10 seeds, 8 buckets - WHO DIES? (pics)

[LiquidMagik]

Ok, so I put the seeds in Rapid Rooters on Tuesday. All have popped now. Some are obviously growing "not-straight". I know the stems/roots are pretty weak in this stage, so I haven't tried any corrective measures (tying stems to wooden sticks) yet. Should I? I've also had this fear ever since I started that I had the rooters too wet when I put the seeds in. The roots look pretty fuzzy in some places, is this normal? Another potential abnormality, might not have put the seeds far enough down in the rooter, as some have a decent amount of root coming up above the soil level. Pretty much just asking some opinions on what I should do. Just leave the stems alone and they'll start growing straight eventually?

Here's start to finish what I've done so far...

Monday - soak RR's in distilled water
Tuesday- get excess moisture out of RR. Plant seeds point down in RR's. Humidity dome on top of propogation tray. Temps around 80-84 degrees.
Wednsday- add water so that water in bottom of tray is just level with bottom of tray holding RR's.
Thursday- same as Wednesday.

Since the start (Tuesday), I've had a 42 watt Tek flourescent light shining on them 24/7. Yesterday I opened the vents partially on the dome to start dropping humidity/temperature. Temps right now are around 80, but trying to get down to 75-78. Am I doing something wrong? Sorry, new grow jitters still upon me...

Also, you can enlarge pics to get a better view for the "selection" process...

Thanks everyone!

LiquidMagik Reviewed by LiquidMagik on 10-27-2006. 10 seeds, 8 buckets - WHO DIES? (pics) Ok, so I put the seeds in Rapid Rooters on Tuesday. All have popped now. Some are obviously growing "not-straight". I know the stems/roots are pretty weak in this stage, so I haven't tried any corrective measures (tying stems to wooden sticks) yet. Should I? I've also had this fear ever since I started that I had the rooters too wet when I put the seeds in. The roots look pretty fuzzy in some places, is this normal? Another potential abnormality, might not have put the seeds far enough down in Rating: 5

[Abattoir Dream]

no offence but i get better results germinating with dirt... lol

[Anathema2121]

You don't need water in that bottom tray. Thats just where the roots grow down through. You are keeping them too wet IMO. That fuzz on the roots might be mold, and I'm not sure but they might be damping off or have pyrethium wilt or something. I'd kill all 10 and start again.

[LiquidMagik]

So there's little to no chance of survival for these?

[Weedhound]

I absolutely would not give up on them yet. I f you are overwatering stop. The cubes should be damp to the touch not wet. Stop taking photos of those poor little things, keep the rooters DAMP, not soaking and given them a few days to pop their first leaves then rejudge. PS--I did the same thing, planted ten, had 8 buckets, tossed 2 smaller seedlings then lost two from the pots later. Keep the extras for as long as you can. I find with the RR's I only have to water every other day or so unless they are on a heating pad or something. Pour off any excess water left in the bottom of the tray. They look far enough in their little holes to me to be fine. Good luck

[LiquidMagik]

See the problem is I think I oversoaked to begin with...I heard about all these people soaking RW for a day prior to use, and figured the same would follow with the RR's. So I filled my tray so that water came up to 3/4 of the total height of the rapid rooter, and let them sit in that for probably 18 hours. Took them out, shook them off a little, and planted seeds. That was Tuesday. Since then I've had a heating pad underneath the propagation tray turned to medium (had my temps around 82-85 for germ). I'm really starting to see they were probably too wet to begin with, as I haven't had to water the RR's since then - and they are still moist. Maybe that was from leaving a small level of water in the tray the whole time? Anyway, I have since dumped the water from that tray, and ordered new beans from Dr. Chronic about an hour ago in case these do fail. I'll let them go for a week yet, and if they still look like crap, I'll start over. Hate to give up on these Somango beans though. I did order some AK48 and White Rhino from Nirvana, so maybe those will be more forgiving strains for a beginner. Thanks Weedhound!

[Weedhound]

Personally I don't think they look that bad although they could still croak. It does sound like overwatering is your problem--any excess water in the tray will wick up into the cubes. The RR cubes do not need to be presoaked like rockwool so you are probably right that they started that way. The fact they popped anyway is great and says give us a chance!!

[LiquidMagik]

Update: I dumped out the standing water in the tray, and tried to dry them off all Friday. Finally Saturday morning they had started to get dry, so at the advice of a friend, mixed 6ml/gal Liquid Karma into distilled water, and started wetting the RR's with that. Plants started looking healthier...

Sunday: Decided to put the plants in the bubblers, using the Lucas formula (at 25% strength for now), 5 ml/gallon each of Hygrozyme, Liquid Karma, and Cal Mag. I have my 400 watt MH positioned about 24" from the buckets. 6 plants are looking very healthy, 1 looking healthy, and one that looks like its making a turn for the better. When I pulled the RR's out of the tray, 4 had developed roots through the bottom and sides of the RR, 3 had developed roots out of the bottom of the RR (tap root?), and one hadn't shown any root growth through the RR (but I'm hoping!).

[Weedhound]

They don't call them weeds for nothing! I won't even go into some of my adventures with trying to make these things grow....good luck

[the image reaper]

I germinate in loose soil ... those Jiffy-pot type thingies are a disaster for me ... they wet/dry too fast to keep up with ... too wet=pythium wilt, too dry=dead ... use a plain, cheap potting soil (the good ones usually are too 'hot', too-rich nutrients for seedlings), and I add a bit of washed coarse sand ... good drainage, and avoid the over-watering (I'm bad about that) ... :smokin: