A customer recently asked “it’s been three days, how come I don’t see anything yet?”. While plants do grow at extreme rates once they start going, starting them off from seed or clone takes a little patience. General rule of thumb is 7-14 days, but many plants can take longer than this. Always read up on what you are growing. The key is to not let the media be too wet, while maintaining high humidity in the air around it. Starter cubes should be nice and moist but never dripping wet. If they start to dry out (about day 5 or 6) go ahead and add water directly to the cube. Never leave standing water in the tray.

For seedlings and cuttings in a tray and dome you want 90%+ humidity. Transplanting will then depend not on how much  plant you see above the starter cube, but how many roots you see below the starter cube. Once you see your first root poking out do not rush to transplant yet. Open the vents on your dome and slowly start acclimating your new babies to lower humidity levels. Also, letting the roots air prune in their starter cube will give you more explosive root growth after you transplant, as opposed to the first tap root just taking off. After a couple days with the vents open, you can start taking the dome off. A few hours at first, and then more and more each day until they are just fine without it. Now, you are ready for transplant with strong cuttings/seedling that will make it!