Pots: when the wrong size it's just right for you.

[Wattzzup]

It takes a few days to crack in the paper towel sometimes. just keep the towel damp but not dripping.

If after a few days no root I soak in a jar again and repeat the process before tossing

Germ seeds in darkness

 

[Micro G.]

That pot is 3 gallons

3 gallons? Omg it's way bigger then mine but i will use it for an autoflowering strain that with my light setup i don't expect to grow too much...

 

[Wattzzup]

What size pot do you have? It doesn’t have to be 3 gallon I just have a lot of light so I wanted it to have room.

 

[Micro G.]

As I said, for the thread topic, in my I really want to keep the plant small because this is my setup:

And using this as light source:

Which is about 2250 lumen for veg and 3000 lumen for the flowering. It should be just enough to grow a healthy plant but not a crazy buds monster. I would love to but this is not what I'm aiming at. At first, following the rules, I chose a 1,5 gallons pot but then, watching grow diaries of the same strain, I saw plant growing way too much for my space...an taking 9, 10, 11, 12 weeks instead o 8 so I decided that one way to have more control over it was a smaller pot. The one i'm going to use around 1 gallon, maybe a little less...

Germ seeds in darkness

They weren't in complete darkness but now they are. Les wait "few days" and see what happen.
Do you plant them in the soil as soon as you see even 1mm of root or you wait, as i've read here and there, until there is a 3-4 mm root?
And after that how long does it takes in your experience for the sprout to come out and say "hello!"?

 

[Wattzzup]

As I said, for the thread topic, in my I really want to keep the plant small because this is my setup:
View attachment 4516466
And using this as light source:
View attachment 4516469
Which is about 2250 lumen for veg and 3000 lumen for the flowering. It should be just enough to grow a healthy plant but not a crazy buds monster. I would love to but this is not what I'm aiming at. At first, following the rules, I chose a 1,5 gallons pot but then, watching grow diaries of the same strain, I saw plant growing way too much for my space...an taking 9, 10, 11, 12 weeks instead o 8 so I decided that one way to have more control over it was a smaller pot. The one i'm going to use around 1 gallon, maybe a little less...


They weren't in complete darkness but now they are. Les wait "few days" and see what happen.
Do you plant them in the soil as soon as you see even 1mm of root or you wait, as i've read here and there, until there is a 3-4 mm root?
And after that how long does it takes in your experience for the sprout to come out and say "hello!"?

Honestly I’ve never waited until it’s long. 1-3 mm should be fine. I wouldn’t get too hung up on the details. Focus on watering your soil then plant seed them cover with clear plastic bottle to keep humidity up around seed until it out grows the bottle. I start with a water bottle and switch to Gatorade bottle. I cut the bottoms out of them and cover.

once you see the root as long as you don’t bury it too deep and it should come through quickly.

 

[Spazz24]

Thank you Spazz!
In my case I will have about 14" of total space for the plant to grow. I'm using cheap led strips and this means that I will have about 2250 lumen during veg and 3000 lumen during flowering in an area of 1x1 feet. This for 2 main reasons. The first one is that this is an experiment so I decided to use mostly what I already had (wood for the box, different size pots, some led strip, ecc...) because I don't even know if i'm going to be able to continue this experience and I don't want to toss my money out of the window. The second reason is that this thing has to be as stheathy as possible, and this is why I still don't know if I will be able to go on with this. That is why the only real investiment I did is a big ass carbon filter....big ass for such a tiny grow room.
That said I know the light could be better but I think I have enough lumen to be happy for the result and anyway I do not have any alternatives with such space because only with these led I can keep the plant really close to the light.
I know fabric pots are the best solution but again in my case is essential to keep my plant small and the fabric pots I've found are too big. I'm thinking to open dozens of 3 mm holes all around the pot to improve oxygen flow and prevent over watering.

