Most FOOL-PROOF way to start seedlings?

[chronic1234]

During my last time germinating seeds, I had a tough time getting them to pop.

What types of seed starting cubes do you recommend? I just don't like handling the seeds, what is the most fool-proof way to get them to germinate?

 

[justanotherbozo]

censorship sucks!

 

[SB7]

Rapid Rooters ( GH) are THE best way to start your seeds. Just keep them moist and they won't let you down. ( I float my beans in R.O water and when they crack it's straight into the Rapid Rooters but you can start them in the rapid rooters if you prefer.

 

[NiceShoes]

Rapid Rooters ( GH) are THE best way to start your seeds. Just keep them moist and they won't let you down. ( I float my beans in R.O water and when they crack it's straight into the Rapid Rooters but you can start them in the rapid rooters if you prefer.

I soak the rapid rooters in ph adjusted water for 24 hours....

Then I put the seed in the rapid rooter, cover the hole w/ a bit of rapid rooter.

Put inside a humidity tray/green house thing. I use the 3 part Reservoir, Tray, Dome system you get for ~$10 at any hydro shop. Put enough water to where the water just barely goes into the tray, I put a heat pad under the tray, you can put a light on them once the shell falls off.

I have only had one loss with this method and I let it dry out too much that time... Out of maybe 50 seeds...

 

[chronic1234]

what about these? anyone try em? Grodan Stonewool A'Ok Starter Plugs

http://www.htgsupply.com/viewproduct.asp?productID=46694

 

[pezoholic]

water till they pop then a Starter plug (rapid rooter wannabe)

 

[justanotherbozo]

censorship sucks!

 

[00420]

I start mine in a Lil perlite better then any cube iv used

 

[dub 6]

I start mine in a Lil perlite better then any cube iv used

Co-sign..

straight perlite in a tupperware container... soaked in water then drained leaving about an inch of water at the bottom. Press the perlite down and compact then poke 1/4" holes in it, put the seed in, cover and forget about it... a day or two those that'll be up are up.

 

[stinkyattic]

Two picks:
Rapidrooters, make sure you squeeze out excess if you soak them, but I wouldn't soak them because they are inoculated with beneficials and I would not want to interfere with that.
Farffards Seedling Starter Mix, in nursery 6-pax, seed 1/4" deep, in warmish place, give just a few drops of water to keep the medium moist when it looks dry. This mix is fine and light and contains no fertilizer. And it's cheap- check Agway if you are east of the Mississippi.
Of these, I prefer the plain ol seedling mix.

I keep them under T12, T8, or T5 flouro tubes, Ott, daylight, cool white, or kitchen and bath style. Any combination of these lights are a simple, cheap, and effective seedling nursery light.

 

[Hydro-Soil]

I don't have easy access to rapid rooters or rockwool.

I, on the other hand, DO have access to Peat/coco pucks. Look online for "Jiffy peat puck" and you'll find them. I'm using a knock-off brand that has coco in it and I like it so far.

Soak your beans in a cup of water with just a drop or two of Hydrogen peroxide 3%. (Keeps things clean)

While they're soaking for 24 - 36 hours prep your pucks. I use RO water with about 3 drops of VitaminB1 per gallon of water.

Once they're hydrated, FLUFF THEM UP. Just keep scrunching the sides, rotating the puck and scrunching the sides in again. do it all over the whole puck and you should end up with a TALL peat puck with loosely packed peat/coco in the middle. It will be fairly moist as well.

Once your seeds have sprouted at LEAST 1/8th of an inch of taproot you can scoop them up with something clean, drop them on top of the peat puck, push it into the peat about an 1/4" and cover with a little bit of the peat material.

Keep warm around 75F (I try not to let them get warmer) and above 60F. An incandescent light works great for this but flouros are fine. The amount of light won't bother it unless it dries the surface of the soil out.

Within 24hrs you should have a sprout.

I HIGHLY recommend practicing with different types of bagseed before trying seeds that are 5-20$ each.

Good luck!

 

[A-Loc]

I have never had any issues with using a moist papertowel (plain ol tap water) inside a ziplock in a dark warm spot I can't see a need for all these ph adjusted jibber jabber

 

[staceyadams]

I have to agree with A-Loc here. I've never had a reason to try anything besides the damp papertowel method. Try it out if you haven't already. Usually, I find poor germination rates to be from either age and storage, or genetic disposition. Good luck!

 

[messn'n'gommin']

I don't have easy access to rapid rooters or rockwool.

I, on the other hand, DO have access to Peat/coco pucks. Look online for "Jiffy peat puck" and you'll find them. I'm using a knock-off brand that has coco in it and I like it so far.

Soak your beans in a cup of water with just a drop or two of Hydrogen peroxide 3%. (Keeps things clean)

While they're soaking for 24 - 36 hours prep your pucks. I use RO water with about 3 drops of VitaminB1 per gallon of water.

