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San Jose garysand@pacbell.net

It appears I have drown/rotted my seeds. When I went too look at my seeds after 6 days and took them apart, like advanced starting method one had turned to mush and STUNK, the others were very soft. I took out the growing mix and put a handfull in my hand and could squeeze moisture out of it.

How moist should the soil be? I realize this maybe hard to describe, but give it a shot. I will show the carnage on my diary soon

All I have left is some seeds I ordered that are supposedly from 1000lb plus pumps, but no pedigree, anyone have any seeds they want to sell???

Thanks

Gary

5/9/2005 4:42:39 PM

Montoursville, PA

The planting medium should be soil-less. The dampness should be dry damp. Just barely damp. Never approaching anything you would call wet. Keep 'em that way untill you have sight of true leaf. Then head for the patch. The whole process after four hour soaking should not be more than six to eight days. Three or four days is sometimes enough to see the first true leaf for vine direction setting where you want it to go.

I do not think there is any question. You were to wet. The seed rotted because of that.

5/9/2005 4:58:19 PM

Follansbee, Wv

When I prepare my mix, I squeeze a handfull of it very hard. I look for small bubbles forming between my fingers, but no drips. That's how moist I make it. I also let my four year old squeeze it. When she says it sounds "squeaky", it's ready.

5/9/2005 5:21:35 PM

San Jose garysand@pacbell.net

it was soil-less, just potting mix stuff, but I could wring water out of it, thats why I posted it in the begginer spot, hoping to save some other poor sap the heartache.

5/9/2005 6:18:17 PM

Pemberton, BC

Gary, I just transplanted my plants into a 4 gallon pot Into that 4 gallons of potting soil I put exactly 8 cups of water. I've just posted a picture into my diary (not sure if it's on yet)that will show that with the water mixed in the pot it is about 3/4 full due to moisture and compaction. So that is my ratio 4 gallons of dry potting soil to 8 cups of water. It works great for me. Hope this helps. Chad

5/9/2005 7:29:40 PM

Ctpumpkin@optonline.net

Ditto...I use a 5 gallon bucket that is clean enough to eat out of.

I measure the ingedients with the same 2 quart (64 US ounces) plastic measuring pitcher.

1 pitcher each of Fine Milled Sphagnum - Vermiculite - Perlite - warm water.

The last pitcher is the water. First I place 1 drop of dishwashing liquid into the pitcher. Add a little water & dump it out. The remaining detergent film is NOT rinsed out. Just fill the pitcher minus 4 ounces with 120-130*F hot tap water & dump it into the bucket.

Mix it all together with clean bare hands. Let it sit a while to cool & for the ingredients to absorb water.

If you can still squeeze drop out of the dampest part, add a few more handfulls of the milled sphagnum until no more drops can be squeezed out.

The minute amount of detergent acts as a wetting agent to help speed the absorption. The other alternative is to plan ahead like I never do. The trace amount of detergent does no harm to the plants at all.

Messy???? You bet! But no rotten seeds...EVER! And it's only once a year. Plus it's kind of fun.

5/9/2005 9:21:58 PM

Itzetown City

I don´t mix something. I use so called common seedling-soil as we can buy in 20 Liter bags at home-depot.
I soak the seeds, after I´d filed the edges and put em for 24 hours in a tissue (I make the tissue wet and sqeeze in my hands the wet out of it) in a ziplock on the cooler-rips of the fridge.
After that I fill the soil out of the bag in 10inch flower pots (collected from some flowers last year) and put the seeds 1inch deep in the soil. I do not watering the soil extra so the soil has only the moisture as it has in the bag.
I place the pots on a saucer on the radiator and cover the pots with a newspaper. I do first watering after germination.
100% of germination here.

5/12/2005 4:11:48 PM

San Jose garysand@pacbell.net

Thank you all for your comments, I did Chad's method, after doing advance seed starting, and 3 1/2 days later the little buggers came up.

Was begining to think you cant grow AG's in CAlif. :->

5/12/2005 9:20:50 PM