Why pre germinate seeds?

OldMedUser said:

I think you mean, Heat promotes seed germination. Good to have lights over the pots to make sure that seedling gets light the second it breaks the surface tho. CFLs a couple inches over the soil keeps that warm too.

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Heat also promotes germination, however, I meant what I wrote. There's no point to putting seeds "in a dark place".

I agree with church re the paper towel thing when I’m only doing a few seeds that I’ve paid for. Mostly because I’m impatient lol. I do get the extra step thing and have had the tap root grow into the paper but I just cut around it and plant the whole thing with paper attached. I did plant my outdoor crop directly into shitty soil and solo cups, left them sitting in the back of my truck, black liner for heat, and had 100%, fuck I even had a seed germinate in my carpet ( ya not proud now lol) in college and grow into a plant, albeit an ugly mofo lol. My point is, it’s a pretty resilient plant and pretty hard to fuck up so pick your poison. As for the cure, well I’m not sure lol. I trim, dry and freeze my larger outdoor grows and I can honestly say it tastes and burns pretty much the same as a cured batch. Could be Im not curing it properly, I only started that a few years ago when I stopped growing large numbers, but the frozen vac packed taste pretty ok to me lol.

Here is my recent experience. Having been a cabinet grower for a few years I had accumulated quite a few old seeds. The cabinet has been empty for several months and I wanted to start again. I always used paper towels because I started that way and it worked, but this time it failed. I blamed temperature being too cold so I tried it again putting the plate on top of the cable box. Still failure. I blamed evaporation from the towels cooling the seeds. I put some in a tray of soil, failure again. Outside in the ground , fail. Sandpaper the seeds, fail. Scarify, fail. I used to have 100% success so I blamed old seeds. In desperation I dumped the rest of the seeds on paper towels. I noticed my router was nice and warm so I laid it on it's side directly on top of the moist towels. I had to be diligent because the towels would dry out in a few hours, but suddenly a day later they all started sprouting. Now I have a dozen seedlings for a cabinet that can hold four plants.

I just got a reminder of another reason why some growers might prefer the paper towel method. I had a Cheese seed that I was soaking in a paper towel. When it first showed a root, I thought it was ready to go into a peat pellet, so I went ahead and put it in one. Then the next morning I checked and the freaking root was growing straight up in the air, 180 degrees in the exact opposite direction from where it was supposed to go. Not only that, but it CIRCLED around to grow in the wrong direction!

Damn! That is just not supposed to happen, according to what my own freakin' college professors told us in Botany for Non-Majors and General Slackers 101. Plant roots are supposed to have a gravity-based mechanism that makes them grow downward even if the seed is not positioned with its "bottom" pointing downward, or at least that is what I was led to believe back in the '80s at the great University of Texas at Austin.

Once again, I'm thinking I should have gone to A&M. What can I say? I was young and UT had the better reputation as a party school.

SubZer0Genetics said:

When I first started growing I was under the impression that pre germinating in a paper towel was the way to go. 2 years later, the only seeds Ive had trouble growing were ones I pre germinated. I’ve had a damn near perfect (outside of my own neglegance) germ rate planting directly into medium or rockwoll cube. Besides breeding purposes and germinating large qauntities, what benefit if any comes from pre germinating? Seems like more of a risk than anything. Ie skin oil, proper mishandling.

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I pre Germ in a paper towel after scarifying in a cup lined with sandpaper

I've done this for over 42 years

I do it because I normally pay big money for a few reputable seeds

landraces mostly and rares

doing so allows me to monitor the germing process

I scarify the seed

I then soak the seed in clean water and alleo vera juice

until it sinks (in horticulture this is called imbibtion)

then I remove to a colored(blue) kitchen towel (blue cause I wanna see that tail in the next 6 hours)

its now on the wait (in horticulture this is called 'the rest')

while this is going on I have prepped the 4.5 inch pot or rapid rooter to the correct temp and ph etc

once the radicle(tail) is 1-2 inches long and in good condition I gently move to a pot or rapid rooter

where it sits in a an incubator for the next few days

I do the above cause it guarantee 's the survival of the seed

and many times I've had to adjust to circumstances that have arisen surprisingly

good luck