my seed germinated last night and grew a white tail and id say its about a fourth of an inch right now so later tonight i was looking to put it in soil. i have fox farms ocean soil (i heard its too nutrient heavy for seedlings) and was going to put it in a solo cup after cutting some slits at the bottom for drainage. Should i put the solo cup under my 600W LED lights (about 256 actual W) and if so, how far? also i heard i should just use a spray bottle and wet the seedling/soil until the cotyledon forms, is this true and should i not fully water it, until the seed has popped off and the plant has grown above the soil? Thanks for all the help!
No you dont want to top water until the feeder leaves are dead. You can get some cheap starter soil from anywhere to get them started. And make sure to dome your seedling they need tons of humidity the first week or 2 above soil. And yes just mist with ph water
awesome thank you! i forgot about doming as well so thats great. Would fox farms ocean soil not be good then? cause i have a ton of that
There are people on this site who use Ocean Forest to hatch their seedlings. You do not want to add any nutrients or fertilizers. Some people who use OF say that you don’t need to add any nutrients until you move into flowering.
Before planting my seedling i the solo cup, I run 6.5pH water through it until a significant amount of run off comes through the bottom. It should be thoroughly wet. It doesn’t hurt to take a baseline pH and ppm of the runoff too (take ppms of your water going in too). Also, get a feel for the weight of the cup, this is goo for when detecting if you need to add water later.
I have my seedlings on a heat mat and I mist. A humidity dome (inverted half of a 2 liter soda bottle for example), will help keep the soil moist and the humidity right for the seedling (~70+%). I do not use a humidity dome and I mist twice a day. If the top 1/2 inch of soil is feeling dry or the cup feels light, you will need to water it. (I humbly disagree with waiting until the cotyledons fall off/die). Once it gets dry, water to runoff, I do not add just a little water at a time. It takes several days for my solos to dry up enough for watering - I have had them in solo cups for over a week and yesterday was my first watering. Watering more can cause overwatering issues and/or damping off, which is lethal to the seedling.
As far as the LED goes, I have mine under a 45W actual draw LED, about 6" over the plants. You have a more powerful lamp, so I am guessing 12-18" would be prudent. What you are looking for is that the plant doesn’t stretch towards the light. It should grow out of the ground about an inch and then stop and work on its first true leaves for a bit. If it keeps growing (aka stretching) while working on its first leaves, your light is too far. Also, from a heat perspective, if you can keep your hand under the light at the distance from the plants and it is not uncomfortable, it is ok for your plants. Keep the plants around 75-80 degrees.
Good luck!
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Thank you so much!! ill use my fox farms then and yeah i was told its very nutrient rich so i wouldn’t need to add any nutrients if i didn’t want to until later stages.
so using a humidity dome (because my tent has low RH (30-40%), would it be fine to have it at 18/6 schedule under the light as soon as i pot in solo cup? or do i have to wait until it has sprouted above soil to put it under the light? Thanks for the distance recommendations as well! ill make sure to look for stretching once its sprouted out of soil.
I run 24/0 the first week then go 20/4 for a week then 18/6
The only schedule that really matters is the flower cycle so what ever you prefer should work just fine. You will want to find a way to get rh over 50 for optimal vegging growth
Ill do that then! i did hear that they do need alot of light and some people were even saying that they leave their lights on 24/0. ill use your strategy and ill try to find a way to increase RH after it wont fit in the inverted soda bottle! i usually just add water to the tent but it tends to seep and doesnt last too long.
Try putting a wet towel in there or a bowl of water to help. I just notice better growth when you let them rest
I put them under the lamp 24/0 when they are still underground and keep them there for the first two weeks after they are out of the ground. Then I go 18/6.
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Depends on the strain as to whether or not you’ll have a problem or not with Ocean Forest. I grow 8 different strains currently and several will not get going in Ocean Forest. I learned to use Rapid Rooter pods from I think @raustin here and they get the seedlings started really well, and I can plant any strain into Ocean Forest as long as it’s in the pod. There are a few here that don’t like them, but from mine and several other growers that have had seed starting problems, they are great to give seeds a great start.
One month old Northern Lights auto started in Rapid Rooter.
I’d say the results speak for themselves @Andrewsantos97
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I’ve done over 40 plants in fox farm start to finish if you have good genetics 
there shouldn’t be a problem I’ve done super skunk white widow super silver goldleaf and many others no issues just be careful watering get a spray bottle
I started mine in peat moss and in peat pots I put each of the peat pots in a much larger pot then put cellophane over the top of the bigger pots held on with rubber bands. It was vary easy to spray them with water .just pull the cellophane from one corner and the rubber bands pop off. I kept a little water about an inch at the bottoms.
I like the peat pots because it makes for easy transplanting. You can just put the whole thing in the new soil. I tear the peat pots a little when I transpant but they are almost falling apart by then anyway
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I agree with u there. I do same. It works excellent for me.
Sorry. 2 weeks at 24/0 and then 18/6
@OldSkunk man those most definitely do speak for themselves. Those look great! I’ll look into it for my next grow. I usually just do 1 at a time and just planted one yesterday in FFOF so hopefully it’ll take well!
@Hogmaster the strain is purple kush (bought from this site cause why bother looking anywhere else). It’s my first time growing this strain so I’m not sure of it’s genetics but I’m hoping it’s good! And I have a spray bottle currently and I thoroughly wet the soil until there was a bunch of runoff and then placed my seedling in and inverted a soda bottle for a humidity dome (the bottle is green so I’m not sure if this will affect the light it gets). I’ll make sure to use just the spray bottle until she’s old enough for a full watering
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One more question. For the humidity dome, should I add holes or anything to the soda bottle to allow oxygen in? Or would this defeat the purpose? Also I only had a sprite bottle and it’s green, would this affect light absorption in any way?
You don’t need to poke holes in them, just vent them once or twice a day.
I am not sure about the green bottle. I would get clear ones if possible. If you go with the green, just keep an eye on them to make sure the seedlings aren’t stretching - they should grow about an inch and then start working on their first few sets of true leaves.
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Walmart home herb garden kits have awesome dirt blocks for starting seedlings.
Thanks so much. She just sprouted above the soil today! I was just wondering. How long should I keep the humidity 70% or above? For the entire 2 weeks that I’m keeping my lights 24/0 ?