Do I need to ph and nute my distilled water for seeds/seedlings?

cjsbabygirl313

cjsbabygirl313

Well-Known Member
So as a newbie, my first two seeds sprouted via the glass of water/wet paper towel method. I then carefully put the seeds into grow sponges and put them on a germination cycle in my AeroGarden (just distilled water - no nutes) while waiting for the rest of my grow tent and supplies to arrive. For the first week they did good, the taproot grew through the sponge like it should - and then everything stopped. Now, ten MORE days later, everything looks exactly the same - no new roots, no growth, no green, nothing popped up.

Yesterday I received my rapid rooters and a humidity dome. I added a *bit* of distilled water to the RRs (wet but not dripping) dropped a seed in two RRs, laid a tiny piece of RR material over the hole and put them in the humidity dome (decided to try disturb the seed/root as little as possible).

So here’s the question: I have to use distilled water because my well water is REALLY hard. Since distilled water has absolutely nothing in it, should I be using a super light nute/cal-mag solution (like 1/8 - 1/16 strength) in the distilled water to mist the sponges and then super lightly water/feed the seeds when they do sprout?

I cant believe I had such an issue! All my AergoGarden plants are amazing ... I’m not a newbie gardner afterall - just a newbie pot gardener!
 
Last edited:
I never add nutrients to my hard well water thats not been ph'd when I soak seeds, water them, or plant them.
put your seeds in the aero and cycle it without nutrients. begin feeding when they need it.
 
The AeroGarden was never meant to keep those seeds - was just a holding spot for them until my dwc bucket an fabric pots got here.
 
cjsbabygirl313 said:
The AeroGarden was never meant to keep those seeds - was just a holding spot for them until my dwc bucket an fabric pots got here.
Click to expand...

1-soak seed in well water until they open.
2-plant seeds in rooting medium until roots show, or directly into final substrate.
gift your aero garden to a kid
 
chiqifella said:
1-soak seed in well water until they open.
2-plant seeds in rooting medium until roots show, or directly into final substrate.
gift your aero garden to a kid
Click to expand...
The AeroGarden is amazing for lettuces, kitchen herbs and even mini tomatoes and mini jalepenos - I have an astounding amount of all of those. Just not a practical growing medium for weed!
 
cjsbabygirl313 said:
The AeroGarden is amazing for lettuces, kitchen herbs and even mini tomatoes and mini jalepenos - I have an astounding amount of all of those. Just not a practical growing medium for weed!
Click to expand...

Yep, even bought them as gifts for people in the past. They all ended up in the kids' rooms after they were done with their miniature veggie grow, hence the reference.
overpriced tote with a cool light imo.
 
I pH and add calmag and a super weak nutrient content to everything I do. Distilled water gets calmag to 100 ppm. Another 150 in nutrient for a total of about 250-300 ppm pH'd to 5.6. I do this in a whole 5 gallon bucket and use this water to soak and then fill a spray bottle and use it to keep the cubes wet the first week before they go into their bubble buckets. Some say the seed carries enough to survive until the first true leaf is a reasonable size. I've gone no nutrients until cotyledons start to die off. There is no reason to do that in my opinion and set up and strain selection. Especially since I'm not in soil and everything I do is a blank slate. Ultimately you'll just have to play around a bit until you find what you like. Also adding 300 ppm will help stabilize pH in the water. Distilled or ro/di water will not have a pH until it carries a buffer of minerals in the water.
 
cjsbabygirl313 said:
So as a newbie, my first two seeds sprouted via the glass of water/wet paper towel method. I then carefully put the seeds into grow sponges and put them on a germination cycle in my AeroGarden (just distilled water - no nutes) while waiting for the rest of my grow tent and supplies to arrive. For the first week they did good, the taproot grew through the sponge like it should - and then everything stopped. Now, ten MORE days later, everything looks exactly the same - no new roots, no growth, no green, nothing popped up.

Yesterday I received my rapid rooters and a humidity dome. I added a *bit* of distilled water to the RRs (wet but not dripping) dropped a seed in two RRs, laid a tiny piece of RR material over the hole and put them in the humidity dome (decided to try disturb the seed/root as little as possible).

So here’s the question: I have to use distilled water because my well water is REALLY hard. Since distilled water has absolutely nothing in it, should I be using a super light nute/cal-mag solution (like 1/8 - 1/16 strength) in the distilled water to mist the sponges and then super lightly water/feed the seeds when they do sprout?

I cant believe I had such an issue! All my AergoGarden plants are amazing ... I’m not a newbie gardner afterall - just a newbie pot gardener!
Click to expand...
I use my well water 200ish ppm in all my grows in both soil and hydro never had an issue.
 
If youre using distilled Id use 1tsp x 5 gallons water cal/mag, and feed every time I water. I would also use a 1/5 strength for seedlings as soon as they pop up from the soil and feed every watering.

I'm not educated on your growing medium, so I cant comment on that.

I use Promix BX, and tap water, non PHd, but let the TW stand for at least 24 hours. Promix is naturally buffeder to 6.2 It will at first test around 5.5-5.8, and stabilizes around 6.2

I do use Reverse Osmosis on my seedlings up until at least 3 weeks. But I use Cal/Mag, and fert as soon as theyre popping up from the soil.
 
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