My first concern now it's that, I really can't understand way, but I have lots of problem in germinating seed. They don't open...just thrown away the first one after 16 days of waiting...the second one is now 9 days since i planted it and still closed, I tried with the third and last one yesterday. They were 3 Royal Dwarf Autoflowering I bought just three weeks ago...I've already recived vaucher from the seller but still 16 days are gone and I have nothing...so sad.

Wet a paper towel and ring it out but not 100%. Put the seeds in the paper towel and fold it. Put it inside a baggy and put it somewhere dark. If you can put it somewhere warm, on top of gaming system, cable box etc. I’ve had beans sprout in 2 days or less and I’ve had beans take a week. Once sprouted carefully plant taproot down to about the first knuckle on your finger. Lightly cover with soil, keep moist and humid.

Also just a little fyi bro, idc what kind of scrubber you got, at some point you will get some smell especially when opening and working in your grow space. I’m usually growing 2-15 plants at any given time and the scrubber isn’t always effective strain dependent and definitely not effective when working in the grow area.

 

[Micro G.]

I know that i can have 99% odour control only when the grow room, which is air tight, is closed. Being close the 99.9 % of the time is fine for me. I will keep it where i work and I have a air purifier always running, windows that are always opened from april to october and also a lot of things that have quite an odour such as wood, shellac, nitro solvent, hot hide glue, alcool ecc. I also have a dog and a bunny. Non the less the grow room will be in the bathroom or in another room so there will be always a door close to keep the odour in as much as possible. I can move it around easly becouse my grow room has wheels ! Also I'm using a 100 cm/hour inline fanb I keep it at a low rpm with the dimmer because my grow room volume it's only 0,1 cm. When I open the grow room i can run the fan at full speed so that the filter can suck in way more air and somehow reduce odour leaking...
I'm also planning to open it only when it is in the bathroom so I can keep the door closed and the window opened and don't waste time while it's opened. Last but not least, using low odour strains such as royal quick one and similar northern light hybrid.

 

[Micro G.]

It is now the third day with the kitchen towel method(plus 24 hour in a cup of water to start with), inside a plastic bag kept opened at 27°C 80% humidity in complete darkness.
Yesterday I took a look and saw that the seed had crack open and expecting that this morning almost 24 hours later it would have a tiny root out...even for 0,5 mm, but it looks exactly the same as 24 hours ago...

The other seed, the old one it still closed I'm going to throw it away.

 

[Wattzzup]

It is now the third day with the kitchen towel method(plus 24 hour in a cup of water to start with), inside a plastic bag kept opened at 27°C 80% humidity in complete darkness.
Yesterday I took a look and saw that the seed had crack open and expecting that this morning almost 24 hours later it would have a tiny root out...even for 0,5 mm, but it looks exactly the same as 24 hours ago...

The other seed, the old one it still closed I'm going to throw it away.

Patience. Once that tap root shows you can plant.

 

[Micro G.]

Wattzzup thank you for the answer...so you think it's kind of normal that nothing has really changed since yesterday?
I know I'm becoming really impatient...I just really don't want it to fail...
I've changed the paper towel with a new one because after two days it was starting to have a little bit of odour. I thought it was more safe to have a new clean paper towel.

I've also done this:

My DIY fabric pot. It's a little bit more then one gallon(like 1,1 gallon or 4,1 liters) and being made of fabric it should prevent root bound problems. And it's still only 13cm(5") tall. I've read many articles that says that with fabric pot the plant grow shorter and wider then with standard pot...and if it's true, it's exactly what I'm looking for.

 

[Wattzzup]

Yes this can be a slow process at times. Especially for germination.

Never used fabric I can’t tell you about that myself. I can tell you a lot of people use them with success.

Make sure you’re not too wet on the paper towel it shouldn’t be dripping. Your paper towel should in a plastic bag open and on top of a slight heat source. I use the top of my tent.

 

[Micro G.]

