I seed in the final size netpots with perlite as a medium. If the seeds are very small, I try to pick up 3 - 4 with a wet finger and mix them in a teaspoon of sand. Then I spread the sand over the perlite. Otherwise, I pick them out with a tweezer and plant 3 - 4 in the pots.
I keep the perlite wet with a spraybottle with clean water. When the first leafs appear I spray with nutrient diluted 1:4 untill the plants are a bit more established, after which I increase the strength to 1:2 diluted nutrient.
Of the 3 - 4, I keep the best shoot (don't pull them out, just cut them off)
When the roots start appearing outside the pots, I place them in their final position in the DWC container.

Hi Aimee ,

I got into hydro last year using three DWC setups.

Like greystoke, I used perlite.as a medium. Actually, I used three different methods for starting my plants.

First, I wicked all my mesh pots to make sure moisture / nutrients were able to get to the perlite efficiently. Note the wick to the right in the shot. It is important to make sure the seed gets enough moisture.

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First, I direct seeded both lettuce and spinach in perlite in one DWC bin. Lettuce sprouting in the picture below.

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Second, I started pepper plants in seed starting soil and transferred to a perlite filled mesh basket. I made a cavity in the perlite, gently removed the seedling out of the started tray and rinsed the soil off the roots then placed it in the perlite and carefully filled the cavity in around the roots.

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Third, I started tomato plants in peat pellets. You could also use rockwool cubes instead of peat pellets. Once they sprouted I just buried them in perlite in another DWC bin. In the image below you will note the brownish color of the perlie around the peat pellet.

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I found that for lettuce and spinach, the perlite provided enough support for the plants. As for the pepper and tomato plants, transferring to a mesh pot with clay pellets would have been a better option. In fact, I eventually moved the peppers to clay pellets before the roots exited the mesh pots. I was too late to move the tomato..

Best of luck whichever method you decide on.

Bill

I typically germinate my seeds in a paper towel lined piece of aluminum foil moistened then folded in half. Normally I will get germination in 2 to 5 days. I check them daily, keep the towel moist and at first signs of seed emergence, I move to a netpot. Before this year, I always used river gravel as a medium and ran a string up the middle to wick up water. I would coil the string at the depth I wanted to plant my seeds, set the seed on the coil, then cover with more gravel. This has worked for me for tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, basil, italian parsley and butternut squash.
Another thing I've done is make a cylinder of vermiculite perlite blend in the middle of the river gravel. (1:2 ver:per) Simply make a paper tube by wrapping a piece of paper around an appropriately sized pen or pencil. Tape it to hold its shape. stick in the middle of the net pot. Fill around the tube with river gravel. add verm/per to the tube about 1/2 way up the net pot. drop in the germinated seed. top off with more ver/per. you can either pull the paper tube immediately or leave it in place. set the net pot in a shallow tray or on a plate and keep a bit of water in it until the plants emerge and root come out the bottom.
I believe bottom feeding the plants from the start, whether with wicks or verm/per is important as it encourages the roots to grow downward more quickly so you can get it into the system quicker.
well that was wordy. It's not really a difficult task, but takes a lot of words to explain.

This also works with rock wool....

Thank you all for your responses. This is a great resource!