As soon as I went to hydrate the seeded cells, the water beaded on top. Of course I had bottom watered as well, but I could feel it sloshing around the bottom of the container.
ALL of my new tomato seedlines are in these trays and I have no way of fishing them out without losing them (and the packets arrived with way fewer seeds than I was expecting) so I'm trying to solve this as best I can.
I did some research online and found that warm water absorbs better, so I put them on heatmats overnight and used a toothpick to "stir" the top water into the center of the cells. Most of the water in the tray seems to have absorbed, however on top while the centers of the cells are moistened the edges are still so dry that disturbing it causes little poofs of dry dust.
I dont want my seeds to drown/fail to germ. Please help!!
EDIT: Yes. I know peat is bad. I didn't buy it, it's been sitting in a closet for a year and I wanted to use it to get rid of it.
by CurrentlyARaccoon
8 Comments
Peat is awful for the environment and quite useless for plants, next time try regular soil!
switch to coco, once peat is dry its almost impossible to get wet
Peat moss becomes hydrophobic…meaning that it repels water rather than absorbs it. The only way to rehydrate it is to soak it.
You are probably better off dumping them out and getting your seeds out. You know where you put the seeds. Just remove the top half inch of peat and locate your seeds. Even if you saturate the peat…if you allow it to dry out again…it will repel water again. I don’t use peat moss for that reason. It can turn into a brick when it dries out.
I like to blend a chunk of an aloe plant in the mixer. Adding that to the water will help the peat wet easier.
I would find a good local store that sells seeds and start over with a good seed starting mix. Why go through all this just to struggle from the start?
Bottom water it, eventually it will soak up to the surface. Any other method will disturb the seeds
Warm NOT hot water will help it absorb faster. You can try that and then cover it with a dome or something to let the heat stay in a bit longer and it should soak in. I did this on a much bigger scale once to a long time but it got there eventually.
I usually add a drop of dawn dish soap to my water when I get hydrophobic soil. It soaks right up. You don’t need to dump out the tray and start over.
ETA – environmental concerns aside, peat is fine for seed starting but you’ll want to upgrade to potting soil at the first transplant.