How do you Germinate your seeds?

How do you pop your seeds?


  • Total voters
    105

TerpyTyrone

LED Recruiter
What's the longest anyone has tried to get a seed to pop. I wet 5 Vienna Skunk seeds from HSO. One popped like normal but the 4 others after soaking for 24 hrs and paper towel for 2 days went into soil. 5 days later dug around still not cracked. Trashed all 4 and popped 2 Heison purple cake and 2 Mass Medical Star Pupil. They popped quickly no issues. I decided to try the other 5 Vienna Skunks because I felt defeated. Soaked them for 24 hours and now they've been in paper towel for 5 days.
This morning one is finally cracked open but no root tip yet. Never been in paper towels more than maybr 2 days before. Seeds where really dark and wildly varying in size. A few real small and a few pretty large.
Still not sure they're going to make it and Im more than a week in. Frustrating.
What's the longest youve seen for seeds to pop?
Brown is bad.
Usually after 2 days they become,mush. I use tweezers from a Swiss army knife to peel the remaining shells off.
Of course a little sandpaper too
 

GCG

Dinosaur
They are duds.
Tend to agree. One of the more expensive packs I had too. Got one out of 10 to pop. It was the biggest lightest colored of the pack. Oh well hopefully that one will be fire. Confident in the purple cake we'll see on the Star Pupil and Vienna Skunk, I guess. Not a good start, had shitty luck with HSO's Blue Dream few years ago too. Seeds were fine just no worthy phenos in my pack.
 

MtRainDog

Blümen Meister
I've used the paper towel method for years. Recently had some troubles with it, temperature related. Got too hot and dried out. Was able to salvage/pop the two seeds because I caught it early enough. Still gave me a bit of a scare though. I don't grow out a lot of plants at one time, so each one is precious to me, whether they were freebies, or $$$ primo seeds. So I'm always looking to improve things, especially handling the somewhat delicate nature of germination/seedlings.

I put a little perlite in a solo cup, maybe 1/3 full. Wet it real well, covered w/Saran Wrap and Tin Foil, and put the seeds in there next to my computer case. All 4 in there popped in 24 hrs. Not bad, but one thing is the tail was a bit winding, not straight. What I did like about the perlite is that it holds moisture really well, and it "breathes" well.

But looking at what others have said here, I think I'll also try the RR or cubes or whatever they are.
 

GCG

Dinosaur
Just crushed the ones that weren't cracked yet. One was pretty brittle and didnt have much white mush. Others were mushy inside but shells were hard as hell still. Never sanded beans before soaking probably needed to with these. The one that cracked is still there just sitting. Since it gave me an effort I'll stick with it for a little longer.
 

TerpyTyrone

LED Recruiter
Found another outdoor pack in my vault. Going out today
View attachment 43671
Johnny Potseed is gonna be doing some guerilla shit on other peoples property. What they dont know, dont hurt em!
Thanks for everything!! I don't get to smoke on lunchbreak , boo hoo, so this just made the last 3 hours of work more enjoyable.
Its getting to the point in the job where I'm chasing electricians, plumbers, hvac, insulators, masons, everybodyyyyy to get TF outta my personal space
10 lbs of shit, 5 lb bag. Right @Jesselikes2Grow
 

GCG

Dinosaur
I've used the paper towel method for years. Recently had some troubles with it, temperature related. Got too hot and dried out. Was able to salvage/pop the two seeds because I caught it early enough. Still gave me a bit of a scare though. I don't grow out a lot of plants at one time, so each one is precious to me, whether they were freebies, or $$$ primo seeds. So I'm always looking to improve things, especially handling the somewhat delicate nature of germination/seedlings.

I put a little perlite in a solo cup, maybe 1/3 full. Wet it real well, covered w/Saran Wrap and Tin Foil, and put the seeds in there next to my computer case. All 4 in there popped in 24 hrs. Not bad, but one thing is the tail was a bit winding, not straight. What I did like about the perlite is that it holds moisture really well, and it "breathes" well.

But looking at what others have said here, I think I'll also try the RR or cubes or whatever they are.
I like that perlite idea. Ive seen people stick cuts directly into wet perlite and get nice clones. Thought about cloning that way makes sense it would work for seeds too.
 

SCJedi

Synergist
If any of you use your fingertips on a seed at any point and then wonder why your seeds doesn't survive here is a test you can try all by yourself at home.

Wipe your mobile phone clean, I mean really, really, mirror-like clean, don't half-ass it. Set a timer for 5 minutes and then do your normal mobile phone stuff like check email, surf Farcebook, read online pot forums, etc. When the timer goes off hold your phone's screen up to the light and look at all of the oil on it. Now imagine being that poor little seed being coated in that shit. Use gloves and tweezers!
 

GCG

Dinosaur
Just crushed the ones that weren't cracked yet. One was pretty brittle and didnt have much white mush. Others were mushy inside but shells were hard as hell still. Never sanded beans before soaking probably needed to with these. The one that cracked is still there just sitting. Since it gave me an effort eI'll stick with it for a little longer.
Forgot to update this. Stubborn one tried but eventually gave up. So I went 1 for 10 on the Vienna Skunk. Went 2 for 2 on Star Pupil, had one Purple Cake flake out and damp off on me. Using a peat base and its like fucking mud, I hate it. Anyway also went 1 for 1 with EEEE from Mass Medical. The last two are Jenny crosses that were up from soil in about 40hrs from soak.

Only way I know how:

Soak 18-24hrs
Paper towel between plastic Solo plates on cable box
As soon as tap root emerges into RR or seed starter soil.
Water first few days after its up with spray bottle then bottom feed until established. Water and microbes only for 2-3 weeks depending on soil. T5's the whole time. Then up pot with MYKOS WP water & AZOS dusting for root ball. Add nutes, lights and go.

If seeds are old or I really want to make sure they pop I use humic acid and Ruby Fulvic from New Millennium to kick start them.
Generally have good luck.
 

MtRainDog

Blümen Meister
Forgot to update this. Stubborn one tried but eventually gave up. So I went 1 for 10 on the Vienna Skunk. Went 2 for 2 on Star Pupil, had one Purple Cake flake out and damp off on me. Using a peat base and its like fucking mud, I hate it. Anyway also went 1 for 1 with EEEE from Mass Medical. The last two are Jenny crosses that were up from soil in about 40hrs from soak.

Only way I know how:

Soak 18-24hrs
Paper towel between plastic Solo plates on cable box
As soon as tap root emerges into RR or seed starter soil.
Water first few days after its up with spray bottle then bottom feed until established. Water and microbes only for 2-3 weeks depending on soil. T5's the whole time. Then up pot with MYKOS WP water & AZOS dusting for root ball. Add nutes, lights and go.

If seeds are old or I really want to make sure they pop I use humic acid and Ruby Fulvic from New Millennium to kick start them.
Generally have good luck.
One of my Purple Crash or Purple Crunch (it’s either one of those two) almost damped off on me recently. The cotelydons went completely yellow and shriveled up, and the first leaves were just borderline about to go all yellow, but she’s bouncing back now. Much greener now, but behind the others in growth. The runt of the litter.
 
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