Germination Disasters

Well, I have looked everywhere online, and I can't really find a real answer to my problem, so I decided to finally make an account and ask you guys for your opinions/help/tips.

This is my 2nd grow, and last time I had no problems with germination, and it took about 6 days to produce a seedling. So about a month back i purchased 4 seeds from a dutch seedbank, which should have been reliable. I started germinating two of them in a glass for maybe 16 hours, then switched to a paper towel. There i believe i killed them by setting the container on my radiator. These ones never popped.

Next I decided to try with the other 2. Put them in a glass for 16 hours, then i saw that 1 popped and had a tiny root coming out, so I decided to sow both of them in my perlite/coco mix. The room was about 80F, and i put a glass on top of the spot where the seed was to keep the humidity high. The popped one end up "sprouting" somewhat, but the cotyledons never opened. After 2 weeks of waiting i decided to dig them up and examine them. The popped one seemed sick/dead. The one that didn't pop never ended up popping.

So I was pissed, and blamed it on the seedbank. I then ordered some seeds from Attitude, along with a Spongepot. I take a G13 Pineapple Express and a GHS Hawaiian Snow and put them in a glass of water. The PE sunk soon after, but the HS took 5+ hours to sink. After about 16 hours in the glass, the PE had cracked open and showed a big white center, but no extruding root. The HS was somewhat open. I then put them 24 hours in a papertowel in front of a small electronic heater with plastic wrap around the plates to keep the humidity high. I didn't notice much progress, and maybe I should have let them stay in there for some time.

I then put them in a spongepot, but that ontop of some perlite in a shot glass, poured the Spongepot germination mix on top, and put some plastic wrap for the humidity. I keep the temp around 80*F and have waited 5 days, with no visable process. So now i dug them up a little bit, and yes it was about a 1/4 inch sowed, and noticed no change in either of them.

In despiration i have once again put them in a paper towel in a last chance germination.

Is there something I'm obviously doing wrong? Anyone have any tips?

Put them 1/4" deep in damp potting soil, spray them 2-3 times a day with a mister to keep the surface damp, put a CFL a couple inches away for heat, keep the soil warm and damp and they should be up in 2-4 days. No soaking in water, no paper towels, just put the seeds in soil where they were designed to germinate. And don't dig them up out of curiosity.

Is there any more seeds first ? LoL ! Why you stuck at 16 hours ? Seeds may take more than that to pop and you haven't told us what you did in first time growing !

chairroller said:

Is there any more seeds first ? LoL ! Why you stuck at 16 hours ? Seeds may take more than that to pop and you haven't told us what you did in first time growing !

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In my first grow I set the 1 and only seed (Bulldog Feminized White Widow) in a cup of water for about 72 hours, and all that happened was that it had sunk. I then began the paper towel method in front of my heater and covered it to keep it humid. Within 30 hours it then popped and planted it, next day it sprouted.


For these last 2 its been about 5 days since there has been any (visable) progress, with a total of 7 days of (trying to) germinate. I know they take longer then 16 hours, but I'm not seeing anything happen and I'm becoming really really frustrated.

AimAim said:

Put them 1/4" deep in damp potting soil, spray them 2-3 times a day with a mister to keep the surface damp, put a CFL a couple inches away for heat, keep the soil warm and damp and they should be up in 2-4 days. No soaking in water, no paper towels, just put the seeds in soil where they were designed to germinate. And don't dig them up out of curiosity.

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(it won't let me rep you again..ha ha)
but yeah, I'm pretty sure the seed doesn't know the difference between being in dirt, a grow plug or a paper towel (its just a responding to heat, moisture & light).... I've NEVER wrapped my head around what a paper towel is supposed to do different than properly moistened soil/medium + proper seed depth...

....just thinking out loud that somethings are just passed around the internet w/o a study/sample size proving otherwise .... (if some scientist has planted like a million cannabis seeds in assorted mediums under controlled lab conditions and tallied the data with algorithms and shit then I'm all ears ... )

Alright ! You got some soil in addition to coco stuff right ? So Water Cup 24h or more (depends) ! Then paper towel for 48h or more probably ! And finally straight to the soil !
I don't know what's wrong but try no heater this time. Both watercup and paper towel in dark closet ! And forget about perlite and coco for this time ! You can do that once they are seedlings !

The paper towel 'method' is almost urban legend mythology. It seems that every pot smoker since 1960 has managed to pass down some high tech secret...the secret of germination. Yes. You must only and always germinate a marijuana seed in a bounty paper towel. It's a secret, welcome to the club.

Yes it works, but it's the hard way to do it...its kinda like having someone hold you up on their shoulders while you paint your house...instead of using a ladder.

Alright, thanks for the info then. So i could continue with the seeds i've already been trying to germinate and just sow them?

Maybe this is stupid, but i dont have soil, i was gonna do it soilless with only coco and perlite. Big mistake?

JohnnySocko said:

(it won't let me rep you again..ha ha)
but yeah, I'm pretty sure the seed doesn't know the difference between being in dirt, a grow plug or a paper towel (its just a responding to heat, moisture & light).... I've NEVER wrapped my head around what a paper towel is supposed to do different than properly moistened soil/medium + proper seed depth...

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Ditto. But once it sprouts and gets a 2" long hypocotyl on a paper towel as I see some people do, it's gonna figure out pretty damn quick it's not in soil. I think a lot of people don't realize how fragile and easily damaged these germinating seedlings are.

Alright, I put them in my mix (perlite and coco) 1/4" deep under my CFL. Is it a big deal I dont have soil? or did you guys mean soil as in growing medium?

put the seed in whatever its new home is gonna be; exception being hydroton, then a rockwool cube or growplug

Update: its been a few days, been spraying them 3-4 times a day and keeping them at a temp of 82°F.
No visable signs of progress

GroenJoe said:

Update: its been a few days, been spraying them 3-4 times a day and keeping them at a temp of 82°F.
No visable signs of progress

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It can take up to 10 days.....Be patient.

I've had a helluva time lately with seeds and clones. Went back to basics with Jorge. Soaking, paper towel, temp monitoring, distilled water. Last bunch was no pop, ordered more (luv Herbies) and trying with the freebies before I try and pop the high dollar seeds. Jorge has a step by step, day by day guide for germing, Use some trash seeds till you get your method dialed in.

I have to say that I have had problems with germination in the past and I believe the seeds were shit. I always used to get feminized seeds because I have a small setup and I did not want to waste space on male plants. I had 3 packs of seeds from 3 seed banks in Amsterdam and not one seed popped. I have used rockwhool cubes for years. I came to the conclusion after buying regular non feminized seeds that a lot of seeds are shit. Since I have been running regular seeds again I have an almost 100% germination rate. And my plants look great. Yes I have to keep an eye out for males but its a small garden so its not that hard. Just wanted to chime in with my experience. Good luck

Just checked, using soak 12, paper towel method all 3 popped within 24hrs, YeHaw! Watched my temps 78-80. Now for the Cherry bomb!