Germinated Seeds

Hello All,

I am new to growing, done lots of reading, and have built a small grow cabinet. The cabinet itself is up to par, ventilation, interior painted white, 400W HPS light system and the rest. My soil is the recommended amount of sterilized soil, sand, castings, fertilizer and pearlite. Temp ranges from 70 to 90. Seems I have the set-up for some nice plants but I cannot get past germination stage. Bought 10 seeds of a known strain online which came with 10 free. I have no problem germinating seeds but they die once transplanted into 16 ounce cup. I have tried numerous techniques, planted deep, not so deep, let germinate an extra day, slightly watered, over watered and others but NOT ONE has lived. I am germinating my last 4 of the 20 and need to get this figured out. Any insight would be much appreciated.

 

What is in your soil? I had similar problems when I started to mess around making my own soil mixes. They ended up being waaaaay to acidic because I had peat moss in there, but didn't add any dolomite lime in to bring the pH back up. I would check the pH of the soil. Also, seedlings don't need a lot of food to eat. IDK is that soil you're talking about is full strength, but that may also be the problem.

Another thing: are you germing them under the 400?

Good luck n stay safe :spliff:

 

I germinated in the window and then moved to cups in cabinet. Soil is 60% stero soil, 15 pearlite, 10 bldg sand, 10 work castings, 5 fert N12 P6 K6.

 

Only advice i would have is to get rid of the sand and in its place throw in some dolomite lime. You could also use a bit more perlite into the mix, just to make sure you have sufficient drainage.

If your pots aren't draining properly and or pooling water at the bottom every time you water, your soil could be more like a muddy sludge. Add that with the sand and when it dries, you damn near have yourself a "brick" of soil. This may be the problem. But of course, that's based on your pots not draining properly.

Like i said tho, id get rid of the sand and put some dolomite lime in its place.

 

germinating seedlings are delicate and i'm wondering why your set-up requires you to touch them at this stage. i'd lay them on top of your soil and cover lightly with coarse sand or perlite. the air spaces keep fungus at bay and there's plenty of moisture below the seed to either germinate them or continue growing. the less you touch a seedling at this stage the better off they'll be.

 

thanks for the advice all. I discovered my soil had too many nutrients. I used some generic soil and the sprouts took. Now that I've got the germination part, moving onto having healthy seedlings. Wish me luck!

 

good luck hyperion.

 

I am also a first time grower and I had trouble germinating at first also. I tried germinating in a wet towel and in a cup of water at first. I wasn't able to achieve germination that way so I just tried it the old fashion way. I germinated in reddi rooter cubes. I just dropped the seeds in and covered them over, put them into a humidity box, kept them under florescents with temp @ 75 deg and in a few days I had sprouts popping up. After a week in the cubes I tranfered them to pots with Fox Farm soil and watered them real good and they are doing great so far. I had an over watering issue before transplant but I just let them dry out real good and they came right back.

 

Congrats! Great to see more people giving it a go!