what is the best way to germinate seeds?

[Mr. Bongjangles]

To me, the answer to this question is "whatever works best for you."

Which is to say, your environment is going to have a slightly different temperature and humidity range than most everyone else.

If you can, get a bag of herb with a lot of seeds. Not brick, but anything that won't be all crushed is fine. Then try all the methods people have mentioned so far and whatever else is reasonable for your setup. Whichever one gives you the best rate of success with the same starting seeds will ultimately be the best method for your environment.

This might take you a week or two, but you can still start your real seeds now, and in the future when you buy that expensive pack of seeds, you will know with an extra degree of certainty that all the seeds possible will germinate.

The one thing I personally recommend regardless of method is a 24 hour soak in plain water before sowing. That really seems to give me a more uniform starting time no matter how I start them from there. Like if I sow directly into coco, some seeds will take a few extra days to pop up, whereas with the 24 hour soak, most pop up within a day or two of each other. I feel like the longer the seeds are in the medium or starter before they pop, the greater the chance of trouble unrelated to the seed itself.

 

[LadyLargely]

Good replies from everyone. I think the variety here suggests a truth that I've always beleived concerning sprouting: nature can and will take her course reliably but a little intervention can always speed her up a bit.

Not only faster sprouting, but I think it's possible to start hungrier, rootier, stouter sprouts by starting them up a certain way.

Since the reliable and fool-proof sprouting methods and general wisdom have already been put out there I'd figure I'd throw my in.

Seed Surgury

Starts out similar to paper towel method. The difference is there is some human intervention every 24 hours or so.



(not pictured) seeds are soaked in a small cup of water until they sink. You may have to poke them down a couple of times to get them to do so. They are very light and surface tension can hold them up. The ones that sink took up water and are viable, the persistent floaters are duds.



I then lay my soaked beans in a moist microfiber towel, seal them up in a small Tupperware and incubate at a digitally-managed 84 degrees F.



They respond pretty quickly. 24 hours ^



^ 48 hours. At this point I forcibly remove the brown outer husk. And when I say forcibly I mean it always slides away with ease.

If you look carefully you will see that the leaves are still held together by an odd sortof cellulose 'bag'. It has a brown tip on it that used to be part of the seed casing. LEAVE IT, for now anyway.



^60 hours, 'bag' is still on there



^ 72 hours. Bag slips off with ease as the expanding leaves help to push it off. Twin baby round leaves are now easily identified and will fold out neatly. WAIT. Put this tiny sprout back in to the incubator for another day.



^ 96 hours. The round leaves push apart and the first set of serrated leaves emerge! This is the important part. Some yellowing can also be seen as the plant attempts (unsuccessfully in the absence of light) to green up and start producing food.

These 'advanced sprouts' are highly stretch-resistant. Normally you sprout a seed and its first round leaves balloon rapidly to many times their original size. The plant also stretches a good couple of inches. Sprouts started with seed surgery never seem to do this:



They spend almost a worrying amount of time looking like this ^ Those first serrated leaves that appeared in the towel expand a bit, green up really dark and then the whole thing stops. Do not be alarmed. These sorts of sprouts like to 'root in'. Those first saw-tooth leaves are enough to drive extensive root development, so the upper bits chill out while the baby root ball goes to town. So all through the first week they look like above, but then come the first couple days of week 2 and:



Bam! An explosion of growth that carries inertia all the way into flower. Allowing the upper foliage to get outstripped by the root network ever-so-slightly means that the branches and leaves grow like crazy from that point on.

Early stretch gets eliminated. That last plant pictured was still under an inch tall at that point. Makes for vigorous, complex seed-started plants.

Reliability with this method is good, at least for me. The trick is patience! If you try to go to the next stage before the sprout is ready (example: try to remove the cellulose bag too soon) you will destroy it. You have to wait till the sprout 'wants' to get to that point and trust me, it will.


Might seem a little daunting but it works nice for me. You really aren't messing with nature's natural course any, just helping her do what she evolved to do naturally.

 

[cracker420]

thanks lady!!!!

 

[LolaGal]

Put them in dirt or whaterver you are gonna grow in and water. That's all you need.

No soaking, etc., in paper towels is necessary. Planting in a good moon sign will help a ton.

 

[LadyLargely]

Put them in dirt or whaterver you are gonna grow in and water. That's all you need.

No soaking, etc., in paper towels is necessary. Planting in a good moon sign will help a ton.

Exactly right. Seed surgery is fun but I certainly don't want to give the impression that I think it necessary. I think a gardener should go one way or another. If you are going to try and 'help' the seeds then go full fat. Try scuffing them as advised by others and then go full-blown warm towel sprouting.

OR just leave them the hell alone. I'd say its not advisable to go halfway. Either let nature take her course or help her from start to finish. If you don't want to hold their hand for the whole 4-5 day sprouting period then just stick them in good soil pointy-end-down and be done with it.

 

[Apollo11]

The only benefits to towels are mold, rot, starvation, root breakage and death.

