seeds My Seeds in Rockwool Do Not Fire!

[PeteyPepper]

On a heating pad at constant (more or less) 85F and housed within a humidity dome. Same seeds planted in Pro-Mix fired in 7days. Rockwool seeds are going on two weeks...nada.

Anyone else have troubles with germinating seeds in rockwool?


Note: I did not soak my rockwool in ph adjusted water, so maybe this is the problem. My tap is neutral (7) so I thought that this would be fine.

 

[LGHT]

Never used those, but was going to try some on the next batch, but maybe I'll just stick with the jiffy setup and the peat pucks instead. From what I've read the only problem with them is the net around the peat doesn't let the roots grow freely, but I took the time to take the net off each one and some of the excess peat so the roots can grow free in the soil after transplanted.

 

[splitcane]

I've had great luck with the RockWool, balance the ph, pack them in 1" of pearlite and keep them wet @ 85* and your gold...

How are you regulating the temp, to high is as bad as too low...?

 

[willard3]

Rock wool works well.

 

[splitcane]

I did half my crop in RockWool and the other half in Dirt, both did well. Did have one in the RockWool fail to launch, set there for 4 weeks just peeking it's head out while his mates were 8" to 10" tall.

Give them time and I'm sure they will show them self's...

I think it's a temp problem...

 

[bigt]

Rockwool has a little bit of a learning curve IMO. Pro-Mix is just so much better, not to mention cheaper and simpler. I've had too many issues with rockwool to use it again, but I did get good germination. (including mass seed caps that you don't get with Pro-Mix) I think your issue may be temperature related, especially if it's more than 85F. Mine germinated quickly at 82F.

 

[splitcane]

Rockwool has a little bit of a learning curve IMO. Pro-Mix is just so much better, not to mention cheaper and simpler. I've had too many issues with rockwool to use it again, but I did get good germination. (including mass seed caps that you don't get with Pro-Mix) I think your issue may be temperature related, especially if it's more than 85F. Mine germinated quickly at 82F.

Good Points... In my RockWool probably half come up with hats, not so with the dirt. Droping the "soil" temp to 82* is also a good idea. Couple of years ago I was taking the air temp in the dome and keeping it at 85*, nothing was happening so on a second thought I took the soil temp and it was rocking at 95*...! Lowered it to 80*/85* and they took off...

 

[willard3]

All seedlings in pic shed caps by themselves.

 

[FiveSix]

if you're using a humidity dome, you shouldn't have to worry about keeping the cubes moist until way after they sprout. Rockwool absorbs so much water is it possible you could have drowned the seeds? Or got them moldy?

 

[bigt]

All seedlings in pic shed caps by themselves.

Your pic shows mass seed caps, which is similar to the experience I had. With Pro-Mix, they leave them behind in the soil and the leaves open up to the light and hit the ground running. Most of mine came off too, but I got tired of looking at them and some resulted in deformed leaves when they finally did come off. I think everybody has their preference for what they like, what works and what they'll tolerate. But I can file my Rockwool experience under "been there, done that".

 

[FiveSix]

Rockwool is very versatile and user friendly for the most part, but it's not really so much a "plug and play" ilke it may seem. When testing PH in rockwool the water should be drawn from the actual rockwool. The PH MAY not be the same after you add it to the wool. For hydroponic growers it's great, but no necessary for container or bed gardeners. Unless you were sitting there with a syringe doing testing all day till you figured out how it reacts I suggest you give it another try in the future.

 

[bigt]

Rockwool is very versatile and user friendly for the most part, but it's not really so much a "plug and play" ilke it may seem. When testing PH in rockwool the water should be drawn from the actual rockwool. The PH MAY not be the same after you add it to the wool. For hydroponic growers it's great, but no necessary for container or bed gardeners. Unless you were sitting there with a syringe doing testing all day till you figured out how it reacts I suggest you give it another try in the future.

I know it works because I had great germination. I think I could solve most of the seed cap problem by closing the hole more after I dropped the seeds in so the seed would scrape the cap off when it emerged. The best thing about RW IMO is how easy the whole seedling and root come out when transplanting to another medium. But the "plug and play" aspect of Pro-Mix really appeals to me as I do only container gardening for the most part, plus the Pro-Mix really roots fast and seems to have superior growth right out of the chute.