Help on first grow.

Its possible that the soil was to strong to break through, when i transplant a germinated seed to a rockwool cube/soil i prefer to go about a 1/4" down like you have done and give the seedling a nice little watering around the seeds area and i let the water acts as a compressor and not using my hand to pack the soil. Ive had quite a few seeds not break through and mostly caused by to hard packed medium and sometimes the seeds gets damaged as you compress.

That's what I was thinking, how long should I leave her before digging her up? Also I didn't pat the soil down on the top, done as you said let the water compress the soil around it. Although my other concern is that the media is quite hard below the surface... Cheers for the help dude!

id let it go for like a 2 weeks if you could afford it but thats unneeded and the seed is dead if it doesnt sprout after a week normally, ive have a seed take 13 days to break surface and it became a very nice healthy plant.

I dont see the need to put them in the paper towel after popping. You might of lost them in between. Ive started mine in the wet towel then straight to soil with success, but prefer a seedling tray with a humidity dome and a heat mat to germinate. Seed straight into soil in the tray and keep moist til you see it break through. That pot is kinda big to start a seed out in also. Th seed tray will allow you to gain a root mass before repotting. I go from a plastic cup to a 1 gallon pot to 3 gallon then finish in a 5 g. Allows your plant to gather a awesome root mass and not wispy with all that soil and no roots. More roots Bigger the fruits. Hope your seeds turn around and end up popping, but if not get a germination dome and a heat mat for the next time mate. Cheers Mate.

Have patience and give it a week or two before you go digging it up. Also it's posible you damaged the tap root when you transplanted it. It's always best to put it directly into your medium as soon as the seed cracks in my experience.

You said it germinated slowly it could be growing slowly as well... Personally I would trash it and restart with new seeds if that's an option. Slow rooting = slow retarded growth. You will want a strong healthy seedling not a slow growing one.

You planted too deep and germinated a shitty way too,paper towel method works the best despite what others may say about their own techniques this only takes me 1 actual day to pop 20 seeds,you should have planted the seed 1/16" deep,me personally if the tap root is just showing i put the seed on top of the soil root down of course and add a pinch of dirt on top of the seed and spray and a few hours later i see first leaves.I never seen mother nature plant any kind of seeds it just falls and water sinks it down a bit just enough to germinate.

Cheers for the quick responses guys! I might give it another couple of days or so then if not I'll try germinating another one taking the helpful tips onboard. Just wondering if it will take a bit longer due to the tuff media for the root to get through, above the seed is quite loose now.. so I guess time will tell. Although once it popped the shell and came out about 1mm it then grew another 2mm over night!

Also I heard somewhere that Coco Coir doesn't have any nutrients in it, so would I add a very dilute nute mix after a week or so? Would Plant Magic Coco Bloom be okay for this or is there better nutes to start with a seedling?

Cheers

So still no sign of her coming through, I think I might start again as it seems to be a slow seed or being in water for 72 hours probably drowned her. I've got a wee propagator and a small pot to build up to the 15l. But I got some expanding peat pellets, would it be okay to start of in the pellets then move to coco? Germinating first on paper towel until it cracks then adding them to the pellets. Or would that cause a bit of stress changing media?

it should be ok....its not recommended to change mediums but a pellet should be ok....if its your first grow i would of startd in pre ferted soil untill you got a hang of things,coco can be a bit unforgiving if you dont know what your doing,also 400w hps is a bit strong for germing...if u have to use it keep it a good distance away with good ventilation fans etc....otherwise u might bleach or roast it into oblivion....u want a cfl really to germ....theres no nutes in coco and the ph is a lot lower than soil/soiless....get some nutes for coco, start simple...a veg and a flower nute...and a cal /mag supplement ....always let ur water stand for 24hrs....get ur ph 5.7 -6.0...get a nute schedule for watever nutes ur using and start at a quarter of watever it recomends and build from there...read up in the coco section forum....good luck

Cheers for the info buddy! Yeah I've been staring at the screen soaking up vast's amount of information and I think I've got a okay idea on what I should be doing haha. All good news, just checked on Cindy (my wee MJ) and she's poking through the soil! I have the hps about 30 inches away from her with a slight breeze going about the tent, is that a good distance or? I was thinking since she seems a bit slow maybe giving her 1/8 strength nutes (Plant Magic Coco Bloom) or should I wait until the third set of leaves? I've got a 125w Clf and loads of other nutes (super thrive, calmag ect.) coming on monday, as I've read that Coco seems to be a bit of a pain with cal deficiency. Cheers for the help ma man!

I see green! haha, very exciting to see! Although now I'm having second thoughts on transplanting her into a smaller pot. Would it be ok to water around the edges until run off to promote root growth? Also my water PPM is 54, soft water then? Would giving her 5-10ml of 157ppm of PM A+B just now be too much? Sorry for the all questions!

Cheers

i wouldnt transplant down ....as for nutes u will have to give it something soon if in coco...id start really really mild of ur grow nutes....in my opinion if you can hatch an grow a seed to plant stage uv sussed it bcoz thats probably the hardest thing with coco....dont giv it loads of water...about 100ml about the stem....theres a guy on here called pukka bud who grows in coco and knows his shit....check his threaads out...also make sure u leave ur water to stand for 24 hrs to get rid of the chlorine...it can mess u up more in coco than soil...i didnt like coco...il probably try again with it one day...they grow alot faster though than soil

Cheers for the help man, really appreciate it! Yeah I leave my water to sit for a while before I use it. Been no growth in about 24 hours, she's still showing the bend just before the leaves pop up. Going to give her a couple more days then if no progress start again, learned a few vital parts since she's been in so maybe it's a sign