Out of curiosity, what is his method?
There are many different ways to
germinate seeds. My personal favorite, and most dependable method of choice, is a good ol moist paper towel inside of a zip lock baggie. This method is very hard to screw up and has proven to be a go to for me over my years popping seeds. Let’s get started....
Step 1 : The first thing you will need to do is moisten a square sheet of paper towel with tap water.
Step 2 : Gently ring the towel out until it is wet but not dripping water everywhere.
Step 3 : After you have gotten rid of the excess water, fold the towel in half. On one side of the moistened towel, place your seeds that you would like to germinate.
Step 4 : Once the seeds are placed, fold the towel again, this time covering the top of the seeds. This should leave you with a double layer of moist paper towel on each side of the seeds.
Step 5 : Place this folded paper towel, with the seeds inside, into an appropriately sized ziplock bag.
Note: For many years I just put the paper towel in between two plates but found that sometimes the paper towel would dry out too soon. For this reason, I began using zip lock bags to retain the moisture until the seeds began germinating.
Step 6 : Place ziplock bag with its contents into a dark area that maintains 75-78 degrees fahrenheit. Being slightly off these temps is not the end of the world but can cause variations in germination rates and times.
Step 7 : After 48-72 hours, open your zip lock bag and unfold your paper towel. You should have little white tails popping out of most, if not all your seeds by this point. If there are some that aren’t quite popped yet, fold the paper towel back over carefully and place back into the bag for another 24-48 hours.
Step 8 : At this point you will want to get your desired media in your growing containers and ready to plant your seedlings into. The media should be pre moistened with PH’d water only and. PH the water you are using specific to whichever media you are using.
Note: If I’m using pro mix I would PH the water to 6.0, and if I was using rockwool I would PH the water to 5.5.
Step 9 : For every seed you will need a ½-3/4” hole in your media of choice.
Note: I prefer pro mix, or a peat-based media for seedlings as it is very easy on new development. I do not recommend coco as it is very inert and may even be deficient of basic nutrients a seedling likes and needs.
Step 10 : Once you have reached your desired amount of germination, carefully removed each seed, one by one, and place them into the holes you’ve made in your media.
Note: I prefer to place my seedlings somewhat sideways into the holes so that the shell is helped off while it’s pushing its way up through the dirt. A lot of times if placed shell up, the seedling gets lazy and doesn’t shed the shell properly.
Step 11 : Once all seeds have been placed in the holes, cover them very gently with media not packing too tightly above the seedling.
Step 12 : Place planted seedlings under a low intensity light source. Within 1-3 days you should start to see your freshly planted seeds break ground and begin their amazing journey to your next best pheno selection!
