Longest Germination Time?

[D-TrainCA]

What's the longest you've ever had to wait for a seed to germinate and still had a normal, healthy plant?

I have a fairly careful, repeatable germ process (rock wool, 5.5 water, humidity dome, etc.) and I've had 100% success the last 4 strains I've germ'ed with seedlings showing in 3-5 days. Recently got 10 Northern Lights seeds from a reputable source I've used before, and the first three went 15 days and nothing. I retried with two more and I'm on day 8 and still nothing. Maybe just a bad batch of seeds...

I'm behind schedule now for my next grow!

[Love The Rain]

most good and healthy seeds sprout after a couple days,some older seeds take longer.i usually give them a couple of days to germinate if i still see no signs after 5-6 days i start to get worried.

[9fingerleafs]

isn't the water too acidic? i know its the right ph for hydro but maybe use seeds need 6.5 water to open?? not sure just pointing out, i would try also soaking seed in water 24hrs before germinating, i use wet towel to sprout nd transplant once they've opened

[9fingerleafs]

15 days is a lot.... I've waited a week at most, longer than that u will see the seed get darker, kinda sluggish nd swelled, thats a dead seed decomposing, some times they just flood

[ezwider]

If you let them rest for a few hours in a cup of water, those that sink are good, those that remain floating after 12 hours are usually not good.
Those that sink can be placed in whichever medium you use for germination right away.

[Eliot Pryor]

Your question piqued my curiosity so I checked my old posts, remembering I had one that took longer than most. A Kandy Kush seed I grew took 7 days to pop. I start them in a rockwool cube. Usually they pop in 2 days. Good growing to you.

[D-TrainCA]

isn't the water too acidic?

Well, that's supposed to compensate for the rock wool having a too-high natural pH. That's what's worked for me recently.

[D-TrainCA]

One popped...

[Mañ'O'Green]

Congradulations. Was that 10 days?

[D-TrainCA]

Congradulations. Was that 10 days?

9 days. We'll see how this one grows...

[Royal Nugs]

Better late than never!

What did the first ones look like? I'm hoping you looked in the rockwool to see what happened? I'm assuming it was a damping off situation. I've had that happen to me, seedling was a white puddle of goo when it got too humid in the dome. I don't even bother anymore with the dome, keep em warm and at little bit of humidity seems to work best for me. I spritz em with my distilled water every few hours if able. 100% germ rate since I started doing it this way.

[D-TrainCA]

Better late than never!

What did the first ones look like?

They all had cracked with the tap root exposed a couple mm, but that's it. Didn't look rotten to my eyes.

[Royal Nugs]

If they cracked open that would tell me that there was an environmental issue that caused them to die. If the seeds were too old or just bad to begin with, I don't think they'd split open at all. I'm no expert but logic leads me to that conclusion.

[D-TrainCA]

If they cracked open that would tell me that there was an environmental issue that caused them to die. If the seeds were too old or just bad to begin with, I don't think they'd split open at all. I'm no expert but logic leads me to that conclusion.

Exactly that. I discovered that my pH pen was reading about 1.5 off and my water was way too acidic. I started 3 more seeds last week with correctly pH'ed water and they've all popped inside of 5 days.

It's probably a safe bet that the apparent K deficiency I've been experiencing with my flowering plants is can be traced back to the same bad pH pen (or more accurately, the same bad grower relying on the same bad pH pen...).

[9fingerleafs]

You should recalibrate often. I use coke or apple white vinager. Both ph 2.4 😉

[Mañ'O'Green]

Calibrating at that low of a ph my not translate well in the higher ph range that we work in depending on the algorithms used by the manufacturer of the pen. It is best to use the calibration fluid recommended by the maker. In my experience the fluids are ~7.01 PH @ 25°C