Pvt Public's Grow Log '26

PvtPublic

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This is my first time growing, so if you see something that I'm doing wrong please chime in!

Varieties: Criollo 98, Little Dutch, PA Red, and Vuelta Abajo. 6 each.

March 2: Paper towel in ziploc method. I pressed my finger on the seeds and sprinkled about 10-15 seeds onto a damp paper towel, placed it inside the bag and gave it a quick spritz before sealing up.
 

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PvtPublic

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Today: Everything germinated well, placed everyone into their beds of soil. I planted 2x-3x per cell to weed out the weaker ones. The white thing on the bottom right is a seed that intertwined with the paper towel, so i carefully pulled it away from the rest of the PT.
 

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PvtPublic

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March 10: Seed tray dried out pretty bad. I have a wick underneath them that should have kept them moistened. There are about 30% that seem to have held on and look unphased despite still being incredibly small. I lightly spritzed the tray in hopes that more will join the party. I have six trays just like this but with garden vegetables and none of the others had the problem of drying out. :unsure:
 

PvtPublic

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deluxestogie

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The effectiveness of that strange design is strongly dependent on the wicking nature of the soil itself. The perched water table height begins at the surface of the water in the lower container, so the top surface of the soil requires that the soil's capillarity hoist the water to nearly double the height required by cells in a 1020 tray arrangement.

I'm sure that, with practice, you'll figure out how to make it work.

Bob
 

Wombat_smokes

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I've had some similar drying of my peat moss grow mix in my 1020 trays. I was underestimating how much water was needed to properly hydrate the seed mix. Adding more water to the tray & misting the surface worked well. For the two batches that dried out, the seeds still bounced back. For those that didn't, I had extra sprouts to replant the pots. There's plenty of time to start more seeds if needed, even for Montana (I used to live in Great Falls; my brother, in Missoula)
 

PvtPublic

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The effectiveness of that strange design is strongly dependent on the wicking nature of the soil itself. The perched water table height begins at the surface of the water in the lower container, so the top surface of the soil requires that the soil's capillarity hoist the water to nearly double the height required by cells in a 1020 tray arrangement.

I'm sure that, with practice, you'll figure out how to make it work.

Bob
The others aren't having that problem and they're asked with the same soil. I do fully agree with you, I need some time with them to figure out the method that works best for me.
I've had some similar drying of my peat moss grow mix in my 1020 trays. I was underestimating how much water was needed to properly hydrate the seed mix. Adding more water to the tray & misting the surface worked well. For the two batches that dried out, the seeds still bounced back. For those that didn't, I had extra sprouts to replant the pots. There's plenty of time to start more seeds if needed, even for Montana (I used to live in Great Falls; my brother, in Missoula)
I'm not sure if this medium has peat moss. I'll have to check when I get home. But for now, I'll keep misting the tops before and after work.
 
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