I’m of the impression that rapid rooter aren’t good for seedlings.
I think its problem is that it is very compacted. This is not a problem for the root. And if you start your seed directly in the rooter it isn’t a problem either because you can push it down hard.
But you can’t do that with a 1cm taproot, so the seed kind of loosly sits in the plug.
what happens now is the root starts pushing down… always as they have a sense for the center of gravity and try to grow there. for that endeavour the root needs the earth on top of the seed to push against, and have the strength to push and grow downwards.
what happens in the rapid rooters is that the Earth downwards is much harder than the earth upwards, and the root keeps growing but can’t penetrate the rooter and pushes herself out.
The more uniform the medium around the seed… the better.
Some people swear by them, but we see a lot of instances where (newer) users of them encounter problems with damping off. I always start my seedlings in a Solo cup with Happy Frog in it and have had great success. The rapid rooters just retain too much moisture for cannabis, imho. If you want to use them, then you need to understand what you are doing.
I am one of those people who swear by them. I have been using them for at least five years and never lost a plant but… I put the seed in a soon as I see a root so that I can get it down in there without worrying about breaking the root and I don’t directly water the rapid rooter after the seed goes in
Hinestly, if I grew in soil I don’t know if there would be much of a advantage. When I did grow in soil I have done it both ways and don’t think one way was easier than the other.
I am a hydro guy now so once they pop out of the rapid rooter I put them directly into my clay pellets then just make sure the pellets are wet around the rapid rooter. When it used them in soil I was growing auto’s so they went directly into 3 gal. Fabric pots so that I didn’t have to transplant. The rapid rooters will turn a lighter color brown (similar to peat moss) if they start drying out completely so if that starts to happen give them a little bit of water until the roots have developed in the soil
I have used them with 99% success. I soak the seeds in water til the tail pops and then I pop them in and within 3 days they pop up. I’ve done a seed directly into without soaking and it worked.
I believe that soaking speeds up the whole process maybe by a week.
I use them. I mix up distilled water with rooting solution (GH’s) dip them squeeze them out a little put the seed in it (I’ve soaked & not soaked them) tear off a bit from the bottom of the rooter & cover seed with it, haven’t (knock on wood) had a failure yet. I’m sure I will but so far so good.
I’m doing my first grow and used rapid rooters and it seemed to work out pretty well for me. a week and a half in from them sprouting and getting light.
I have lost a lot of seeds, to soil starts, and I have never lost one, to rapid root plugs. I swear by them, now, for seeds and cloning… They are great…
