squarewaves
420 Member
Hi, I'm back after putting your weighing strategy to use and I'm loving the whole situation. I have a spray bottle and a squirt bottle and I'm doing a kind of mashup of all the sugggestions Ive gotten. Seedlings are jamming.When I used solo cups to germinate, my rule of thumb was to keep 20 grams below wet weight and add water when I got to within 10 grams of dry weight. As you can see in this case I was adding just over an ounce of water when needed to stay within those parameters. This kept my soil moist, not saturated, providing plenty of air pockets for the young roots to take in oxygen and release carbon dioxide. These air pockets are essential. If I hold your head under water for 10 minutes, the water doesn't kill you. The lack of oxygen does. Roots are no different. As I've taught folks on this forum, there is no overwatering, it's watering too often keeping the medium saturated, removing air pockets. Also for the OP. A 48hr. seed soak will greatly contribute to damping off. 4hrs is plenty to begin the first stage, (imbibition) of germination.
Question if I may: I'm able to get a nice 2-3 days wet dry cycle with these controlled waterings. I work my way up from spraying the seed to a 10gram h20 squirt on the stem, to a 35g h2o "ring" around the cup with a chefs squirt bottle. Once I get past the 35g ring stage, do you stop at 35 grams of fluid per watering or do you gradually work up to a more saturated soil?
Some people use the "shot glass" volume. I weighed that at 50grams h2o. Thats about 15g more than the 35 we discussed. I also did a test on a 200g cup of Happy Frog to see how much fluid it could hold (with runoff) and max was 300g. That seems just too wet and also means washing out nutrients from organic soil.
How much is just right once We have 2nd leaves coming and the seedlings have had a few wet/dry cycles? Is there a "the plants big enough in the solo for a consistent watering" weight/volume that can be repeated reliably until I repot?
