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Hello. This is my first time ever experimenting with growing, I found some bag seeds and figured if I could get them going maybe I'd invest in some high quality seeds. I germinated two, one had a pretty long root coming out by the time I planted it, and the other was just beginning to split the seed shell.
I planted each one in a Jiffy Pot with Miracle Grow Organic Choice potting soil, no other nutrients or anything.
The one that had the long root got really tall and fell over by the 2nd or third day, but the other one was looking pretty good and I felt good about it. This is probably the 5th day it's been in soil.
As I've read online, I've generally been waiting until the top inch or so of soil has been totally dry before adding water. When I water, I put the pot under the tap with water coming out as slowly as possible. I rotate the pot under the tap until the water starts to pool on top of the soil just barely, then I remove and let it drain, then repeat this once. When I've been watering, it has not been completely soaking the peat pot, although there have been wet spots here and there. Online I read that you should water every 2-3 days, so even though I'm mostly relying on my own observation, I tend to err on the side of not giving it water, because I've read that the most common problem is overwatering.
Not wanting to invest in expensive lights and electric bills, I am relying on the fact that I can keep my plant in direct natural sunlight from about 8 am until 7 pm, and after that I stick the pot about an inch under a 23 watt CFL in my closet, with foil-covered reflectors around it. To compensate for the fact that I can only get it around 11 hours of sunlight, I leave the CFL on all night, so there is no time when the plant is in complete darkness.
My seedling was going strong this morning, as you can see in this picture:
The soil seemed pretty dry last night, but I had given it some water that morning so I figured I shouldn't add more. I gave it a little this morning though, since the soil was dry an inch under, as best as I could tell. However, after a few hours of sunlight, the next time I checked, the poor thing had fallen over under its own weight and its new leaves were slightly curled. I buried it with a little more soil to get it to stand up straight. Everything on the internet had convinced me that my problem would be overwatering, but after thinking about how the soil had felt dry, I decided to give it a thorough watering, enough to dampen the whole peat pot, and put it out in the sun for the ~4 of daylight it had left. The sun has just set and it's in my closet under the CFL. I think it looks a tiny bit better (hard to say, especially with wishful thinking factored in) but still quite bad. Here are some pics:
The reason I added more water this afternoon is that in my previous waterings, the whole peat pot wasn't getting wet, so I convinced myself that it needed more because I was watering often enough, but not giving it enough water each time. And when I read that you should water every two or three days, it occurred to me that those articles may have been talking about when they're in larger pots that don't dry out as fast as a little jiffy pot.
If it somehow bounces back, i will know that i was under-watering before, but if it dies then I won't know how to do it better next time. So I was wondering if you guys could tell at all from the picture and the info in this post if my problem is over-watering, under-watering, or even something else entirely. I was also wondering what the chances were of my plant making it through this episode and bouncing back, particularly as the pot is still damp and there will be no sunlight until 8 am tomorrow.
I would really appreciate any help from more experienced growers, and thank you for reading that giant wall of text.
One more thing: I'm unhappy with how this went in the Jiffy Pot, so the next time I get some bagseeds, would it hurt to just plant the seed directly in a large pot after germination, so that I can water every 2-3 days and not worry so much about it drying out or over-correcting and adding too much water?
I planted each one in a Jiffy Pot with Miracle Grow Organic Choice potting soil, no other nutrients or anything.
The one that had the long root got really tall and fell over by the 2nd or third day, but the other one was looking pretty good and I felt good about it. This is probably the 5th day it's been in soil.
As I've read online, I've generally been waiting until the top inch or so of soil has been totally dry before adding water. When I water, I put the pot under the tap with water coming out as slowly as possible. I rotate the pot under the tap until the water starts to pool on top of the soil just barely, then I remove and let it drain, then repeat this once. When I've been watering, it has not been completely soaking the peat pot, although there have been wet spots here and there. Online I read that you should water every 2-3 days, so even though I'm mostly relying on my own observation, I tend to err on the side of not giving it water, because I've read that the most common problem is overwatering.
Not wanting to invest in expensive lights and electric bills, I am relying on the fact that I can keep my plant in direct natural sunlight from about 8 am until 7 pm, and after that I stick the pot about an inch under a 23 watt CFL in my closet, with foil-covered reflectors around it. To compensate for the fact that I can only get it around 11 hours of sunlight, I leave the CFL on all night, so there is no time when the plant is in complete darkness.
My seedling was going strong this morning, as you can see in this picture:
The soil seemed pretty dry last night, but I had given it some water that morning so I figured I shouldn't add more. I gave it a little this morning though, since the soil was dry an inch under, as best as I could tell. However, after a few hours of sunlight, the next time I checked, the poor thing had fallen over under its own weight and its new leaves were slightly curled. I buried it with a little more soil to get it to stand up straight. Everything on the internet had convinced me that my problem would be overwatering, but after thinking about how the soil had felt dry, I decided to give it a thorough watering, enough to dampen the whole peat pot, and put it out in the sun for the ~4 of daylight it had left. The sun has just set and it's in my closet under the CFL. I think it looks a tiny bit better (hard to say, especially with wishful thinking factored in) but still quite bad. Here are some pics:
The reason I added more water this afternoon is that in my previous waterings, the whole peat pot wasn't getting wet, so I convinced myself that it needed more because I was watering often enough, but not giving it enough water each time. And when I read that you should water every two or three days, it occurred to me that those articles may have been talking about when they're in larger pots that don't dry out as fast as a little jiffy pot.
If it somehow bounces back, i will know that i was under-watering before, but if it dies then I won't know how to do it better next time. So I was wondering if you guys could tell at all from the picture and the info in this post if my problem is over-watering, under-watering, or even something else entirely. I was also wondering what the chances were of my plant making it through this episode and bouncing back, particularly as the pot is still damp and there will be no sunlight until 8 am tomorrow.
I would really appreciate any help from more experienced growers, and thank you for reading that giant wall of text.
One more thing: I'm unhappy with how this went in the Jiffy Pot, so the next time I get some bagseeds, would it hurt to just plant the seed directly in a large pot after germination, so that I can water every 2-3 days and not worry so much about it drying out or over-correcting and adding too much water?
