not much luck sprouting with aerogarden

Hi all, newbie but learning a lot from this forum. great work by the vets here.

my problem is I got an aero garden, cuz I was looking for something easy to use for newbies. I got some early queen and skunk from mr. nice seedbank and started germinating seeds in the pods. I set it to 'salad greens' and used 1/2 dose of AG nutrients (1 tablet). left the paper cover and plastic top on each pod. I also cut the sponges in the pods in 1/2 like Tek suggested. After 1 week, I got 1 sprout out of 7 seeds (all skunk). Thinking I did something wrong, I trashed the other six seeds and planted 2 more skunk (on the right side in the photos) and 4 early queen (on the left side in the photos). after 1 more week, i'm still getting some growth in the skunk which sprouted first (removed the plastic cover after it began to bump up against it), but nothing from the other skunk. Out of the 4 early queen, I'm again getting just one sprout. Should I be germinating outside the AG first and then putting them in the AG pods? I don't seem to be very good at this.

And another problem is that the skunk which is now on day 19 from seed still looks kind of weak and skinny. I'm afraid it's not gonna make it. When the AG alerted to add nutes, i again just used one AG nute tablet (cuz the skunk looked like it might be getting nute burn.

Please look at the photo of the skunk on day 19 and tell me if it looks too scrawny. Cuz if so, then I know I should be changing something.

Thanks in advance.

erm, well from what ive read, u shouldnt be adding any nutes for about a month or 2.

also, not sure how AG works but i read that it was best set to 'tomatoes'

i read it was best to set to 'salad greens'. i think it may only be a difference of 18/6 to 17/7 anyway. didn 't know about the nutes. thought u had to add right away.

I can only say to be patient. The longest any of mine took to sprout was about a week. Some may need to soak longer. The one sprout is a bit small. Make sure the light is on the lowest notch. I used the AG sprouting nutes as directed and use AG grow nutes after 2 weeks at half strenth. I also use the tomato setting. All my seeds eventually sprouted so far. Thats with two different grows. Good luck.

I'm using an aerogarden for the first time and after my research I found out it's better to germinate the seeds using a paper towel method and when the seeds germinate and the root is a quarter inch long move them to the sponges..root facing down.

thanks for the advice; I'll wait a little bit longer. Probably added the nutes too soon, I guess. Just wondering why germinating with a paper towel would be more effective than putting into the AG pods right away. Seems like the AG atmosphere stays more damp and would be more conducive to making them sprout faster.