Hey! Sorry for the vague post initially, at work and need to get some answers, so my apologies, quick back story, started a grow, 2 Northern Lights autos, so far so good, started a few more seeds, about 4 more so far, and all but 1 have seemingly failed similarly… and I’m at a loss… this time I’m finally reaching out… germinated at the same time as another strain, but the moment they have been popping out of the soil they are dying… and I can’t figure out whats going on. To keep it short ill post the picture and see if any of you gurus have an idea from that.
Basic info, Bubba Kush fem from Seedsman
Soil is a light mix of Mother Earth performance soil and an organic seeding medium that looks like cocoa and some other lighter material, ill get the exact name later.
2x2 tent, cheap grow light, just for seed starting,
Heat mat, humidity about 72% temps around 75-85°f
Solo cups, with plastic bag over the top to increase humidity within.
Floated, and paper towel method to start.
Popped the surface after about a week, a White Widow was planted same time and same methods, took 3 days to pop the surface.
Then quickly stretched out and we are like a week after that, its about 3.5in tall or so, but this one is looking similar to the previous few I tried to start. And no clue whats going on.
Again, I know there’s alot of variables, and very little info, but any help would be great!
The seedling in the pic looks fine seed skin will fall off. My concern is the medium it seems to be really coarse but possibly soggy where the plant is. If it is staying to wet the plant drowns but if coarse all the way down it could be to airy and drying up the root. I realize I’m saying two things about one pic but I just can’t tell unless I can touch it, so you have to touch it and decide if either of my guesses are possible
So you have successfully germinated two northern lights on your first attempt and had more successful germinations of at least another strain, white widow. That one broke ground in three days. That’s a reasonable amount of time.
Then you have the bubba kush all from the same batch / order? They take a week to break ground and look like that? I’d be looking at the seed quality. Maybe you got a bad batch. I got two lemon haze freebies one time. One never broke the shell. The other took forever to break ground, at least a week, and was a feeble turd that died within days. So bad “batches” can happen in my experience.
It would help to know the organic seed soil and see an overall pic.
Yeah, that’s what I’m starting to think, also the medium is mostly peat, ill add the picture of the medium. I did however put some of the mother earth soil under the seedling medium so the root would reach some enriched soil once it matures some, probably a bad idea. I also have an updated photo of the seedling, I think its gone.
Also, any soil amendments besides the mother earth soils(terracraft and performance mix) includes the green sunshine company 2 part Earth Dust. But I only put thay in the bottom of the cup and topped the upper 3/4 with the seedling stuff, my previous 2 plants are sitting in just the mother earth mix plus mother earth acid drop, soil ph was 7.5, so the acid drop is meant to lower that. Perhaps some of the nutes leeched up through the moss mix and burnt the root? Idk
I’ve added the pictures of the medium, it’s basically just moss mix.
Thats what I’m kind of hoping, all 3 of my bubba kush seeds so far have done this, and 2 critical purple seeds have done the same thing. I was worried about watering also, the dark I think is just some soil that was on top, but I moistened the medium, and then left it alone. I don’t usually water until I feel that cup pretty dry, and with 3/4 moss mix its a light weight cup for sure, and then I only put a little in near the side of the cup to get the roots to reach.
That’s a lot of moss… that’s what African Violet soil is… at first the moss will not hold water that’s why you soak it for about a day before planting. To keep it feeling moist you have to add a lot of water… that may be your problem but I would wait to hear the experts…
Hmm I felt better about my opinion when I thought it was just the bubba that did that on ya. Knowing the crit. Purp. Did the same thing is making me feel less confident in what I said previously. May still be looking for the culprit here. Would be pretty unlikely to have two different cultivars fail in the same way coincidentally.
what about the PH?
from what i heard peatmoss is pretty acid…
This is also true, and as it breaks down, it can cause the ph to swing accordingly.
This mix is likely similar to promix. Ph 5.8-6.0.
Yeah, thats what I had done, I moistened the medium when I was soaking the seeds, then when I set the tapped seed in it, same as the WW, and then did a light mist on it after covering it, then left it alone. Medium is going well for the WW…
I’m sure it may be, but these plants prefer things slightly more on the acidic side, plus, my water is far from acidic, so it’ll easily balance itself out. My runoff is usually 6.5-6.8 even with ph balanced water, I try to stay between 5.5 and 6.5 with my water… but from tap, its 8 easily, with between 150 and 225 ppm… so definitely can’t be used in my humidifier without dust all over the place… like bad bad.
Sorry for my lack of response, the system wouldn’t allow me to thanks to being so new to the forum. Thanks for all the info. I’m making another go at starting some lemon autos, if they fail similarly, I’m going to completely change all my medium and start from complete scratch. I’m hoping that the BK and CP just were garbage seeds… even my two successful plants currently are VERY different, same plant, same source, same germination and potting and general care, while one got what I’m assuming is severely root locked and stunted for nearly 5 weeks, they looked like they were planted months apart… its starting to catch up now, but that mother earth soil compacted pretty bad and I had to break things up, ive done that, and do that regularly the day or two after watering with both plants now.
As for an update, no positive change, I decided to inspect the taproot, still seems viable(white and clean), so I’m leaving it, and hoping for the best. Though I think it’ll end up like the other few. I’ve added a pic of my setup for the seedling start tent. 2x2 Spider Farmer, small heater(temps stay upper 70s-mid80s and humidity 55-65rh(should I increase that?) But I do keep the baggies over the cups until after a few days of popping when the leaves come out, then I let it breath, give a light watering, and watch for signs that its ready to move to the grow tent.)
2 fans to keep the air moving
And the Walmart light as close as it’ll allow me.
Under the tray liner is the heat mat also.
Where are the seeds from?
Seedsman