Ensure All of Your Plants Grow by Controlling Seed Sprouting
The problem with growing plants from seeds is that not all seeds sprout, and this results in wasting rockwool cubes and “holes” in the hydroponics system that should contain hydroponic plants.
This video is a great, simple demonstration of how to ensure that all of our rockwool cubes are used to their full effectiveness, which is by ensuring that only seeds that have sprouted are placed into rockwool cubes.
To do this, using lettuce as an example:
- moisten a paper towel with water
- place the lettuce seeds onto the paper towel (add a few more to take into account any seeds that don’t sprout)
- place the seeds in the dark for ~24 hours, or longer if they don’t sprout
- once the seeds have sprouted and a small root is visible, transfer the seeds gently into a rockwool cube that has been pre-moistened with water
- place the seeds into normal light or under a 16 hour/day grow light, keeping the rockwool moist until true leaves have developed
- transfer to your hydroponics system when appropriate (e.g. immediately if roots don’t need to emerge from the rockwool, or wait until roots have emerged from the rockwool if your system requires the roots to hang down in order to be in contact with the growth solution
This is a fantastically simple method to get most efficiency from hydroponics systems.
Some seeds are more difficult to sprout, and may require other factors (e.g. light, more time, more/less water), which may require experimenting to get full sprouting efficiency.
Filed under: Hydroponics How To
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