Small Hydro Garden

We have a couple of the seedlings falling over.  I'm adding filtered water at pH 5.7 to the Rockwool.  Will update on progress.

 Day 13 seedling:

We finally have seedlings.  Method 1 has a 7/7 success ratio while Method 2 only has 2/5 success ratio.  I have not added any extra nutrients or water besides the pre-soak I gave the Rockwool.  Both seedlings are around 2.5" tall. 

Next steps:

• Spray with Sugar Daddy/Root 66 topical solution
• Montor Progress

Read about Method 1 and 2
Read Ariane Hybrid Pepper pre-soak

Both Methods:

Method 1:

Method 2:

Side view (Method 1 near):

Top View (Method 1 near):

Today I'm placing the Ariane Hybrid Pepper seeds in Rockwool placed inside of a propagation tray and insert with a humidity dome. The propagation tray in insert will sit on top of a seedling heat mat which heats up to 10-20F above ambient temperature.

I have started the seeds off with two different methods (well, one only):

Method 1 (7 seeds):

• Soak the seeds in a glass of water for 24 hours
• Placed the soaked seeds in a moist paper towel for 3 days

Method 2 (5 seeds):

• No preparation

Method 1 seeds never germinated within the paper towel.  This may be cause the temperature was too low or the paper towel got too dry.  None-the-less, I hope they'll still germinate within the Rockwool cubes.

1. All seeds are placed within Rockwool cubes with B-1 Red for 24 hours
2. Before placing seeds in the Rockwool cube, I made the factory created hole a little and bigger and deeper with a toothpick
3. Place seed in Rockwool
4. Gently cover up hole in Rockwool with a clean toothpick
5. Place Rockwool cube in propagating tray

To increate humidity within the propagation tray, I poured water within the bottom tray.  Heat generated from the seedling mat should cause the water to evaporate, creating an environment of nearly 90%.

Rock wool cube that has just received seed: 

Rockwool cube after seed is covered up: 

Tray with Rockwool cubes 

Propagation tray equipment:

Buy seedling heat mat (Highly recommend):

I have received a 20 pack of Ariane Hybrid Pepper Seeds from Tomato Grower Supply.  For the sake of experimentation, I'm going attempt to germinate the seeds with using two different methods.

Method 1 (7 seeds):
Soak the seeds in a glass of water for 24 hours
Placed the soaked seeds in a moist paper towel for 3 days
Place seeds in Rockwool cubes

Method 2 (5 seeds):
Place the seeds directly in Rockwool cubes

I'm using a different number of seeds for each method to simply help me easily keep track of the different batches.

Photo of Ariane Hybrid Pepper Seeds: