Germination Advice

im having a hard time ive using a wet paper towel in a plastic container with a top. ive been noticing they all germinate fine but when i put them in the soil like 2 out of 8 popped up. so any suggestions as to why?

you want to put seeds in water overnight first, or until the seeds can sink. give 'em a poke and if they sink then put them in a paper towel. i usually have success in 24-36 hours from very start.

a lil more info on how your putting them into the soil would help.. but this is what i do and seems to work pretty good... after the seed has germed, gently take them with a pair of tweezers and place them taproot down into a premade hole into your growing medium.. i use soil so i will just tell you what i do for soil... i make a small hole in my soil about a lil deeper than the size of the seeds.. maybe about a 1/4 inch at most.. like i said, place the root taproot down into the hole. and lightly cover them with more soil.. not much, just enough to cover the seed... water thouroughly so that the whole soil is nice and wet, not soaked and not too dry.. take a piece of saran wrap and cover the top of the pot with it to keep the moisture in.. place pots under cfl's at a distance of about two or so inches.. once i see the seed has sprouted, take off the saran wrap.... thats pretty much it.. best of luck..

thanks. yeah ill probably try that. i notice after i put the water in the seed probably moves a lot i would think, so that might be effecting it. also im using a 150w HPS so thats probably not helping either

just another note.. i should have said it first, but i screwed up, lol.. try and water the soild first so that its good to go after you put the seed in, that way you won't run into the problem that you mentioned of the seed moving after you water it.. my bad... truly sorry about that.. i even thought of it after i typed it and was just being too lazy to go back and fix it...
i think if you water if first and do everything else you should be ok..
i also had problem with seedlings under an hid light like you are saying.. it kept drying out the soil and killing the seedlings.. i have found that i have much better luck just using a simple say 23 watt 6500k cfl till they get a lil older than throwing them under the hps..

oh ok. well not a problem i got plenty of CFL's and yeah i was thinking that would help a lot to water the medium first. and i havent tried using saran wrap so im probably going to try that

The sun grows plants from seed just fine and its equivalent to 1000 watts per Sq meter, so 150 W HPS is not the problem. I don't use soil anymore, but when I did I used the method racerboy uses and it works great. Remember that if your seeds are stored improperly or if the temps are too high or too low you will have problems with germ rate. Many people bury the seed too far into the soil, 1/2" at the most and then proceed to keep the soil soaked for far too long and the tap root ends up rotting.

yes i understand. i dont believe theres a problem germinating just because 100% of them germ. there not old, and there stored in a dark dry place. ill just make sure the soil is wet before i place the seed in and use the saran wrap. should i leave the saran wrap until until i see any part of the plant starting to come out or should i wait until like 2 leaves come out?

yea im diagnosed's grow partner.those r some good ideas,we will try saran wrap,i cant wait to plant these seeds