First off, you have to know what the conditions are that need to be met before a seed will begin its journey into adolescence and finally adulthood.
here they are:
1. Heat
2. Humidity
3. Darkness
4. Moisture
5. Genetics (i dont believe this has nearly an impact as the others)
Im going to explain how this works, and what you can do to better your odds.
First off, why do we use paper towels or cups of water to get them to crack?
Well, my theory is this, impatience, and wasting soil, or medium.
We dont want to waste time planting a seed if we arent sure it will pop, right?
waste of soil, water and time, not to mention space that could be used for the ones that did pop.
So, we put them in paper towels, that way we can peep in from time to time to give ourselves the satisfaction of seeing the progress. Not to mention, if some dont pop, we can disgard them and do away with the hassle of preparing more medium, imo.
This to me is pointless, and this is why.
As ive said before, transplanting a plant in veg for example will require about a week to recover, and resume growth.
Why wouldnt a freshly transplanted seed with a taproot from a paper towel, or cup of water do the same thing?
Well, it does. You see, a seed with a taproot is essentially an infant plant, but a plant nonetheless. So germing in paper towels or water until it has a taproot and then transplanting (keyword here) will stress the little guy, causing it to have to re acclimate to its new environment.
Seeds contain enough energy on their own for about a week, they wont use any nutes at this point, they just want to get the main stem to the surface, that way, the cotyledon (first set of leaves) can find the light to begin making energy to promote further growth.
So, whats the best way to achieve this? And a near perfect germ rate? Well, this is how i do it, the only seeds that arent going to pop, are just that, they wouldnt pop if best conditions were met regardless of what you do. The seed may be "defective" or premature, damaged, whatever. So we need to meet all the conditions in order to pop all viable seeds.
You will need to prepare you medium. (soil, soil less mix, peat pellets, or rockwool. Now, im a soil guy, this method will work with any medium, but i find soil to be what mama earth thinks is most natural, so i use that.
You are in soil, so im gonna give you my way in soil.
1. fill container's with soil, all the way to the brim.
2. Get to the store and grab some Distilled water, couple of gallons, just to have.
3. Once your containers are full to the brim, water the soil, heavily until you see a good bit of runoff. (make sure containers have adequate drainage)
4. You will notice the soil settle a bit, giving you about 1/2-1 inch of space between the top layer and the rim of the pot/container.
5. Once saturated, place pots under your light source. Ventilation at this point is not needed.
6. Walk away, what we are doing here is allowing the light to warm the soil, cold soil may shock the seed, and either slow, or inhibit growth.
7. Give a few hours to rise in temp, feel with your finger to determine when the soil feels warm, or at least not cold.
8. Once all of this is done, we are ready to sow our seeds!
9. Using a sterile pointy object (i like a philips head screw driver, cleaned in alcohol) Make a hole about 1/4-1/2 inch deep in the center of the container. Ive found that any deeper will cause the seed to fight its way further up, potentially causing it to give up do to having to use so much of its valuable and precious limitied enery. I usually put tape on the screw driver to indicate about 3/8 of an inch and where i need to stop so i dont make the hole too deep. Not to mention, all the holes will be uniformly deep, same depth.
10. Using tweezers, or a small item capable of doing the job, CAREFULLY pick up the seed so that the tip of the seed is sideways (picture a football sitting on the ground) That is how you want the seed to rest in the bottom of the hole.
11. Carefully, using both thumbs and index fingers, close the soil around the seed. Dont pack it too tight, use your judgement. We want to eliminate light from the equation. (Also, alot of potting soil contains small pieces of wood or clumps of soil that if big enough will not allow the seed to reach the surface, simply to big for the seedling to push out of the way to reach the surface. So make sure it has a clear path to the surface by only having to fight its way through soil and not rocks, wood chips, debris or other matter comonly found in bagged premixed potting soil.
OK, Now weve sown our seeds, what next? Well, weve met a few condtions already, darkness, moisture, heat (from our light source) One thing we need to add is humidity! 100% humidity! We achieve this buy covering the container with a clear material that will lock in humidity and even raise the temp above the soil even more which is a good thing for seedlings. I use clear plastic bottles, cut in half, then placed directly over the seed on the top of the soil. You can use saran wrap, it works exactly the same, i dont like saran wrap tho because the seedling can grow into it if your not watching it, or at work or something, it happens fast, so to make sure i have the clearance, i use bottles.
12. once the first set of leaves are fully opened, remove your plastic bottle or saran wrap, the plant needs Co2 at this point, and you can leave them on longer if you like, just remove the plastic covering from time to time to get some new air in there! But after a week, you should have all the plastic removed.
within 1.5-3 days from sow, you will see that all have sprouted and should be showing the first leaf set
Your done! seed is planted, all conditions have been met and the seed is beginning to realize that the weather is pretty nice outside, and WILL open up to begin its journey.
to date, ive germed about 80 seeds, 100% success. Some of the seedlings were deformed, or mutated or even just stopped growing, but this is out of our control and due to genetics or deformalities. If a seed doesnt pop, then it would never have in the first place, nothing you could do would change that.
I know this is a lot to take in, and we havent even broken the surface, the rest of the journey all the way to harvest is just beginning. So is a new set of rules to follow in order to get those sweet buds. (for example, pretty much the opposite of what we want for a seedling is what we want for a more mature plant, less humidity, less heat but not cold, more on that when your ready.
Sorry if im a little to detailed, i said i would make it smoother than my post, but im bored, and i want everyone to share the same success that myself, and experienced growers already know. (besides, germing SHOULD be the easiest part of the process!
Good Luck Friend!
