower, I would throw my hat in the ring to assist in getting a seed to grow past 2 weeks.
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I see I am in the wrong post . In aother forum there are pages about people being burned with FF. S
I had the exact same issue !!! Never seen it before and I’m not a newbie!