Germinating Seeds Ebb and Flo

I have had two shoddy attempts at germinating, both times ended up with weak stems and alot of stretching with my MH. I purchased a T5 light arrow 2ft 4 bulbs and going to run that over the plants not far all while they are in the hydro and germinating.

My question is what is the best way to germinate in rockwool, and move to the hydroton buckets in the ebb and cap with minimal stretching and a good strong stem?

I use jiffy pellets but I would use the same method if Iwas growing in Rockwool.I would soak my small rockwool cubes in PH adjusted water at 5.5 give them a squeeze and place directly into a propagator with vents shut and place into a dark airing cupboard with temps around 25c and humidity as high as you can get it.After they start to show get them under lights and when roots show through the rockwool I would transfer all seedlings into bigger rockwool cubes.
I personally don't transfer my plants into my ebb and flood system until roots are coming through the sides and bottom of the bigger rockwool cube which eliminates the possibility of root rot in the early stages of vegative growth.

Fenderman said:

I use jiffy pellets but I would use the same method if Iwas growing in Rockwool.I would soak my small rockwool cubes in PH adjusted water at 5.5 give them a squeeze and place directly into a propagator with vents shut and place into a dark airing cupboard with temps around 25c and humidity as high as you can get it.After they start to show get them under lights and when roots show through the rockwool I would transfer all seedlings into bigger rockwool cubes.
I personally don't transfer my plants into my ebb and flood system until roots are coming through the sides and bottom of the bigger rockwool cube which eliminates the possibility of root rot in the early stages of vegative growth.

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so what are you saying? once they show and are immediately under lights and then show a bottom root i should put my 1in rockwool cubes into like says the 3in cubes and and continue to just keep them them in the propagator box with the lid off under the T5 light array 4inches away until they then break through the 3in rockwool cubes? do I have to worry about the rockwool cubes drying out quickly under the T5 light? should I run just 5.5 ph water to water them with no nutes? then into them into the first week in the system under the MH at first week PPM or lower?

http://www.amazon.com/Hydrofarm-4-Tube-Designer-System-Bulbs/dp/B002KN6L5I/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=home-garden&qid=1280014406&sr=8-3 this is my T5 light

I use similar lights to what you are using but mine are cool flourecants and there are 4 x 55w housed in a reflector very similar to the one you are using.I actually veg all the way up to flowering with these flo's and never find heat or stretch an issue and if I was you I would ditch the halide and use your T5's up to flowering then use an HPS till the chop.And yes keep them in a propagator with the lid off until they are ready to go into your system and feed them solution via a pipette with no nutes at first then start feeding them nutes after a few days starting with an EC of about 0.5.I usually fill the bottom of my propagator with clay pebbles and sit the rockwool on top keeping the pebbles wet at all times and the rockwool damp.You can cover the rockwool to keep light from penetrating with anything to stop algae growing on the rockwool and then slowly up the feed by 1 point per week.As soon as roots are showing through the bigger rockwool then it is time to transplant into your system under a HPS.

Fenderman said:

I use similar lights to what you are using but mine are cool flourecants and there are 4 x 55w housed in a reflector very similar to the one you are using.I actually veg all the way up to flowering with these flo's and never find heat or stretch an issue and if I was you I would ditch the halide and use your T5's up to flowering then use an HPS till the chop.And yes keep them in a propagator with the lid off until they are ready to go into your system and feed them solution via a pipette with no nutes at first then start feeding them nutes after a few days starting with an EC of about 0.5.I usually fill the bottom of my propagator with clay pebbles and sit the rockwool on top keeping the pebbles wet at all times and the rockwool damp.You can cover the rockwool to keep light from penetrating with anything to stop algae growing on the rockwool and then slowly up the feed by 1 point per week.As soon as roots are showing through the bigger rockwool then it is time to transplant into your system under a HPS.

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what size rockwool cubes would you use? would you move into larger ones?

Germinating is easy as pie. Here's a simple super reliable way to handle your issue.

Soak a paper towel with tap water. Squeeze all of the water out of the towel gently, then fold it up and put your seeds on the inside pocket. Place it on a clean sterile dinner plate. Place a clean sterile opaque cereal bowl over that so no light or air gets in. Place it in a dark, room temp, clean place. I use a cabinet over my stove.

24-48 hours your seeds will germ, roughly 100%. Take out your rock wool and soak it in 5.5 ph RO water (tap water if you can't get RO water, but Walmart sells it by the gallon.) Put each seed into it's own completely soaked cube, white stem side down. Pinch the top of the rock wool together.

Put these bad boys directly under a compact fluorescent light. Just a shop light is absolutely fine. This is better for germing than MH because MH produces a lot of heat so it has to be many inches over the cubes. CFL produces very little light and can virtually touch the cubes (stretching problem fixed.) They will sprout over the next few days. Once you see the first pair of ribbed leaves start using a 100-200ppm 5.5-6ph solution of RO water and your veg nutes. I use FoxFarm Grow Big and have always been fine with it, but really any roughly 4-1-1 nute is fine. Always keep those lights literally right on top of the plants. Go on with your veg.

Good luck with E & G, it's been good to me.

blastedmage said:

what size rockwool cubes would you use? would you move into larger ones?

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Germinate your seeds in starter cubes which measure around 1 and a half inch (36mm) square and when roots start to show through the rockwool place the cubes into bigger cubes which measure 3 inch square.When roots show through the bigger cubes then it is time to put them into your ebb and flow system

I germinate like SelfSupplied is telling you to, it works great. I learned that method in elementary school growing beans, so it is defanitely a tried and true method. Like Fenderman, I do not use rockwool. When I first started out growing I did, but I found that it holds a lot of water so be careful not to drown your plants. I now use a peat type plug that is about 1" diameter, and hydroton.