Try 24 hour soak and straight to dirt. I always plant before they sprout a tail. They always come up. Make sure you put the pointed end down.
Soak 12-24 hrs tops and move into rockwool. As far as rockwool goes, I use a chopstick to push in a small hole that goes about 1/4” deep instead of the premade holes they have, because those premade holes are way too deep.
Bad germing practices. Hard to hear but that’s what you’re running into. Do you have a seedling heat mat? If not, I highly recommend springing the $10 for one off of Amazon. I’ve had a 100% success rate since using one along with a propagation tray/dome combo.
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One of the main issues could be the rockwool. It can be difficult to germinate for someone that may be new. It can retain a lot more moisture than you think causing your seed or even a young plant to drown. I have seen folks struggle more than once with them.
If you could germinate in rapid rooters or even pete plugs, you’ll probably have a better germ rate. I totally agree with @Graysin as far as the heat matt goes. Seeds like a warm humid environment and the heat mat and dome helps provide that.
There are other ways to germinate but for a beginner, it may make it a little easier.
Good luck! 
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@westoe thanks for your response. I’ve done my research the ILGM website says to use a 72 hour soak, and because I’m a newby that’s what I’ve been going by. It doesn’t clarify what to do if the seed grows a tail in 24 or 48 hours, so I go the full 72. Also my grow is hydroponic with rockwool
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Good morning gray! Having done my research on this and many other topics, this website says to use a 72hr soak but doesn’t explain what to do if the tail grows in 24-48 hours so I let it go the full 72. On my last germ both the AK and WW had a nice 1/2" tail. And I use a small screwdriver to make a hole and tweezers to move it into the rockwool. Seems strange that I can germ the BBG and AK seeds but 3 of the 5 WW haven’t sprouted after being germed. If my poor germing was the issue, seems like I would have issues w/all the seeds, no?
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Not necessarily. It took me a few rounds of germing to realize that I was effectively drowning about a third of my seeds. I chalked it up to bad genetics at first, the ones that didn’t make it were all from the same breeder and mostly the same strain. But the more I germinated the more variety I experienced in failures. Either they wouldn’t germinate at all because they drowned, or they’d germinate and then dampen off ridiculously young, like within a week or so of being moved into soil.
Nothing needs more than 24 hours to soak in water. I haven’t had any issues since I started being strict about pulling them out at 24 and moving them into their cubes and a heat mat.
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And that’s fine. But be careful handling the seed as the root will damage easily. My way works for me. I have had one outta about 50 not pop my way. And the one that didn’t pop I soaked for 2 days instead of one. They are very sensitive.
This sounds very familiar! I have started a 24 hour soak on my last AK and WW seeds, “Stretch” is of the BBG variety, 3 pots, 3 strains. I just changed the 3 res’s after 3 weeks in the black buckets/lids and there’s no sign of algae anymore, just sediment from the nutes and the free sample of recharge. BBG looks nice and green but very droopy. RESEARCH indicates it’s being over watered.
How can it be over watered if the roots are hydroponic?? I lowered the water in each res from 3.5 gall to 3 gallons and continue to use hydroguard and just started armor si and adjusted nute dosages now for 3 gallons vice 3.5.
fyi - last week I tried to rotate the chiller 180 degrees w/o disconnecting the 3/4" connections and busted one of the nuts, not the nipple, but the nut. Chiller has been down for 1 week and poafamx parts are available for a mere $50 (sarcasm) and hasn’t shipped from china yet. active aqua sells theres for $20. expensive lesson learned. still trying to figure out how much light BBG will take, but will tweak that after my over watering scenario hopefully gets better
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Not enough oxygen. If your chiller is broken, your water is holding less oxygen (warmer water = less ability to retain oxygen). Best thing you can do is crank the air pump to max, and if it’s already maxed, get another air pump and put another airstone/more air into the water. Also use frozen water bottles in the res to bring down the temps during lights on.
Is it just me that thinks that looks like a ph issue? Twisted leaves/yellowing, also looks like the leaf margins are light indicating a nutrient def?..Maybe a combination of ph issue and…
Bad experience with frozen water jugs my biggest bbg (deceased) lost its roots doing that. temp at cola 76 degrees w/windows open (thankfully its cooled off, yesterday was 83 and a/c was on in the house). I have one 5w dual outlet pump per res,one 4’ disc airstone (not impressed) and an 1" white stone per res. I was looking into a 60w/6 valve air pump when I broke the nut on the chiller, is now on hold. Gray did you ever order your 60w pump?
I have both pH up and pH down. I check the pH daily and keep it between 5.9-6.1, usually just under 6.0. If anything the pH needs pH up most days for the first 4 days after a res change. I recently replaced the 2-LR44/AG13 batteries in pH tester and trust that its calibrated enough to keep the pH levels between 5.8-6.2, I split the difference at ~ 5.9 +/- .1.
I’m rocking a 20w with 6 valves right now, it’s dedicated to the bubble buckets that don’t have any cooling ability.
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Your plants are looking a lot better. Do you have at least 1.5” of a gap between the netpot and the water level?
Also like mentioned above, warm temps will get you back to the green slim. Keep’em growin!
I HAD 2" between the net pot and water level. Yesterday I decreased the water from 3.5 gall/bucket to 3 gall/bucket so now the difference is 2.5" vice 2" and added armor si silica nute. Chiller is waiting parts, water temp in res and near the cola both 74 w/light on.
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My one good BBG plant has it’s leaves inverting backwards, and the other plant (AK) is doing the same. These symptoms occurred before my chiller went down last week (awaiting parts). Here’s my weekly nute schedule, I do a res change every 3 weeks:
NUTE / prescribed dosage / dosage for 3gall res
Cal/Mag 1t(5ml ) /gall, 3t / res
Hydro Grow 3t / gall, 9t / res
Hydro Guard 1/2t / gall, 1.5t / res
Armor Si 1/2t / gall, 1.5t / res
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How are you mixing?
In what order exactly?
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No particular order. I mix all the nutes in a 16oz container with about 4oz of res water, add it to the res, swirl it around the water and check the pH
I put a 23.5 hour soak on 2 seeds AK and WW. I put them in R/O soaked rockwool and shook out excess water (not squeezed). It’s been 2 maybe 3 days and neither have sprouted. how long b4 they sprout?
This may very well be your problem.
Always mix:
Armor Si first! Stir extremely well.
Calmag stir well.
Add nutes. Stir some more.
And then PH up or down.
You can add hydroguard before or after PH’ing your solution. Hydroguard does nothing to ph or ppm’s.
Not mixing in that order can mess up the bonds of chemicals.
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