Seed starting

How does some thing like this peat pellet

Compare to these Rockwool cubes
for seed starting?

six of one, half a dozen of another......I've used both, no real preference

plants can be tricky in the rockwall trying to remove to re plant

plants in peat can be fucked very easy by noobs who don't know their fert
as the peat holds that very nute

cheers/

I start my seeds in soil. No need to worry about damaging anything that way.

I prefer peat pellets or dirt. Seeds can push themselves out of rock wool.

Unless you're doing hydro just start in soil.

Even in hydro i use peat pellets. Just fill the bottom of the netpot about 2" hydroton and then place the pellet in and fill the rest. Never had an issue with it yet.

I put rapid rooters in a small propagator and then into either 16 oz cups or final container. Once you have a good sprout, it's pretty easy to move it to your medium and grow a viable seedling. Biggest risk is drowning it. Go real easy on water no matter which method you choose.

I've been all over the map with starting seeds, and the true and tried straight in to soil method seems to work best for me. Put a sammich bag over the top of the cup, and away you go.

I've had problems with the rapid rooters not having enough resistance to knock the shell of the seed off. I've went back to straight seed starter soil because of this. Some shells are pretty hard to get off and you end up killing it.

Serverchris said:

I've had problems with the rapid rooters not having enough resistance to knock the shell of the seed off. I've went back to straight seed starter soil because of this. Some shells are pretty hard to get off and you end up killing it.

Click to expand...

Have you tried spraying a little water on the seed shell? That should soften it up a little then use toothpicks to gently remove the seed shell. I hear you though, it's always risky messing with fragile seedlings.

Yeah I always give it some water first but I've had some lately that were so hard that the water didn't help very much.

Root Riot cubes does the trick for me.

turbobuzz said:

I've been all over the map with starting seeds, and the true and tried straight in to soil method seems to work best for me. Put a sammich bag over the top of the cup, and away you go.

Click to expand...

I do the same but skip the bag.

vostok said:

plants can be tricky in the rockwall trying to remove to re plant

plants in peat can be fucked very easy by noobs who don't know their fert
as the peat holds that very nute

cheers/

Click to expand...

Why would you remove the rockwool starter cube?!? That's more likely to kill your seedling/ clone! Just put the starter cube on top of the next cube you want her to grow in. I just saw 100 of the 4x4x4s on ebay for about 35 bucks. I also saw a 6 pack of the grodan 4x4x4s for 13. IMO, I'd rather not risk the little one's life by breaking the rockwool. I've just started, starting my seeds in cubes. All of my research says stack it.

SheeshM said:

Have you tried spraying a little water on the seed shell? That should soften it up a little then use toothpicks to gently remove the seed shell. I hear you though, it's always risky messing with fragile seedlings.

Click to expand...

I've read that you can LIGHTLY sand harder shells. Very fine emery board attached to the bottom of a small container(matchbox, tic tac box...) and just a few seconds of light shaking will scuff the surface of the shell which will help with water intake. I dont remember if that was Jorge Cervantes, or Ed Rosenthal.

Just started some 2yr old seeds with a method i found here on RIU. Simplified: 1 hr. Peroxide bath, 20-24 hr soak in 6.5ph water, then bag them in a wet paper towel. I started 10 seeds and one had already popped when i bagged them! Im sticking with this one. The 6 i tried to start in wool haven't done anything.

Make friends with mothers

I've tried Rockwool Cubes, Rapid Rooters and the cheap peat Jiffy Pellets that are like 50 for $4 and those have worked better for me then either the RWC or RRs.

I learned how to grow feminised seeds because I personally believe that the further away from seed grown the lesser the quality of weed. Others will disagree, but in my experience, a clone is almost as good as a seed. A clone of a clone makes OK kief. A clone of a clone of a clone makes you give up smoking until you find something worthwhile. Saying that, I grow in 15" pots from seed so no transplanting.