Help with watering a seedling in a solo cup

[jokerlola]

I have a new seedling in a solo cup that is about a week old. It looks like it needs water. What is the best way to water it at this stage? With a spray bottle or poured in and how much (if spray bottle, approx how many squirts?).

It’s been my first time growing from seed and I keep killing them with damping off so I’m a little gun shy to water but it definitely looks like it needs water now and the media looks and feels dry. I just don’t want to damp off this one too.

 

[Sueet]

Assuming your soil is good, go ahead and fill the cup til it comes out the bottom. You can spray it, or just gently pour it in, (or even put it in a bowl of water and let it wick up what it wants) the plant won't mind which you choose
It looks pretty dry so the soil may want to reject the water, just go slow until it absorbs.

 

[Nunyabiz]

This one you're going to kill by under watering it appears.

Should always fill the cup to the absolute brim with soil number one, if you had it like that that before thats likely why it dampened off.
The soil looks reasonably aerated but hard to tell just from looking at a picture, if your soil tilth is right you should be able to saturate the soil 12 hours before you plant the seed to make sure there are no dry spots.
Then plant the seed and water in until a few drops come out the bottom holes.
Then keep your temp between 74-79 and your humidity between 65-75%
And add 3 to 4 teaspoons of oxygenated water along the outer edge of the cup everyday for 7 days.
Then transplant.

For a seedling, under watering is just as bad as over watering.
And really over watering is never a problem, the problem is oxygen starvation.
For instance, you can grow in straight water just needs to be oxygenated.
So clearly water is never the problem.
Its lack of oxygen.
So if your soil can hold oxygen then technically you basically can't overwater unless you just toss your pot into a pool.

Get your soil right and just water at will.

 

[Doctor Trevor]

Your plant in a solo cup. Did you punch holes in the cup for drainage?

 

[jokerlola]

This one you're going to kill by under watering it appears.

Should always fill the cup to the absolute brim with soil number one, if you had it like that that before thats likely why it dampened off.
The soil looks reasonably aerated but hard to tell just from looking at a picture, if your soil tilth is right you should be able to saturate the soil 12 hours before you plant the seed to make sure there are no dry spots.
Then plant the seed and water in until a few drops come out the bottom holes.
Then keep your temp between 74-79 and your humidity between 65-75%
And add 3 to 4 teaspoons of oxygenated water along the outer edge of the cup everyday for 7 days.
Then transplant.

For a seedling, under watering is just as bad as over watering.
And really over watering is never a problem, the problem is oxygen starvation.
For instance, you can grow in straight water just needs to be oxygenated.
So clearly water is never the problem.
Its lack of oxygen.
So if your soil can hold oxygen then technically you basically can't overwater unless you just toss your pot into a pool.

Get your soil right and just water at will.

There is about and inch of space between the soil and edge of the cup. Didn't know it should be up to brim. It's a good, well draining seed starting mix from Sun Grow. I pretty much have done what you said with my seedlings before (saturate soil about a day before planting, and planted seeds and sprayed with water till a bit of run off) and wound up having damp off. Maybe soil just holds too much moisture? For these seeds, I sprayed dry soil 5 to 10 times, planted seeds, and then sprayed a few more sprays. Then I sprayed around the outer edge of the cup a few times every other day once sprouted. Cup had some weight to it but was no where near saturated. Seedling looked great until this afternoon. It's like all the moisture suddenly evaporated! I had just sprayed it yesterday. I have now watered till a few drops came out the bottom. Hopefully it won't die off.


I just can't figure why I'm having so much trouble with seeds? I planted tomato seeds at the same time as the other seeds and they all took off fine and are now big plants. I mentioned before that back in the day, I used to plant bag seed all the time, just for the hell of it. Used to just throw them into an old house plant pot filled with dry, used houseplant soil. Pour some water over them and would sprout a seed and grow a plant every time with no problem. I guess I'm being too careful because I am actually wanting to grow to full term and I have limited seeds and don't want to waste them. Before I didn't give a shit if they grew or not because I would have to kill them at a certain point anyway because of the whole "illegal" thing.

