Bob Lawblaw
Active Member
Ok, so in the off chance that the two runts never regain their health, I'm popping two more Satori seeds. This time, using rapid rooters.
The Mandala site advises against rapid rooters, but only goes as far as to say something along the lines of "growers have also reported problems with rapid rooters". Having failed to find a reasonable explanation from any of those growers, I decided to give it a go.
There aren't too many rapid rooter germination techniques posted on the internet. So I'm going to list what I did, maybe someone can improve on this for me.
The Mandala website also advises against pre soaking seeds, but I broke that rule too. I started by pre soaking the seeds in 500ml of RO/DI water, and 3ml of 29% H2O2 for about 20 minutes. This step was only to expose the seeds to H2O2 in order to give them a good start.
While the seeds were soaking, I took a knife and cut off the top 1/3 of the rapid rooter plugs. I figured it's less distance for the roots to travel to get to the hydroton, which is where I want them. I cut the top 1/3 so that I could make my own seed-hole in the remaining 2/3 of the plug, which I did with a shish ka bob skewer. The hole I made went all the way through, from top to bottom - the rapid rooter will expand back into the hole, but hopefully will still provide ease of growth for the root. This step should make for more contact between the seed and medium - I made sure to wriggle the skewer around the top 1/4" of the hole, to make sure it was easy enough for the seed to push its way out.
Then the rapid rooters were pre soaked in 0PPM water. I squished em around gently in order to leech anything bad out, although I'm not sure if this was necessary. Then I wrung them out, and soaked them in a mild nute bath. The bath was comprised of 45PPM FloraNova Bloom, 10PPM B-52, and 5PPM of VoodooJuice, for a total of 60PPM. pH'd to 5.8. I had about a 1/2 L left over, which I reserved for watering the rapid rooters later on.
I then took the rapid rooters and dried them slightly. The seeds were then inserted on their side (as recommended on Mandala's website), about 1/4" deep. The plugs were then placed in a tray and put inside the grow tent, which is currently at 79F, and 52% RH.
The nute water that was left over was diluted to 25% of its original strength by adding RO/DI water. I'll spray the rapid rooter plugs with the lower strength solution. Because it's so diluted, it shouldn't cause the nute levels in the rapid rooter to build up too much, however it should help to keep the pH more or less stable inside the plug.
If this method works out, and if these babes are born of decent genetics, they'll catch up to the stunted ones quite quickly, in which case, I'll replace them.
Still hoping for 4 healthy plants in total for this grow. Will make some updates on the progress of the two new ones, in order to see if this germ method works well for these seeds.
Bob
The Mandala site advises against rapid rooters, but only goes as far as to say something along the lines of "growers have also reported problems with rapid rooters". Having failed to find a reasonable explanation from any of those growers, I decided to give it a go.
There aren't too many rapid rooter germination techniques posted on the internet. So I'm going to list what I did, maybe someone can improve on this for me.
The Mandala website also advises against pre soaking seeds, but I broke that rule too. I started by pre soaking the seeds in 500ml of RO/DI water, and 3ml of 29% H2O2 for about 20 minutes. This step was only to expose the seeds to H2O2 in order to give them a good start.
While the seeds were soaking, I took a knife and cut off the top 1/3 of the rapid rooter plugs. I figured it's less distance for the roots to travel to get to the hydroton, which is where I want them. I cut the top 1/3 so that I could make my own seed-hole in the remaining 2/3 of the plug, which I did with a shish ka bob skewer. The hole I made went all the way through, from top to bottom - the rapid rooter will expand back into the hole, but hopefully will still provide ease of growth for the root. This step should make for more contact between the seed and medium - I made sure to wriggle the skewer around the top 1/4" of the hole, to make sure it was easy enough for the seed to push its way out.
Then the rapid rooters were pre soaked in 0PPM water. I squished em around gently in order to leech anything bad out, although I'm not sure if this was necessary. Then I wrung them out, and soaked them in a mild nute bath. The bath was comprised of 45PPM FloraNova Bloom, 10PPM B-52, and 5PPM of VoodooJuice, for a total of 60PPM. pH'd to 5.8. I had about a 1/2 L left over, which I reserved for watering the rapid rooters later on.
I then took the rapid rooters and dried them slightly. The seeds were then inserted on their side (as recommended on Mandala's website), about 1/4" deep. The plugs were then placed in a tray and put inside the grow tent, which is currently at 79F, and 52% RH.
The nute water that was left over was diluted to 25% of its original strength by adding RO/DI water. I'll spray the rapid rooter plugs with the lower strength solution. Because it's so diluted, it shouldn't cause the nute levels in the rapid rooter to build up too much, however it should help to keep the pH more or less stable inside the plug.
If this method works out, and if these babes are born of decent genetics, they'll catch up to the stunted ones quite quickly, in which case, I'll replace them.
Still hoping for 4 healthy plants in total for this grow. Will make some updates on the progress of the two new ones, in order to see if this germ method works well for these seeds.
Bob