Seeds no sprouting...

so i germinated some seeds and when they had big root coming out planted them in rockwool cubes. That was 8 days ago, I have had them under lights 16/8 but they have not sprouted out of the cubes at all.... I have been watering with a 1/4 strength grow nute mix. what am i doing wrong???

MrUberT said:

so i germinated some seeds and when they had big root coming out planted them in rockwool cubes. That was 8 days ago, I have had them under lights 16/8 but they have not sprouted out of the cubes at all.... I have been watering with a 1/4 strength grow nute mix. what am i doing wrong???

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not sure what you are doing wrong. i've never had any success at all with that germinating seeds between sheets of paper towels. never had any real luck with rockwool either. is there any way to peek inside the cubie to see if roots are growing?

i have had the most success with plain old fashioned dirt. I use FFOF. plants have had millions of years of evolution which encouraged strong germination rates in soil. not sure how many seeds you have. might be worth cutting one of those cubes open and checking out the root activity inside. and, if its not dead, toss it in a plastic cup with some good soil, and see how it does there.

How are your temps? I find seeds sprout better around 85-88F. Also, are you ph-ing your cubes before you use them?

you shouldnt be giving em any nutes yet

ant1408 said:

you shouldnt be giving em any nutes yet

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Depends on the grower, some seeds I got specifically said to use low strength nutes after it was cracked and planted. Though it did say 1/8th strength, so that's a big jump to 1/4 strength.

You should not be feeding yet! They don't need to be feed as seedlings.
They probably burnt up from the nutes.

No idea why your seeds failed, but I've had great success using soilless seed starting mixes like Miracle Grow Seed Starting Mix or Fox Farm Light Warrior. I like to start in one gallon fabric grow bags. I always soak the mix and wait for the excess water to drain off. While this is happening, I soak my seeds in an ice cub stray for 20-30 min, then sow the seeds directly into the medium. I never bother to pre-germinate them. I always soak, sow, and walk away.

Most important thing I've found is keeping the temps warm enough. I never feed until the third or forth week, no matter what the bottle on the nutrients say. The only exception is worm castings. I'll sometimes add 10% dried worm castings (NPK 2-1-1) to my seed starting mix, but that's about it.

no nutes,
Are you ph'ing the water? and are you overwatering? rockwool doesn't need watering all the time, it needs oxygen also to work properly

don't feed a seed.......or a seedling.

Thanks for all your tips! I am pretty sure I havent been overwatering I am letting the cube go almost dry before I water. I have been using ph drops so I know ph is around 5.5. I am thinking I will have to plant more seeds might just try em in soil this time see how I go

Plain H2O, PH 5.5-6.0....... and you get this from seed to seedling in 6 days.