Don't germ in what you can't grow in.

The paper towel method isnt all bad. I personally havent lost any seeds to this method and I prefer being able to see a tap root before I plant.

 

[coconaut]

another scarification method is to rub the seed on a matchbook strike plate
(maybe it even infuses some phosphorus!) [but I really doubt it]

 

[FreezerBoy]

The paper towel method isnt all bad. I personally havent lost any seeds to this method and I prefer being able to see a tap root before I plant.

Paper towels have no magic powers. Weed did not go extinct 10,000 years ago because no one had yet invented 7-11 that we might buy a roll or Bounty.

Why in the world would you want to see the tap root? All that does is make it easier to kill. If you'd dropped your seed in soil instead of the towel, you'd have a plant already and the tap root would be safe underground.

We do the seedy macarena with the matchboxes, and swear it helps...lol, the things stoners will believe!

It's hardly a stoner belief. Mother Nature designed these seeds to last several months of freezing and abuse. Scarification mimics the treatment seeds were built to endure such as being kicked around, scraped by rocks, eaten and pooped out by birds etc.

 

[cracker420]

thanks FB! i just droppen them in my dirt and 2 have already popped up! i will put a pic up

 

[cracker420]

bubblicious popping up

my bagseed plant

 

[Apollo11]

Why in the world would you want to see the tap root? All that does is make it easier to kill. If you'd dropped your seed in soil instead of the towel, you'd have a plant already and the tap root would be safe underground.

Well I thought it would be obvious why you would want to see a tap root, it is so you know for sure you have a viable seed sprout. I think your taking what I said the wrong way, I just mentioned that its not all bad and ive never lost a seed to the method (Hashberry, Menage a Trois, Safari mix, Satori, Apollo11, AK47 - some strains ive germed successfully with a paper towel). Im not the most careful person in the world but that's not to say I take a hammer to my seeds either.

The way you worded it earlier made it sound like you needed to be a NASA scientist in order to get this method to work. The exact opposite has been my experience. Much like growing, do what works for you.

10,000 years ago we didnt have rockwool either.

 

[StealthyScrog]

I scrape the seam of the shell where the seed will eventually split open. Mother Nature has already made that area the weakest and most prone to absorption.

Note I've used Xactos professionally for years and thus know how to use them safely. They are SURGICALLY SHARP and can cause GREAT BODILY INJURY!!! Not kidding around here, they can cut your finger clean off! If that sounds a little scary (and it should) you may want to use sand paper, emery boards etc.

Do not take this information for granted! I personally have used xactos for many years, not professionally in a career field, but I have played with knives all my life and only get cut by dull slips, never sharps knives, but a friend of mine works for a signmaking company and he cut off the entire tip of his finger! he was cutting along a straight edge, metal ruler, meter stick and it cut right into the metal and half a cm off the tip of his thumb, when freezerboy says they are sharp, do not underestimate them! these are literally scalpels

To me, the answer to this question is "whatever works best for you."

Which is to say, your environment is going to have a slightly different temperature and humidity range than most everyone else.

If you can, get a bag of herb with a lot of seeds. Not brick, but anything that won't be all crushed is fine. Then try all the methods people have mentioned so far and whatever else is reasonable for your setup. Whichever one gives you the best rate of success with the same starting seeds will ultimately be the best method for your environment.

This might take you a week or two, but you can still start your real seeds now, and in the future when you buy that expensive pack of seeds, you will know with an extra degree of certainty that all the seeds possible will germinate.

The one thing I personally recommend regardless of method is a 24 hour soak in plain water before sowing. That really seems to give me a more uniform starting time no matter how I start them from there. Like if I sow directly into coco, some seeds will take a few extra days to pop up, whereas with the 24 hour soak, most pop up within a day or two of each other. I feel like the longer the seeds are in the medium or starter before they pop, the greater the chance of trouble unrelated to the seed itself.

this is pretty much the greatest luck ive had, or variations of it, 24 hour soak in warm water, then pop them with a tweezer, only a couple sprouts out of hundreds have been lost by me in this method, and those ones were brown from the get go when i looked inside the precracked so you cant really blame the method on my extremely old bagseed

 

[coconaut]

Everyone needs to do what works best for them.
I've had great success with paper towel myself, where as, planting seeds directly in media I always seem to have various troubles.
Obviously planting seeds directly into the media is best for the seed in that it's not going to be disturbed.
But in my situation, if I have 95% success with germing in paper towel and only like 60% in straight media, then it's still better for the seed, in my case, if it's germed in paper towel, even if that means it's going to be disturbed and perhaps stunted for a day or two.
It's up to each individual to decide what works best for them in their own growing conditions

 

[stoney917]

to each there own i startem in towels and in rockwool both work fine i never try scarrin them im try that it sounds like fun it was also a great idea to test out methods with bagseed to see which works best for you i never had prob germin but i might due a experiment to see if theres ne diff in speed or % good luck whatever u choose