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Seeds all germinate, but don't sprout when planted?

I'm repeating the grow using another 4 seeds, but this time:
  1. I'll be sure to keep the temperature no higher than 75 degrees.
  2. After germination, I'll plant them in Coco-Coir/Perlite in a 9 ounce Solo cup**, instead of using Jiffy cubes ***.
  3. Would it be a good idea to let the germinating seeds develop a bit further before planting them?. Last time I took them as soon as I saw a tiny tap root. Is it better to let the tap root get longer before planting?
*** A friend recommended using 3" peat pots containing coco-coir, instead of the Solo cups, to avoid transplant shock when going into the final pots. Any opinions on that?
 
I go papertowel until tap roots about ½ to an inch long and then straight into final resting place. I think most do what your proposing though. Rinse your coco with a low EC nute with calmag wash say 0.4....first nutes no stronger than that on start of first leaf...keep the coco moist with plain water, don't drown it. If you get green algae on top stop watering for a bit. It will first show on the perlite a light green tinge. pH 5.9 should be good

Edit. Make sure you maintain 100% humidity till it sprouts and opens then take your lids off the domes about then for 80% humidity, or there abouts
 
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pellet.jpg

Bluey These are about $8 on Amazon.
 
Brother Frank. The best thing you can do is put your seeds directly in the pot they will grow in. Every time you transplant you open yourself to damage and deal with a fresh medium. All the suggestions and such on GWE are great and work. But a lot if it is just unnecessary.
Plants should max out their development in whatever container they are in. I mean, a young seedling with a tap and a few feeder roots is a delicate thing that can easily be damaged. An established root-ball can take a lot more abuse. You can even cut and/or shave a healthy root-ball to encourage more roots.
The only advantage I ever found to using Solo cups was being able to chase the sun that comes into my apartment. Guaranteed more than one of those cups got knocked over.
Simplify, my new friend. Simplify.
 
Bluey, can you explain the reason for rinsing the Coco with low EC nute and calmag, if I then use plain water afterwards? Thanks
 
I wash the coco to clean it...if you run plain water through it you often get an EC reading so I clear that.

I then put a weak nute mix through it but it's often too strong for a germinated seed so then just add plain water to dilute it where the seed is. It leaves a bit of nute in the mix but not much.

It's just the way I have sort of settled on. You could just stick to plain water then add the week mix when you get first leaf. Don't forget your humidity domes.

Edit. I do foliar spray a calmag solution at 0.2 EC as soon as the sprouts open. I am no seedling expert though. It's the part I hate. The second part I hate is trying to control humidity mid grow in my grow room...it swings heaps
 
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I grow in coco/perlite only and listen to Bluey below! It's not uncommon to see very early nutrient deficiencies in coco grows if you do not provide some cal mag in the beginning. I learned this the hard way over many seedings :P
 
I soak them in tap water for 24 hours then put directly in coco/perlite in a solo cup. Be sure to cut drainage holes in the cup and keep the coco moist until they break ground. Then the plant and all the coco are transplanted into final pot. Transplant is usually after the first root tips poke through the drain holes. I don't like the paper towel due to the possibility of damaging the tap root, which I have done several times.
 
Oh, I also use a very week nute mix to wash/rinse because I cannot accurately read the pH of rainwater without adding something to it so a little bit of nute gives me an accurate reading.

Measuring pH accurately in demineralised water costs a few grand in lab equipment so I just add a tiny bit of nutes to measure it accurately using my pen.
 
If you use coco wash it with a cal mag solution before you use it. Even if the bag says it is ready to use. Some coco comes pre-washed, some doesn't. I mix the coco and perlite at a 50/50 blend and then wash with a cal mag solution at the rate listed on the bottle, nothing else. The wash adds the cal-mag of course but it also washes the dust off of the perlite. I made the mistake, once, of not rinsing the perlite. That $hit got everywhere, clogged up my exhaust fan carbon filter and made me crazy trying to figure it all out. I'm not a fan of solo cups because of the hassle of transplanting. I've cut out Rapid Rooters in the germination process because they aren't necessary. I suck at the paper towel method of germinating. This is what I do. Drop seeds in a shot glass, soak in water 24-36 hours, the tap root sometimes shows sometimes not, usually about a 1/8-1/4" long, then directly into coco/perlite in a small grow bag, PH'd water when needed to keep the coco moist but not wet. T5 lights come on when the sprouts show themselves. Once the first set of leaves after the cotyledon's appear, start with 1/4 to 1/2 strength nutrients. I threw away the reptile heat mat. I'm convinced it was burning up my seeds.
 
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Either y'all are doing everything right or I am doing everything wrong.
Cloud Coco (I think), Mother Earth, and Fox Farms are the coco/perlite brands I have used. I have never flushed. The only thing I do is wet the stuff so it settles in the fabric grow bag I've used for years and never washed.
 
Bluey: Interesting! I had been feeding my seedlings (the ones that didn't grow at all) with tap water adjusted with "pH Down" to pH 6.0, according to my cheap pH meter. pH strips said it was much lower, but I trusted the meter more.

When I added 1/4 strength Fox Farms nutes to some of the "pH 6" water, the meter read ~ pH 4. So either the nutes are very acidic, so they lowered the pH considerably, or else the water was never really pH 6, but much lower , and the pH meter doesn't work well on very weak solutions.

Maybe that's why my seedlings didn't grow? The water I used for the initial paper towel germination was just plain tap water, so maybe that's why the seeds popped a tap root, but then failed when I planted them in Jiffy cubes and used the "pH 6 water".​
 
Get a good pH pen. Plenty of horror stories here regarding cheap ones. BluLabs and Apera make good ones. You'll need storage and calibration fluid also.
 
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