Paper Towel method

Yes all from one order.

Not really sure how I could've 'cooked' them. All I did was soak in water for 48hrs then plant in premoistened soil. Been racking my brain thinking what I could possibly have done.

I'm not discounting personal error on my part but I have germed seeds plenty of times in the past with no issues. That's why I'm so perplexed by the whole thing!

Gangabiss said:

1. How many times do you fold the paper towel or do you simply lay the seeds on 1 ply of it? Basically does the seed need to be cushioned with a thick layer of them or is it fine to just 'sandwich them between too loose layers of moist towel?

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Air should pass through seeds. Water must stay in contact with seeds.
Air is needed to take things 'clean' and when the first root comes off the shell, it likes so much humid air. Roots loves humid air.

2. How much water do you add to the towel? And do you squeeze off any excess? If so, do you squeeze it out with the seeds inside to 'mould' them to the towel and make them snug?

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Not so much water. Everything should stay moist, a little wet, but avoid too much water. If you need to loosen the seed's shells let them stay in water for some hours.

I know it might seem like I'm being pedantic here but I just want to make sure I can't blame my technique again this time. And I really don't want to waste any more money on seeds!

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Little things don't mean they're stupid things.

Now, I want to point out the contamination. You shouldn't use anything dirt or not disinfected when treating with seeds. I know they can sprout in the shit, but you want 100% germination in the best way, right?
Air, or better said oxygen is your ally, both for roots and for keeping bacteria contamination down.

Use only clean stuff, possibly disinfected and work in a clean room.

Paper towel is better sprayed, not squeezed nor compressed. When spraying make sure the water is safe and not contaminate.

Now, put everything in a germination room with no T° fluctuation and that's it. Depending on T° they will sprout few days earlier or later.

Remember too, when a seed doesn't sprout, it doesn't mean the seed is not viable. Many seeds have an hard shell, depending on the strain family and everything, so you could see them stay even a month without doing anything, THAN, if you leave them dry out, and moist them again, many of them will probably sprout because (I suppose) of little external lacerations. This work, at least for me, many times.

Disinfected pyrex dishes and disinfected table.


clean paper towels in


Seeds in, folded and not pressed, sprayed


Clean Cellophane and that's it


I just put them inside the towel like this:


After 36/48 hours the first check.

Hope it helps…I lost many seeds once to use contaminated medium, so I just like to keep everything clean and it works nicely, also because we can see exactly what's happening and that's good to understand how a seed work and if the root has any malformation.

Gangabiss said:

All I did was soak in water for 48hrs then plant in premoistened soil.

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You can't see and say what's in that soil. I bet that was the problem. Even if you always use that medium you can't know that batch and its contamination by bacteria, fungi, yeasts and so on...

...not to put too fine a point on it or anything but cannabis actually evolved, over many thousands of years, to grow and thrive in dirt.

...so me personally, i don't sterilize shit and i don't soak shit either, i do sometimes scuff my beans but only if i think to do it, i'm kind of a lazy phuck by nature so i do everything as simply as possible.

...being a stoner who sometimes suffers from oldtimers disease i don't want to have to remember anything too complicated, lol.

peace, bozo

...btw, i have in the past killed seeds by soaking too long, they get water logged and turn black and that is that, which is why i gave up that whole pre-soak, paper towel routine.

...and frankly i get better results now, direct sowing, than i did before.

peace, bozo

Maybe they (the Boutique) are sending out old stock I dunno...

IMO....there is your answer.....

9xSOL Donk, 9xSOL Blubonic anyone want to guess how old these are????

SOL hasnt made a seed in years.....

I think this thread is proof of how hard it is to get good advice.....

The 2 strains were made in 2007 and 2006

I discount the fact that a guy who has germinated lots of seeds has suddenly gone stupid....

You may be right Budley. Like I said I don't want to point fingers and accuse them of being totally at fault, but when you've been doing it for years and then you can't get a single seed to sprout, it makes you ask questions.
You can see by my join date I've been a member here for 13 years and was on Overgrow before that. I have germinated lots of seeds in my time.

I didn't realise it was that long since SOL created any seeds....probably wouldn't have ordered them if I'd know that!

Again, did all of the seeds arrive in the same package? Like I said, they could have been cooked before you even received them. Again, highly unlikely for multiple strains to all be dead, unless they were all subjected to the same conditions.

Logic. Try a cup worth in life, you'll like it.

Paper towels work for me. I try not to get carried away with technique- clean work space, clean hands, clean paper towels & clean ziplocks. I fold & moisten the towel, wring it out pretty good, fold in the seeds keeping a little distance in between, pop it in a ziplock & put it in a warm place, like on the cable box. I check the progress morning & night. I've had seeds w/ 1/2"+ tails that were growing into the paper towels after 36 hours. If they've attached themselves very well at all, I just cut out a little patch of towel with the seed & tail, plant the whole thing. Works fine. Screwing up the rootlet doesn't work fine.

I make it a point to have the space & the pots set up to receive the sprouted seeds before I even start them, like this-

https://www.icmag.com/ic/picture.php?albumid=52773&pictureid=1658632

Douglas.Curtis said:

Again, did all of the seeds arrive in the same package? Like I said, they could have been cooked before you even received them. Again, highly unlikely for multiple strains to all be dead, unless they were all subjected to the same conditions.

Logic. Try a cup worth in life, you'll like it.

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smdh

Wooooo we have germination!!

Looks like pretty much all have cracked except for a few Super Stars. I'm thinking they may take a bit longer than the rest.

Should I wait for the ones that have cracked to grow a longer taproot before planting into my jiffy pellets? Or should I put them in as soon as they have cracked open?

I like to try and catch em at 1/2 inch tap root if possible...

Inch and longer is fine but they are getting pretty delicate to handle at that point

Decided to go ahead and just plant all the ones that cracked, which was every single seed in the paper towels except for one strain

Those jiffy pellets seem to hold a lot more water than the root riot plugs. I tried gently squeezing a bit of the extra water out without crushing the thing. I assume it doesn't want to be totally saturated.

I used the little end of a bic pen cap to make a 1cm hole in the tops and gently put them in root down, put a little bit of peat over the top and gently pressed to cover the hole. I've placed them all in a tupperware in the heated room with the rest of the seeds.

Hopefully we'll see some heads above ground tomorrow!!

If you are dealing with old seeds you may not yet be out of the woods....

often they will crack the shell but never manage to elongate their root.....

Its the difference in living and dying...

good luck...

Thanks for filling me with confidence lol

This will be quite interesting actually as an experiment. I've put equal amount of each strain in paper towels and straight into Root Riot plugs.
So basically whichever sprouts the seedlings first should be the preferred method...in theory.

Like you say....its just part of your experiment....

If you find that some of the seeds you planted that had split the shells and dont come up.... YOu should get curious and see what happened....

New seeds dont do that....but old seeds do....

I've no reason to think these are old seeds. This is from a totally different order from a different company than before.

Fingers crossed.

I am now a proud father of 2 little seedlings after roughly 55hours from planting the seeds.

1x mazar x great white shark and 1x master kush have sprouted their heads above ground.

They both appeared at exactly the same time and both are in separate mediums so the verdict is till out on the paper towel into jiffys vs straight into root riots experiment.