I've been having some issues with constant temps. durring the day I keep my heat lamp (on 1 batch) and heating pads (on the other 2 batches) on and the temps sit in the 80's , at night i turn everything off and the temps drop to a chilly 58-60 degrees, my question is will this kill the seeds, will the seeds be better if I just keep heat on them at all times?
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seeds Seed survival?
- Thread starter punn177
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I personally don't think it will kill them since they survive in that temperature when they are dormant, but it would sure make things really slow for them, but I would personally just keep the heat on all the time, no reason not to, the heat mats and stuff usually don't take a lot of energy, and the heat lamp if it is a ceramic one or something that is higher wattage, just switch to a few CFL lights or something or whatever you will be using and keep them a little closer to the soil, in a box or something like that.. will keep them warm, it will also help if you have all of them in the same enclosure, even if it's just a cardboard box for now, keeping the heat in will help
-and don't want to jack your thread but since it's about seed survival I figured I would throw this in here if you don't mind, but for anyone that is looking, if they know if the seeds will be killed if the substrate is allowed to totally dry out, for a day or 2, but the temps are kept the same, and it is watered after and back to "normal" for germination, or once the seeds start germinating, does drying them out mostly kill them?
-and don't want to jack your thread but since it's about seed survival I figured I would throw this in here if you don't mind, but for anyone that is looking, if they know if the seeds will be killed if the substrate is allowed to totally dry out, for a day or 2, but the temps are kept the same, and it is watered after and back to "normal" for germination, or once the seeds start germinating, does drying them out mostly kill them?
Keep the seeds warm 24/7 though what your doing now will not kill them, Max If the seeds popped then the drought probably killed it, I have had seeds show up in recycled soil months later, and I know that soil dryed out completly, good luck.
punn-- No it will not kill the seeds. Those temps are completely normal and I've germinated several varieties at a stable 60F for 24 hours a day. My first season my annuum seeds were germinated in 70F daytime temps with 55F nighttime temps. If you drop the temps too low they will germinate slow or not at all though, so if you can keep them around 80-85F all day it would be ideal. Of course if electricity is a bit of a worry you don't NEED to keep them that warm all day long.
PaulG
Extreme Member
My garage gets down to 60 every night, so I just hung foil over my shop light to keep the heat and light in the little germinating space I had. The temps stayed at the mid 80's when I had lights on 24/7. Once they sprout and put on a couple of leaves, they can handle cooler night temps. Right now, lights on an 18/6 schedule, and the 60 degree temps at night mid 70'S during the day haven't killed the plants! I think the main danger is that the soil dries out once the root tip has extended. In that case, the root could shrivel and die.
punn- Check out this website, it shows germination percentages and times based on different temperatures. You won't get a much lower germination rate at lower temps, and it won't kill the seed, but it will take longer for germination to occur. The longer it takes the more prone the seed is to rotting if the soil is soggy.
http://tomclothier.hort.net/page11.html
http://tomclothier.hort.net/page11.html
It will be fine, thats my outdoor temps, and i have every perrer that fell last year sprouting...
well I had 2 more seedlings come up today, and a third which was brain strain red came up after only 4 days. but with a helmet head.. so it nagged at me enough for me to try to take it off with tweezers and.. well it didn't end well.. it's pretty much a goner unless it has crazy powers and can sprout new leaves without anything to get it going lol.. just wish I had a few more of those seeds, I only have 2 up now and 2 seeds that might just pop up, but who knows.. oh well
You should keep it on 24/7. Their germination rates will be decreased and they will germinate much slower with the 58-60 temperature. Some will survive and others won't.
One of my devil's tongues lost its cotyledons on its own (soil must of been too compact) and it grew new leaves soon after (its true leaves in place of the cotyledons). It only seems to have slowed it down. I wouldn't give up hope.
Edit: Next time let it shed the seed helmet on its own. It will do it. I found it helps to dab water on the seed case to help soften it up.
One of my devil's tongues lost its cotyledons on its own (soil must of been too compact) and it grew new leaves soon after (its true leaves in place of the cotyledons). It only seems to have slowed it down. I wouldn't give up hope.
Edit: Next time let it shed the seed helmet on its own. It will do it. I found it helps to dab water on the seed case to help soften it up.
yeah I actually had one do that on it's own a few weeks ago (before I let the tray dry out and killed it) but I was just about to pull it and put a new seed in there, but it the stem was green still so I figured I would see what happened and it had just started to put it's first leaves out before I killed it from going away that weekend, but this one broke off a little lower on the stem, but still about 1-2cm out of the soil.. so who knows.. and yeah, I have already pulled the seed off once and killed one.. I just didn't learn my lesson.. but this time I will make sure I don't touch them anymore, even with tweezers it's not worth the risk.. lol
nice, I've had a few pop up the last 2 days, I'm still waiting on any of the chocolate bhuts to pop up, they took forever on my first set of seeds