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geokills said:
I also do not use paper towels.  When germinating a seed - and this goes for ANY seed I germinate from tomatoes to peppers - I place the seeds in luke-warm water and leave them there for 24 to 36 hours.  I then take a rockwool cube (peat pellets are also a convenient way to insure that your seeds retain access to an appropriately moist/humid microclimate during germination) and place the seed about 1/2" down in the cube/pellet.  Let those rockwool cubes sit in about 1/4" of water inside a container with a perforated top (ie. a mini greenhouse).  Then place that germination greenhouse on top of something warm like an external hard drive or refrigerator.

Here's a picture of one of the greenhouses I have used, with the rockwool cubes:

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Sirius said:
Well, to start off with, let's explain how we came to try out this idea. It became time to start another round of seeds, as we had new strains to try out, but two of the strains were known to both be several years old, and the seeds of the other strain were replacements for seeds that had bad germination rates, next to several strains that had excellent rates in the same conditions, from the previous germination. We first started sets of these seeds in paper towel, and then took them to coco (some had split, some hadn't). Only two seeds actually completed germination - the rest either split and grew too slowly and became rotten, or they didn't split at all.

Then we read a thread, over at ICMag, that described a technique that this poster initially experimented with simply for older seeds that were difficult to germinate, but eventually did it with all of his seeds because they germinated faster. The process as he did it was to gently apply pressure with tweezers on the pointed ends of the seeds to actually pop the seed open where it would normally crack open, after he gave it twelve hours to soak. Several posters in the thread then tried it out for themselves, and reported back that it was working excellently.

So, we gave it a try. First we tried this with the seeds that showed no signs of changes from the first round of attempted germination, and then did it with every new seed that we tried to germinate. The only exception is that my lady popped them with her teeth instead of tweezers, because she had better control on how much pressure to apply (which is barely any, just enough - they pop right away, and you can hear it happen). Within a day, taproots began to emerge from two of the seeds that first showed no signs that they began germinating after about a week in paper towels and then in coco (some of the seeds simply were not viable). It has also been working exceptionally with the seeds we have started germinating since then.

It is beneficial to do this because the energy that the seed would have to exert, especially if they are seeds with thicker hulls, can be expended in taproot growth and getting the cotyledons out of the shell. Of course, if the seeds are fresh and completely viable, then allowing the seed to split itself and emerge would perhaps make it stronger, the same way putting a fan on seedlings will strengthen their stem, but I don't know how consequential allowing it to take care of itself is, and, for our situation, we're dealing with seeds that aren't as viable and need to conserve their energy for everything that we can't help them with. We've confirmed that this definitely works, noting that it isn't just seeds that would have grown out anyways, as seeds that weren't responding in all the usual germination settings then grew out immediately after being popped by us.

Anyways, just passing this along to the Growery , since I haven't seen this technique mentioned yet here. To anyone looking to try this out, I'd suggest trying it out with bag-seed first, because there is definitely potential there for putting too much pressure on them and completely smushing the seeds. The poster we read about this from was using a magnifying glass, in addition to tweezers, to see better what was happening. Teeth work great though!

We're definitely happy with this because we scored some rare beans of a strain that hasn't been available for years (Rez's Apollo Mist), and this technique is resulting in growing seedlings when, at first, it looked like we weren't going to get any results. On that note, expect a new grow journal from us soon.

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https://www.growery.org/forums/showflat.php/Number/128408#128408

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206 said:
Most people would agree that germinating seeds is the easiest part of the cultivation process, so don't be intimidated if you're doing it for the first time. I try to keep things as low-tek as possible in my garden and that goes for germination too:

Pour water in cup
Place seeds in water in cup
Once the tap-root emerges (24-48 hours) plant the seed in soilless medium of your choice, making sure to cover the seed 1/8th~ of an inch with medium.

If you keep your house at 60f or warmer this will work year-round.

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yeah, i was thinking that myself.  It is pretty easy to do it and get high success rate.  After all I remember learning how to do this (paper towel in an egg carton) in the fifth grade.  not cannabis.  i cant remember what plant.

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lampshadehelmet said:
A word of caution on germinating seeds... having extra rapid rooter plugs sitting around I decided to use them rather than throw them out(used to clone in them switched to aero).

The seeds failed miserably at pushing their way out of the plugs and most coiled up into a ball of tap root and died without ever emerging. The ones that did break surface ended up dying as well due to the root not being able to grow properly.

This was a fresh bag of plugs and I have used them to clone before, but suggest never attempting to germinate in them. I managed to save a few by ripping them out of the plugs and placing in dirt.

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81renaissance said:
I haven't used that practice, so Buddy would be the person to answer your question, but it seems like a bad idea.  I don't even leave my seeds soaking in pure water to split, I give them a 24 hour soak and then its directly into the plugs before they have a chance to open up.

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I agree, plugs are more difficult to grow seeds in because they get waterlogged so easily. I think coda uses them and I know a couple other experienced growers that do, but for a newbie starting out they should be avoided.

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I honestly don't see what's so difficult about growing in peat pellets, I don't do anything special at all when I pop seeds.  I don't even bother pre-soaking the seeds in water.  I just hydrate the peat pellets with warm water, make a little hole about 1/2" deep, plop the seed in, lightly place a little peat over the seed (don't pack it down), then I plop it into my cloning chamber.  3 days later I have a sprout with the tap root out the bottom.

I think seed germination, like almost everything in cannabis cultivation, is scary to newbies because there's a fuck ton of different ways to do it.  It's one of those things where I tell people that if they find a method that works for them, just stick with it, because in the end they all do the same damn thing.  Give seed water, pop the tap root out, put in substrate.  Peat pellets have always worked for me no problem, so I never bothered using anything else. 

Anyways, as long as you don't microwave your seeds ( ), and they're viable, just keep them wet and warm and watch for the tap root.

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coda said:
I honestly don't see what's so difficult about growing in peat pellets, I don't do anything special at all when I pop seeds.  I don't even bother pre-soaking the seeds in water.  I just hydrate the peat pellets with warm water, make a little hole about 1/2" deep, plop the seed in, lightly place a little peat over the seed (don't pack it down), then I plop it into my cloning chamber.  3 days later I have a sprout with the tap root out the bottom.

I think seed germination, like almost everything in cannabis cultivation, is scary to newbies because there's a fuck ton of different ways to do it.  It's one of those things where I tell people that if they find a method that works for them, just stick with it, because in the end they all do the same damn thing.  Give seed water, pop the tap root out, put in substrate.  Peat pellets have always worked for me no problem, so I never bothered using anything else. 

Anyways, as long as you don't microwave your seeds ( ), and they're viable, just keep them wet and warm and watch for the tap root.

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