At least it became this way for me, and after a ton of trial and error and many failed starts, I have the solution.
TLDR: look picture
My most consistent issue seemed to be too much water leading to damping, so I wanted something that I could plant in that I could water as often as I wanted and the substrate would allow all excess water pass by.
I saw this product at the local garden centre and thought if it works for bonsai and cacti, it should work the way I want it to (It’s actually a lawn aeration product I think).
It worked incredibly well. Here’s how it did:
- soak/rinse clay
- use container that drains
- put seeds directly in (no soak, no prep) quite low in the container
- lightly covered with the clay
- add water, water daily
- once seeds popped, I used a tool to move the clay or add a bit more clay to keep the root stem covered (if it was showing) and make sure the seedling had something to push up from
- water a couple times a day until roots really take off (then I watered whenever I thought about it, maybe like 5-6 times a day. Probably not necessary but
) - as seedling grows add more clay to support and fill pot
- when ready to transplant, I filled the tray with water - the clay starts to float loosening it from the roots
- then while slowly pouring water into the pot I gently pulled the seedling, full root structure intact, out of the clay. The MF’s slide right out!
- little rinse of the roots to get a few clay bits off (some stayed)
- transferred to big system (hydroton in net pots, RDWC)
GG
If you have any questions hit me up, I tried to keep the explanation simple but happy to expand.
Stay lifted friends