Once they're hydrated, FLUFF THEM UP. Just keep scrunching the sides, rotating the puck and scrunching the sides in again. do it all over the whole puck and you should end up with a TALL peat puck with loosely packed peat/coco in the middle. It will be fairly moist as well.

Once your seeds have sprouted at LEAST 1/8th of an inch of taproot you can scoop them up with something clean, drop them on top of the peat puck, push it into the peat about an 1/4" and cover with a little bit of the peat material.

Keep warm around 75F (I try not to let them get warmer) and above 60F. An incandescent light works great for this but flouros are fine. The amount of light won't bother it unless it dries the surface of the soil out.

Within 24hrs you should have a sprout.

I HIGHLY recommend practicing with different types of bagseed before trying seeds that are 5-20$ each.

Good luck!

From the Royal Botanical gardens, Kew. BTW, an intuitive observation on the use of incandescent bulbs.

Germination Micro-Site Perception: the Role of Light Quality and Quantity
http://www.kew.org/science/directory/projects/EM_LightQuality.html

Hope this helps some, Chronic. Good luck!

Namaste, mess

 

[Hydro-Soil]

From the Royal Botanical gardens, Kew. BTW, an intuitive observation on the use of incandescent bulbs.

Germination Micro-Site Perception: the Role of Light Quality and Quantity
http://www.kew.org/science/directory/projects/EM_LightQuality.html

Hope this helps some, Chronic. Good luck!

Namaste, mess

Thanks

I have to admit that I really REALLY like germing seeds. lol

For those of you who don't like offsite links...... here's the text of that article.......

Germination Micro-Site Perception: the Role of Light Quality and Quantity

Recently emerged seedlings of Piper sp. (Piperaceae) in gap on forest floor

This project is one of a series in the theme 'Ecophysiology and Morphology'.

Germination is a high-risk phase in the life-cycle of plants. Consequently they exhibit specific adaptations to “cue” seed germination to either particular times of year or to particular micro-sites that are most suitable for both germination and onward seedling growth.

Whilst germination is high risk for all seeds it is particularly so for small seeded species since these only have the resources to emerge from a few millimetres depth in the soil, are unable to penetrate through leaf litter, are particularly sensitive to drought and have no capacity to recover from severe herbivory / trampling. Consequently small seeded species require mechanism(s) to carefully control, when and where germination occurs. Many small seeded species require light for germination to occur and this serves the purpose of ensuring that germination only occurs close to the soil surface. However, photo-responsive seeds also have the capacity to determine the quality (ratio of red : far red wavelengths) of intercepted light which can be used as a measure of the suitability of the environment for seedling growth – high ratios of red : far red light signal the absence of established vegetation and leaf litter both of which are potentially high risk for small seeds / seedlings.

However, while the responses of small seeds to the presence / absence of light have been comparatively well studied, little work has been conducted on the response of seeds to light quality. Consequently we are conducting comparative studies on the germination response to light quality for seeds of differing size and from different habitats to explore the role of light perception in determining both micro-site selection and regeneration success in situ. Currently we have found that for >20 Polish woodland herbs, there is a significant negative relationship between seed mass and the ratio of red : far red light required for germination, suggesting that small seeded species perform best in open micro-sites. However, this is in contrast to work by Pearson et al. in Functional Ecology (2003) from Central America which has shown the opposite relationship. We are currently working on trying to understand these potentially habitat-type driven differences in response. See Annex 1 for information outputs associated with this project.
Project Team
Selected CVs

*
* Daws, Matthew
* Pritchard, Hugh

Project Leader: Daws, Matthew
Seed Conservation Department

Matthew Daws, Kenwin Liu, Hugh Pritchard
Project Partners and Collaborators
Kenya

Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI)
Norway

University of Bergen
Poland

University of Warsaw
Funders
Norway

Norwegian Research Council
Poland

University of Warsaw
UK

MSBP
Annex Material

Annex 1: Information outputs (Word document)

Kew Home | Science Directory | Copyright & Privacy


Neat stuff!

 

[isit4.20yet]

I've had good luck using straight chlorinated tap water to soak them until they crack. It helps keep them from getting that stringy slimy stuff forming around them. I've had best germination rates starting in straight perlite but recently I've been using up my peat pucks and they seem to work ok too.

 

[Lifebreather]

hi guy, i'm no expert but i've always had excellant results with rockwool
starter cubes, like this


take a look at my first store bought thread for details, such as they are.

Same thing here. I use a seedling heating mat too. I got 30/30 germ rate on packs of Godberry, Hashberry, and Biko--battle of the $20 strains.

 

[redrose]

RR is the way to go

 

[A-Loc]

I'm tellin u guys nice n moist (almost dripping) paper towel, well a few of them to hold the moisture folded over a few times and than you place beans on one side and fold again. Put in sandwhich baggie or w/e in a dark warm spot, they start popping out over there shells in two days. If they don't pop than either the beans are no good or you must have some horrible horrible water.