I wet the paper towel with a dropper. I keep it well wet but if I pick it up from one corner, even if I wait, there is not a single drop of water coming out from it. I think this is what you mean when you say that it should not be dripping.
About temperature, as I told you, I keep it in the grow room with the lights on as a source of heat. In this condition I have around 26 to 27 °C and 80% humidity. Until this morning it was in a zip plastic bag that I kept open and the zip bag was inside of a cardboard box to keep dark. Now I switched to a new paper towel but without putting it in a plastic bag because i'm afraid that it creates a too wet enviroment. There were humidity water drops inside the plastic bag, that is why I was worried. Anyway, having 80% humidity inside the grow room should be good enough I think.

 

[Wattzzup]

I wet the paper towel with a dropper. I keep it well wet but if I pick it up from one corner, even if I wait, there is not a single drop of water coming out from it. I think this is what you mean when you say that it should not be dripping.
About temperature, as I told you, I keep it in the grow room with the lights on as a source of heat. In this condition I have around 26 to 27 °C and 80% humidity. Until this morning it was in a zip plastic bag that I kept open and the zip bag was inside of a cardboard box to keep dark. Now I switched to a new paper towel but without putting it in a plastic bag because i'm afraid that it creates a too wet enviroment. There were humidity water drops inside the plastic bag, that is why I was worried. Anyway, having 80% humidity inside the grow room should be good enough I think.

Do not germinate in the light. Put it in a dark warm area. I do not put it in my grow room. When I plant in a pot the seed is in the dark and has moisture. You want to duplicate that in the paper towel.

Someone else can chime in but 80% humidity seems high.

 

[Micro G.]

I think that if even this seed is not going sprout, i'm going to go with the old fashion way. Next seed directly into the soil, in the final pot, inside the grow room with the same old 26 to 27 °C and 80% humidity and I'm going to buy and use only bottled water...becouse I don't know what elese can cause 3 seed one after the other to fail that bad...

 

[Micro G.]

Do not germinate in the light.

The seed is in complete darkness as it was all the time. I use the light as a heat source because i don't have anything else...The grow room is the best controlled environment I have.

Someone else can chime in but 80% humidity seems high.

I don't know what you mean by that but humidity is 80% only because I want it to be that high. It wont be so high after the seed had sprout and the growth begins. Now it's 80% because I'm keeping the fan off and the humidty stay inside the grow room.

 

[Wattzzup]

I think that if even this seed is not going sprout, i'm going to go with the old fashion way. Next seed directly into the soil, in the final pot, inside the grow room with the same old 26 to 27 °C and 80% humidity and I'm going to buy and use only bottled water...becouse I don't know what elese can cause 3 seed one after the other to fail that bad...

Here’s what I can tell you when I first started I kept checking everything like you are. There’s no way I wouldn’t dig up after 2 days in the soil. I’m that impatient. So that’s why I use paper towel. Lots of people have success just dropping them in soil.

the other thing is when you do drop them be sure not to bury too deep. Most people do first knuckle then lightly cover. Give it a little bit once people wake up they will chime in with what works for them. Try what makes sense. Good luck

 

[Micro G.]

Anyway, if tomorrow morning the seed still looks the same it means that it's as I thought, a bad seed. I did everything you guys told me to do, but the first thing I said is "Anyway the third and last seed didn't look that good. It is more light brown-yellow than how a good seed should looks like."
And if so I will put the next seed directly in the soil of the final pot. As I've always done without having any problem in the past. I will apply everything I've learned this days.

-I will keep the best temperature and humidity condition for a seed to sprout. 27-28 °C and 70-80% humidity
-I will pre wet soil. (never done this)
-I will only use bottled water
-I will put the seed around 5mm deep
-I will cover it lightly
-I will keep the soil moist but not watering directly over the seed but around it (never done this either)
-I swear I will not do anything but wait. I will not check it every day.

If this doesn't work, I really, really don't know what I'm doing wrong.

 

[Micro G.]

Now...expline me this:
The seed that cracked open two days ago and that was still cracked open yesterday, it's now closed.

 

[Canibas]

Seems like those seeds font want anything to do with you!!

Get some fresh genetics (if you're able to).

My advice.

 

[Micro G.]

What do you mean by fresh genetics?