Going over Mistakes in Germination & Starting

I have grown Northern Lights and AK-47 before with few problems. Trying Sour Diesel now. Five seeds and I’ve ended up with one plant that looks like it will make it.

I soaked the seeds. After a couple of days, 1 had a nice fat tail, 2 had decent tails, and the last 2 had cracked but showed only tiny tail tips. I planted all five anyway. Mistake #1 might have been planting the last ones too late. They never came up at all. Mistake #2 might have been using tweezers to carefully pluck the seeds out of the water and drop into the grow medium. Maybe carefully wasn’t careful enough?

The first 2 seeds came up just fine. I moved them into small pots on my greenhouse floor under grow lights. Two of the plants looked okay for a few days to a week. The 3 seed germinated later and joined the other 2 in a small pot under the lights. The first plant grew strongly; the other two looked a bit sickly. Mistake #3 was probably that I didn’t realize that the heat wasn’t on in the greenhouse, meaning that the radiant concrete floor didn’t heat up and my plants were probably too cold.

Just to be on the safe side, though I did turn the heat on in the greenhouse, I moved everything indoors, along with the grow lights. The 2 weaker seedlings continued to shrivel and die; the strong one still looks good. (The last 2 seeds continued to not come up at all, so I figure they definitely won’t.) Did I make a mistake moving the operation indoors? I did that last time I grew, but only once the plants were fairly large. And I only moved them because it was super cold out, so even the hot floor of the greenhouse couldn’t keep out the cold.

In the past I’ve had some seeds replaced–one of the things that makes ILGM so great a site. This time I didn’t complain, because I’m guessing the problems lay with me, not the seeds. So I’m looking for some more experienced thoughts on what I might have done wrong so I don’t do those things again.

This is usually a little too long to soak. 12-24 hours is usually long enough to soak. Medicine cup, with distilled water and 3 or 4 drops of peroxide. I go 18 hours max, then to a paper towel on a plate, fold once, then dump water it soaked in on paper towel. Keep it moist, warm and dark the whole time. After another 18 hours max, they go in the dirt. 36 hour max germ time here, 100% success. That is my experience with this method and it’s pretty common here.

As for not growing after planting…

Fill this out best ya can

Strain; Type, Bag Seed, Or Na

Soil/Hydroponic/Coco?
Brand:
System Type:

Ph going in/coming out?

PPM’S/EC?

Indoor Or Outdoor?

Light System, Size?

Nutrients added?
If so, brand:

Temps; Day, Night:

Humidity; Day, Night:

Ventilation System; Yes, No, Size

Ac, Humidifier, De-humidifier?

Co2; Yes, No

Any extra info, and clear well lit pics helps!!

Good luck and happy growing!!!

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What kind of medium are you using?
If you fill out what Borderryan posted, it would be most helpful.

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Strain; Type, Bag Seed, Or Na
– Sour Diesel Autoflower

Soil/Hydroponic/Coco?
– Soil
Brand:
–Coast of Maine Organic Potting Soil
System Type:
–I don’t even know what that means!

Ph going in/coming out?
–Didn’t test

PPM’S/EC?
–Not sure what this means. If it refers to nutrients, I’ve never use anything extra but our well water.

Indoor Or Outdoor?
–Indoor. Small greenhouse attached to house.

Light System, Size?
–Light stand with two 2’ full-spectrum T5 fluorescent grow lights.

Nutrients added?
–None
If so, brand:

Temps; Day, Night:
–Good question. It’s been cloudy a lot, so mostly only in the 60s in the greenhouse. Colder at night. Not sure about the actual nighttime temps, but my other greenhouse plants (cucumber, radishes, tomato seedling, large citrus tree) are all not showing signs of being too cold.

Humidity; Day, Night:
–Not sure. Soil is moist, but air has probably been a bit on the dry side.

Ventilation System; Yes, No, Size
–The greenhouse has a vent in the ceiling that is stuck open. We need to close it and stuff in the winter insulation that we usually put there.

Ac, Humidifier, De-humidifier?
–No.

Co2; Yes, No
–???

Best I can do. All I can say is I’ve done 3 plantings before this, all the same way and they all worked out for the most part.

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