Gee64
Well-Known Member
Thats an excellent question Keff, and my answer is what works for me, but I have made my own seeds and that allows me to try things for free, if you are paying $10-20 per seed you may want to continue with whatever is working for you, so here goes.....
TLO soil is very strong. Seeds will, and do, pop in it but.... seeds will and do, die in it. Let me explain.
If your soil is "hot" in the sense that its really strong on nutrition thats doable.
If its "hot" in the sense that its not cooked properly or your ewc isn't finished, or you decided to add some kelp or alfalfa or any green meals last minute, your soil isn't properly cooked. You will have issues.
What I am about to say is based on the fact that your "hot" soil is the good hot.
Then there is EWC. Its the key here. EWC alone is extremely "hot" as in nutritious yet seeds pop like mad in it. My worm farm is loaded with sproutlings, very healthy ones.
This is because good EWC is exactly what seedlings and mature plants want, its food with a full arsenal of healthy aerobic microbes.
Healthy aerobic microbes want to work for a plant to get sugar. Its what they do, so coddling a seedling along is whats best for them and they are good at it. But there can still be a problem, and $10-20 a seed isn't the way to science.
The issue is that in TLO, as you, Keff, already know, the seeds are packed with the microbes they need.
They are prepared to start the exact rhizosphere they need to survive so.... If you toss the seeds straight into good hot soil they may or may not pop, and if they do pop they may or may not survive the sprouting, and its because the enormous amount of microbes in the ewc/hot soil will overwhelm the microbes in the seed before it can get established.
If it does establish then the soil will support it by any means to get a plant to get myco to get sugar.
I looked far and wide, cotton batton, ground perlite, coco, etc, to use as a small base to start the seed in inside the TLO soil. Finally I found spagnum moss.
Its sterile so when the seed pops it has an area that isn't overpowered by soil microbes.
The microbes in the seed indiginize the sterile spagnum and a rhizosphere is created, and the soil joins in and aids the established rhizosphere.
Once roots grow through the 1" square 1/2" thick blob of spagnum they take to the hot soil just fine, at least mine do. It's how I sprout in 10gals.
That being said, sprouting in spagnum is a real pain in the ass. You need to grind it in a blender to dust, soak it at least overnight as it repels moisture until it saturates, then once planted you need to drip water onto the spagnum every 4 hours or so when the lights are on to keep it moist and its not soil so helmet-heads are common. Im a pretty good surgeon now lol.
But if you do all that you will get extremely healthy sprouts and they will have the biggest leaves you have ever seen on seedlings.
But let me be clear here... If you try this and it dries out on you your seeds are likely screwed.
Other than that I find starting in a small solo of weaker soil (I cut mine with used soil) and uppotting as soon as you see a tap root bottom out in the cup works really well and is safe. You can test it in solos, but if you are sprouting in solos I would recommend using weaker soil as the only real advantage of popping in hot soil is to avoid uppotting.
Have I ever mentioned I'm lazy?
I hate trimming and I hate uppotting. Nature doesn't uppot.
If you start in a large pot then mix myco into the soil right next to the spagnum AND hit it with a myco drench at about day 5-7 when the 3-prongers are out and the 3rd set is starting you have photosynthesis to support the myco.
So try it for sure, but if you are on a schedule then pop the way that works for you and deal with too many seedlings if they all work out.
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