2nd grow, what am I doing wrong?

[Rusty Trichome]

Im working on my first indoor grow, and Im having trouble getting my seeds to emerge from my soil. Im using bagseed from a friend.

The first cycle I tried, I put 8 seeds in a cup of water to pop, and 2 did so. I'm basically going by stinkyattic's noob guide. I placed them in seedling trays in a mixture of 2 parts Manure and Hummus, and one part Perlite. Placing the taproot down, I put them under ~1/4 inch of soil. I put them under a 24w 6000k envirolite and kept the light on at all times. I kept the soil wet, watering them once a day. After a week, nothing had sprouted.

My second and current cycle, I did the same process, only I had 4 seeds pop, and now, after 5 days, none of them have sprouted yet.

Anyone know what I may be doing wrong?

A) Perhaps keeping soil too wet - You can drown seedlings.

B) Perhaps too much nitrogen. Manure will burn seeds/seedlings.

C) Planting seed too deep, or packing soil too tightly over seed will severerly lenghten time it takes to pop-thru. I personally only cover the seed with about 1/8" of soil, lightly packed. (if seed is 1/4", cover with 1/4" of soil. If seed is 1/8", cover with 1/8" of soil...)

D) Sometimes the seed cover is too hard for embryo to crack-thru. Sometimes I use very fine sandpaper, and lightly scrape the 'ridge' along length of seed, (from pointy end, to fat end)before soaking a few days between damp paper towels, inside a ziplock baggie, kept in a warm, dark place. Adding gibrellic acid (MegaGro) during this process also helps with stubborn seeds, but some folks around here freak-out if GA is mentioned, so please don't tell anyone, nor spray your females with the stuff.

HTH...Rusty

Rusty Trichome Reviewed by Rusty Trichome on 10-23-2007. 2nd grow, what am I doing wrong? Im working on my first indoor grow, and Im having trouble getting my seeds to emerge from my soil. Im using bagseed from a friend. The first cycle I tried, I put 8 seeds in a cup of water to pop, and 2 did so. I'm basically going by stinkyattic's noob guide. I placed them in seedling trays in a mixture of 2 parts Manure and Hummus, and one part Perlite. Placing the taproot down, I put them under ~1/4 inch of soil. I put them under a 24w 6000k envirolite and kept the light on at all Rating: 5