 

[Nunyabiz]

The pic it looks dry as a bone.
Must have dry roots because at 7 days should be about 5x that size.
If the soil is well aerated then should be able to water.

 

[Emilya Green]

Please read this... it will help. You need to learn about the wet/dry cycle.

The Proper Way To Water A Potted Plant

The Proper Way to Water a Potted Plant Also covered: the importance of pH and why we successively up-pot How to Water Over the last several years I have put a lot of study into this, and I feel that I can now define the proper way to water a potted plant. Keep in mind that this discussion...

www.420magazine.com

almost 1/3 of a million people have viewed this article... I hope it helps you.

 

[jokerlola]

Please read this... it will help. You need to learn about the wet/dry cycle.

The Proper Way To Water A Potted Plant

The Proper Way to Water a Potted Plant Also covered: the importance of pH and why we successively up-pot How to Water Over the last several years I have put a lot of study into this, and I feel that I can now define the proper way to water a potted plant. Keep in mind that this discussion...

www.420magazine.com

almost 1/3 of a million people have viewed this article... I hope it helps you.

Yes, I have read it and am a huge fan of your article. It's how I've been watering my plants and clones since I started growing in 2018. I think I just took the dry cycle almost a little too far with this seedling and since I struggled early on with damp off I guess I was under watering it. Luckily, it is recovering and should pull thru.

This is my first time of trying to grow from seed thru to harvest. Before this I've only grown clones. Over the years I have planted cannabis seeds many times and they have always sprouted and grew into plants but it didn't really matter because I was just fooling around. I never let them get beyond the 1 foot tall stage because of the legality of it. I think I'm just being too careful because I'm trying to grow them for real. And even though I got the seeds for free, I know they are normally very expensive and I have a limited amount and some will be males.

As a side note, can old or badly stored seeds be more prone to damp off and failing to grow after germination? I have tried grow 12 seeds. 4 are seeds I found in my trim from last year's harvest. All 4 of them germinated and are currently growing with no problems and doing good. The Other 8 seeds are from some regular seeds that were given to me. I know they are almost 2 years old and probably older and I have no idea how they were stored. These are the seeds that keep dying on me. Of the 8, only 3 are still growing and doing good.

 

[Emilya Green]

Yes, I have read it and am a huge fan of your article. It's how I've been watering my plants and clones since I started growing in 2018. I think I just took the dry cycle almost a little too far with this seedling and since I struggled early on with damp off I guess I was under watering it. Luckily, it is recovering and should pull thru.

This is my first time of trying to grow from seed thru to harvest. Before this I've only grown clones. Over the years I have planted cannabis seeds many times and they have always sprouted and grew into plants but it didn't really matter because I was just fooling around. I never let them get beyond the 1 foot tall stage because of the legality of it. I think I'm just being too careful because I'm trying to grow them for real. And even though I got the seeds for free, I know they are normally very expensive and I have a limited amount and some will be males.

As a side note, can old or badly stored seeds be more prone to damp off and failing to grow after germination? I have tried grow 12 seeds. 4 are seeds I found in my trim from last year's harvest. All 4 of them germinated and are currently growing with no problems and doing good. The Other 8 seeds are from some regular seeds that were given to me. I know they are almost 2 years old and probably older and I have no idea how they were stored. These are the seeds that keep dying on me. Of the 8, only 3 are still growing and doing good.

It has been my experience that dampening off oftentimes happens when someone is trying to think for the plant and limit the amount of water they are giving, and then end up giving it too often. If you properly dry out between waterings all the way to the bottom, dampening off can't easily happen.

Old seeds just sometimes die and it has nothing to do with dampening off... they just don't have the juice necessary to get things going. You never know though... I am presently starting some seeds that are at least 7 years old and even though they floated too long and really didn't look like they were excited about coming to life, every single one of them has made it to the surface. Once they stop floating around, I will stop keeping them wet and they will have to start working for a living, drying out that soil before they get more water.