Seedlings always dying

If they sprout, cover them with a dome that will let in a little air. The bigger they get the shorter the cover time.

D'sNuts said:

If they sprout, cover them with a dome that will let in a little air. The bigger they get the shorter the cover time.

Click to expand...

With all due respect - if that works for you, great. But using a humidity dome over seedlings can cause nasties to grow and possibly cause damping off. They need fresh air more than humidity.

if your water ph is 8.6 even if you could get seedlings to stay alive, your plants would succumb to the high ph which will most likely cause them to lock out essential stuff like phosphorus and lead to a short and horrible plant life.

Consider checking AMAZON and getting a cheap ph meter, and don't be afraid to recalibrate it now and then. Good luck.

Sprouting seeds doesn't take much water. For right now you could use bottled, distilled, etc.

Calibration solution is cheap. An 8 oz. bottle is about $10, and 8 oz. would probably keep you until the cal solution expires. From my experience cal solutions have about a 2 year shelf life. Single stage pH 7.0 calibration would be good enuf. You could do 3-stage cal but probably not necessary.

Or, go with MickFoster's suggestion and buy a simple pond/aquarium pH test kit.

I agree with Mick's comments about humidity domes.

Earlier I mentioned your tap water pH. I forgot to mention that tap water pH often takes annual swings. Not by huge amounts, but it'd be good to know what you're getting year-round.

Damping off is the biggest killer of seedlings. Hundreds of articles on it. Use sterile starter medium and the moment they pop give them plenty of air.

If the stems at the soil line shrivel and turn kind of grey that is damping off.

I have tried germinating seed for a while now , paper towel , ect. Bottom line if u want good results the good old seed in dirt has proven to be the most effective 94-100% of my seed germinate and grow strong , trying other ways is a waste of money if u buy seeds like me, yes it takes 24-86 hrs longer sometimes to germinate them depending on strain but the wait determines wheather u get a strong plant that has to fight its way outta the dirt or a weak plant that dies or stunts, I had a lotta of the same stuff happen to me old skool and simple was the best out come the pic i planted on the 2nd 2017 I planted twelve seed 12 came up that's 100 percent strong plants...

Use a seedling tray and spray FCK out them keep humidity high use jiffy pellets to plant into I use paper towel method but as soon as I see the seed starting to crack I transfer to a pellet I do not allow a root to stick outa the seed in towel

ebcrew said:

I have a pH meter, a decent one it was around 80 bucks. However, i have not calibrated it in over 2 years. Is there any home method to calibrate it or do i have to get the solution? Hydro store is pretty far from my house. Meter is reading distilled water at 7.8, dont know if thats correct or wrong.

Im out of mendo mix and my good soil is on the way. Even still i couldnt wait and picked up some Dr. Earth soil and started 2 more by just putting them in moist soil. Ive heard some good and some negative about DR. Earth but its only to start in solo cup until i can transplant into better soil. Also im going to try out distilled water and see how that goes.

So far i have 4 seedlings going, 2 have popped out the soil, so im crossing my fingers. The other 2 were just dropped in soil yesterday.

Click to expand...

Just order a small bottle of 7.0 calibration solution from Amazon. should run no more than ten bucks. Well worth it.

Buy the Qimius PH meter off amazon. shipped to your door for 20$ and it comes with 3 calibration powders.. little trick. get some tiny mason jars and distilled water.. then u can save the calibration powder/distilled water mix forever..

make sure when calibrating qimius meter u have distilled water.. it is simple to use.. stick in 6.86 ph solution hold "cal" button for 3 seconds and release.. rinse with distilled water then put in 4.01 solution and hold cal for 3 seconds then release and immediately press cal button 1 more time.. it will flash 4.01 a few times.. rinse with distilled again and your meter will be damn near spot on +/- .2 .... I grow in soil and ph water or nutrients to 6.5 everytime and get good results.

Hell if you dont wanna ph you can go my route.. get general organics GO Box and distilled water or RO water.. the GO Box says right on the side "You Do Not Need To Ph These Nutrients In Soil"

I mixed some of the nutes in a gallon of water last night and tested it with my ph meter... after adding nutes ph was 6.6 which is perfectly fine by me... water out of the tap around here comes out at 7.4.

I ALWAYS put my tap water in watering can with an airstone and 10$ walmart airpump and bubble 24 hours.. with the general organics GO Box you want the chlorine to evaporate out of your water. your town may use chloramine which i would find different water.. we use chlorine around here.


google your city name + water quality report and you can normally find what they treat the water with.. hell sometimes you can see what your town ph's the tap water to.

Believe it or not .. I have had some great germ rates using seedling soil.. miracle gro's seedling soil is actually good stuff.. its sooo sooo light and airy and theres damn near 0 NPK.. miracle gro's seed starting mix is actually what i have grown my current blue mystic in start to finish. It made for some amazing root growth. really fat thick roots.

"All seeds germinate in a paper towel, then when i plant them in the soil,..." Here is where a lot of folks have problems. I use the paper towel method to germinate and make sure the first soil is wet when the seedlings first go to dirt. I keep the seedcap just above the dirt and press the soil around the stem to support the seedling.

Good luck, BigSteve.

Hi I used to have the same problems starting seeds and when u pay good money it can get relatively expensive, so here's a good piece of advice, I have tried paper towel method I purchased a seed germinator, etc I have 100% success rate with fox farm ocean Forrest soil and put ur seeds 1"-1 1/2 inches in the soil and water accordingly the good ole dirt and water appears to be the best success rate not the fastest way u lose two days of time cuz it takes a little longer for the seeds to germinate but I have had 98% success this it two weeks exactly starting third week today... this set up is a simple cardboard grow box with two 4ft cheap fluorescents putting out 20k lumens... 18:6 lighting and I will lightly wiggle the plants from the base to give them stronger trunks and give them a light spray once every couple days on the plant .... good luck

U don't want to germ ur seeds in a paper towel or seed germinator ect I have had previous problems and the success rate is around 68% , 1 get ur ph in water good 5.5-6.0 and 2 I have had best luck with fox farm soil put ur seeds 1"-11/2" in the dirt and water accordingly the good ole seed and dirt gives me the best results at a 95% success I use two 4 ft flourecent light simple card board grow box the fluorescents keep it warm and seedlings love it .... keep it simple germinating ur seeds in a paper towel or other methods leave ur seeds vulnerable to have a lot of problems from bacteria in air, paper towel or on ur hands the two days extra it takes to germinate in soil and dirt is worth it cuz they all come up and have to fight outta the dirt and pop there own seeds she'll making a stronger plant ur will have less problems later planted 13 and 13 successful girlsfirst pick is two weeks exactly from seed in ground second was day of planting hope this helps