I’m new to soil and seeds. What’s the best way to start an autoflower seed I want to end up in clay pellets?
Thanks, Ron Aka alldayeveryday
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I’m new to soil and seeds. What’s the best way to start an autoflower seed I want to end up in clay pellets?
Thanks, Ron Aka alldayeveryday
Hydroton is not really the best option for young seedling roots. Any pellet movement shifts and damages young roots. Moving them around can be stressful. Rockwool starter cubes or something like 4″ blocks are usable with hydroton.
I’d suggest coco and forget the hydroton or rockwool. The latter is tricky to get right. You mentioned soil that’s a good route as well.
I would just keep it super simple and use the wet paper towel in a ziplock bag method. I don’t think I have ever not had a seed pop using this method, that just wasn’t a dud to begin with. I like to keep things simple. Hope this helps, GL
As Mystro said, you want to start your seed in a rock wool cube, and then you can put that cube into your clay pellets.
Gotta say I agree with Just Coolin tho… You’d be better off avoiding the rock wool and clay pellets all together. That style of hydro can be really difficult and prone to problems if you don’t really know what you are doing. Starting in straight coco or coco with 10-20% worm castings mixed in would be a lot easier and way more forgiving. Just something to consider. 🙂
Thanks for the help guys. I should have been more specific. I have several years of experience with the GH Waterfarms. Love them. However I am about to try autoflowers for the first time ever. My gut tells me to use organic soil with basic propagation techniques. But I just can’t get the results I get with photo period plants out of my head. Lol. I’ve had bad luck in the past with rockwool, and everybody tells me not to transplant autos. Usually I root clones in a paper cup of perlite.Then transplant direct to a 2 gallon Hydroton bucket. So I guess what I seek here is a method of sprouting without rockwool that won’t steal too much time for my auto life cycle. Or should I just use organic soil and be done with it? Thanks in advance for all the great advice. I appreciate every it very much. DGC for
Im assuming you use a humidity dome with the clones? Also, my buddy who runs autos exclusively always transplants from a solo cup to a 5 gal, and never has any issues. Obviously the main concern is causing root shock and your yields suffering. He says this is easily avoidable by simply transplanting before the roots hit the edge of whatever container your using. Im not an auto guy myself, that is why I defaulted to him, who has been growing autos since Lowryder was just a gimmick on the ICMag forum lol.
I personally pop seeds in a paper towel and let them sit in the towel for an extra day or 2, until the root is long enough for me to put into my 1 inch net cup of clay. I like to pheno hunt in half gallon mason jars, using the Kratky method of hydro growing (no air pumps). I veg for 1-3 weeks depending on chemovar and anticipated stretching, then flip to flower. Been doing it for almost 8 years now and have only lost 3 plants, which all were due to dropping the net cup and damaging the roots.