Germinate fine - NO sprouting after soil??

High all! I'm looking for some help. In a nutshell: germination goes well then trx to soil and nothing progresses!

Details: I germinate a couple days in warm wet location w/distilled water until about 1/4" stem (I know wrong name) is protruding. I immediately trx to soil & water from the tap. I've tried everything from damp soil to pretty dry and at 5 different depths (most recent was just atop the soil). Then immediately to my box which has one full spectrum and one CFL. Both lights are about 3" above soil level (two diff. lights to see which works better). Soil is cheap (Lowe's Pro Tree & Shrub Planting Mix: .026-.032-.063). I imagine the soil is less than ideal but didn't expect death!

4 seeds are still under lights and I dug one up. It seems the 'stem' retracted back into the seed! Another is in the soil w/the seed attached to the top and growth seems to have completely stopped after 2 days. None of the others have broken the soil surface.

This whole thing is a proof of concept - can I grow a weed . If I can get starts going then I'll invest in a good soil mix.

Finally the seeds are Lowryder Automatic Dwarf Mix from http://www.everyonedoesit.co.uk (my research led me there for fastest yield).

If ANYONE can help me get past this hurdle, well, I'll be forever grateful!

the soil could be too acidic. plants are not uptaking the nutrients in the right amounts. or taking in too much of one and not enough of the others. Ph too low and Ph too high will lockout the vital nutrients. either buffer the soil with a teaspoon of dolomite lime per gallon of soil or just switch to Fox Farm ocean Forest brand of soil. it is amazing, with awesome results. check out these side by side results i got from using a mix that i put together and compared to FFoF(mixed with perlite at a 1:1 ratio). there really is no doubt that FFOF is the shit when it comes to soil. these plants are all 2 weeks old, even the little one, which is the only one in the soil that i mixed.

don't bury them.
when you see a taproot put only the taproot in the soil. the seed itself should be on the surface.

I never heard of the taproot going back into the shell, would be kinda interesting to see.

igrowdro said:

the soil could be too acidic. plants are not uptaking the nutrients in the right amounts. or taking in too much of one and not enough of the others. Ph too low and Ph too high will lockout the vital nutrients. either buffer the soil with a teaspoon of dolomite lime per gallon of soil or just switch to Fox Farm ocean Forest brand of soil. it is amazing, with awesome results. check out these side by side results i got from using a mix that i put together and compared to FFoF(mixed with perlite at a 1:1 ratio). there really is no doubt that FFOF is the shit when it comes to soil. these plants are all 2 weeks old, even the little one, which is the only one in the soil that i mixed.

Click to expand...

yeah what he said, my second grow i started with some jiffy soil, with nothing in it, sprouts did "ok" now they are in FFOF and they look amazing for only being in the soil 4 about 4-5 days

Wow. Thanks everyone for the great info!

After reading this, I looked up my local Fox Farm retailer and stopped in over lunch. A whopping $10 later I had a pack of Super Starter Plugs, a bag of Fox Farm Ocean Forest soil, and a ton of advice from the guy who owns the store. I've always known smokers are the best people in the world (evidently growers too), but today really was a great reminder.

I'm essentially starting over now. Germination starting tonight. The shop owner cut open a plug and showed me just how to place the seed (still confused about stem up, down, or irrelevant - the www has differing opinions - going w/not sweating it since the plants aren't so picky in nature and get by just fine, right?). He also recommended covering them until I have leaves...I wasn't doing this before. Finally, I had my lights (full spectrum and CFL) inches from the germinated seeds in soil. I'll back off to about 8" until I have plants that actually pop the surface. Please let me know if anyone disagrees w/these changes.

I have had dreams for about 20 years of cultivating at least one big bud 'from scratch'. Hopefully I'll report back in about 9 weeks with a picture of that dream come true! Thanks again!

hey man, hope your dream really comes true. what i usually do for germination is the paper towl method for 24 hours, then i just put them down in the soil sprouted or not. if you look at the seed, it will have a pointy side and a rounded side that looks like it was attatched to a stem the root always pops out of the pointy side. i always put the seed pointy side straight down to about 1/4 inch, and the rounded end with the indention straight upwards. just mash it straight down, then cover very lightly and keep it in the shade until the leaves start to show. hasn't failed yet since i started doing it this way. you will just have to keep the soil moist about 2 days it will be popping out of the soil. get a spray bottle and mist with 3 squirts 3-4 times a day everyday when you plant the seed and for the first week of growth. . works like a charm. hope this helps.

Thanks for the continued help! I'll go pointy end down with this next 'batch'!

I germ'd last night and one had taproot exposed this morning so I put it into a plug. I dampened the plug, put it in a plastic cup (the kind I remember from the good ole days when folks had keggers), covered the cup with saran wrap, and have it in the dark area of my box - in order to keep the heat.

Below is a pic from http://www.amsterdammarijuanaseeds.info/ that illustrates the same stage when I'm moving from germ to plug.

I'm unsure of what I'll be doing when I finally have a sprout with regard to the plugs (Sunleaves - Super Starter Plugs). I've seen pix of plugs w/sprouts that have roots weaved into the plug. When I get to that point I don't yet know if I should remove the sprout into soil or make space in the soil for the entire plug and just put the plug into the soil - assuming it would degrade into the soil. Any advice is, as always, very much appreciated!

Finally, as I'm hopefully < 1 wk from moving to soil, any advice about what (if anything) I should do to prep the FFOF? This seems to be another controversial topic. Again, I'm working w/LR auto dwarf - so if no prep is really required, awesome. If it's recommended, well, I've learned my lesson re soil, so I'll do whatever .

Thank you!!!