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seeds Seed trays

Chiliac said:
I am thinking about starting some seeds in rockwool, to see how that works for me. Has anyone not growing hydroponic tried that??
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Yeah, Chiliac, I started all of mine in 1 inch rockwool cubes with the individual plastic wrappers on them. I left the wrappers on them so that the roots wouldn't see light and to retain a little more moisture. I had great germination using them in my starter tray with a heat mat and dome.

I transplanted the one inch rockwool cubes into 4 inch plastic pots with a high quality "cactus" type potting soil and I have them under a dual 125 watt compact florescent light in my grow room starter area.

These plants will be my "Host" plants for clones. I'll pluck any flowers that develop and encourage full vegetative growth until they're as large as I can make them grow. Then, I'll cut them back, harvesting 4 inch cuttings to root in my rooting machine prior to putting them into my hydro setup next spring, outside.

The rockwool cubes work great. I use plain water on the new seedlings and to germinate. Once germinated, I use a nutrient from "Expert Gardener" named "Bloom Burst", (10-52-10), mixed first at 1/4 teaspoon per/gallon of water and after the plants are about 4 inches tall and well into the vegetative growth, I increase that to a half teaspoon per/gallon of water. I also use one tablespoon of Epson salts per/gallon of water.

My seedling area is at a constant 80-85 degrees with a fan blowing all the time. The plants are stocky, well branched and loving life.

That's it.
 
Sounds great and very much like what I was going to do. I'll use different ferts, but aside from that it sounds like my plan. I have one inch rockwool cubes, too and was going to transplant them to 4 inch cups and grow the and fluos until planting out.

I only need to get myself some small fans until next year. The ones I saw so far were all a bit big for my purposes (and the room I have in my growing shelf).

Thanks a lot for the extensive reply and the great info - I appreciate it!
 
POTAWIE said:
I've had good luck with rockwool, the only problem is that it isn't organic.
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Yep thats is a problem..the biodegradable side of me isn't to happy..but thought id have a dabble and see what its like:)
 
I like the idea of being able to raise a lot of seedling in little space. I have bought two 77 1" rockwool cubes trays and those should do the job easily. I'd need much more space using jiffys. I was always very satisfied with jiffys and the results I got, but space is limited in my case.
 
I am interested somewhat in using larger jiffys to transplant into. One thing I have noticed is that it's not abnormal for plants to develop blooms and in a few cases, small tomatoes. These usually fall after transplanting because of the shock, even if they have a very good rootball. But if the buyer could take the plant home, dig a hole and drop the entire thing in, I wonder if the plant would keep its bloom or fruit?

Mike
 
Transplanting will still be a shock to the plant, a minor or bigger one, depending on the circumstances, soil, weather, if it was hardened off properly etc. It's a hit and miss game IMO.
 
It will have to be hardened off, I hope to place them outside by the middle of April, giving them two weeks in the sun. But I would think that at least initially, the soil wouldn't be a factor as the roots would still be completely contained inside the Jiffy pot.

Probably the best course of action, unless someone posts their experiences otherwise, is to try a few plants this year (if I have any that get large enough to merit it) and see what the results are.

Mike
 
I use egg cartons and trays.

Down here they are made of recycled paper pulp they aren't coloured and they bio-degrade well

Cheap as chips.
 
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