Please Help! Seeds do not germinate

[Rocknowledge]

Aloha everyone, I am hoping someone can share some of their expertise with me in order to solve my situation. This is my first grow ever (well nothing is really growing so...?) and I'm having trouble germinating my seeds.

It's so frustrating because a few years ago I found a bag seed, put it in some wet paper towels, taproot shot out then I put the seed in to some soil I just dug up from outside and a couple days later... a seedling! (Couldn't see that one all the way through though so had to disregard it.)

My situation today - I purchased some Afghan seeds from this site 420seeds.com (anyone else use this site?) before I realized that 420Mag has a sponsor section. (Damn it.) I bought FFOF and perlite, pots, ferts... basically I aint just throwin any old seed in to any old dirt this time - so I figured I would have an even better experience. No sir. One of my seeds arrived crushed and one was beige.

I paper toweled 3 and put them on my router. Two days later seeds look as if they just hit the paper towel. four days later two were beginning to open up. 8 days later (wtf!) they looked exactly the same. so i put them in a glass with a little water at the bottom and take them off my router and put them in the window. Another week goes by and nothing I figured if they werent already dead then two weeks of being in my hands must have surely killed them.

So, I start with 3 more seeds in paper towel and bunch it this time instead of just flap it over. After a week... Nothing.

These are further details to my issue:
-tried scarifying the seeds and putting them back in the towel or glass
-I live in Hawaii, avg temp is 75-80, should I not have put the seeds on the router?
-Possible contamination? Should i bleach my seeds first (my last two) before i try again?

Thanks for any help or suggestions guys.

 

[Ziminy]

Re: Please Help! Seeds do not germinate 420seeds.com

I've been having the same problem.

Since my first 10 seeds (9 cracked - 8 seedlings, 1 never grew)

I've gone through $100 in seeds to get 3 plants.
Very few seeds germinating.
5 different varieties from 3 different seed brands.

The few that do crack seem like they get stuck and never grow. Sometimes the tap root comes out a bout an 8th of an inch and then never grows any bigger.

I've tried doing it in complete darkness and in the grow room with light.
I've tried with 3 different PH water. 5.5 7.0 8.0
I've tried leaving them in water.
I've tried moving them to coco after they crack.
I've tried moving them to dirt after they crack.
I've tried germinating in paper towels and leaving them there.
Doesn't seem to matter.
Few germinate and the ones that do never grow.
I get maybe 1 out of 10.

And the one that DOES grow, usually cracks in one day, long tap root the second day, and leaves trying to break out on the 3rd day, seedling on the 4th day. If the ones that grow are doing it really fast, I'm thinking it's not anything I do wrong.

But the seeds are different types and different brands and all are reputable.
And I'm getting them from one of our sponsors.
So, it's can't be bad seeds.

74 degrees.
My first 10 seeds were fine, why all the problems now?

 

[Rocknowledge]

Hey Ziminy,
Thank you for sharing your seed troubles with me. That's odd that your seeds are from different sponsors and you're still having trouble with most of them. Maybe in my case it's not the seed but me... I've tried so many techniques from all the great people here on 420mag that I simply just don't understand it.

Have you tried rinsing your seeds in a diluted bleach solution yet? or using Superthrive? I saw those suggested within the forums but havent the supplies to try it.

Aloha.

 

[bucktoothal]

One thing you can try is use a emery board for finger nails, give the seeds a very light rub. ( like one quick pass )what this does is it will open up the pores a bit to let the water in easier

 

[Rocknowledge]

Aloha Bucktoothal, thank you for the suggestion. I'll definitely give that a try with the next batch.

Mahalo,
Roc

 

[PitViper]

it sounds like you got bad beans...crushed,imature etc. Ive germed every way possible and the paper towel method is about the best IMO
Ive never had to scarify or scuff or anything to a seed. if they were good seeds..they will crack in 24-48 hrs.
I feel ya when you get a bad one. I bought 5 femmed Super Lemon Haze from GH and 1 was dead. another was weak.. the other 3 were perfect. to me losing 2 high end seeds like that cost me 2K...that blows. I dont care about the cost of the seeds ..I just want them to grow.

 

[Ziminy]

I have not heard of soaking in Bleach.
What % should I use?

I have superthrive, I'll try that.
Thx

Also, why do people always say to put the seeds in a dark place?
I've been growing plants from seed for 35 years and always used a bright sunny window.
Never had problems.
I just don't get how darkness helps.
Most seeds are germinated so close to the surface that the sun penetrates the dirt.
Anyway, I'm going to do the next batch in the sun.

 

[Rocknowledge]

Hi Ziminy,

I've never tried the bleach (1tbsp per gallon, is what i've read) but yesterday I grabbed my last two beans from the fridge, scraped them with a sterilized nail file and soaked them in diluted Simplegreen for 30 mins. Then soaked in pH neutral water (with a pinch of Rooting hormone powder mixed in) over night. This morning I've seen a tap root beginning to emerge on both... so definitely progress. I'm guessing my seeds were "dirty" maybe yours are too.

Thanks for the contribution, Pitviper. Would you suggest that after soaking the seeds over night that I put them in a paper towel until tap root emerges to .5 inch or pop them in the soil now with taproot just peeking out?

Mahalo,
Roc

 

[Ziminy]

Hi Ziminy,

This morning I've seen a tap root beginning to emerge on both... so definitely progress. I'm guessing my seeds were "dirty" maybe yours are too.

I always scuff my seeds, but I'm going to try the bleach. So glad it worked for you. I have hope now. (oh, and the hormone, gonna try that too)

Would you suggest that after soaking the seeds over night that I put them in a paper towel until tap root emerges to .5 inch or pop them in the soil now with taproot just peeking out?

I want to know this too. When my seeds do crack, the tap root never gets any longer than 1/8 inch. I'm curious when and where I should move the seeds to. Although I've tried everything but leaving them submerged in water, I'd like to know what is considered "normal".

 

[FreakNature]

With good seed, I've always had great results planting directly into soil, 1/2" deep, pointy side up or sideways. Moisten the soil and cover with clear plastic wrap, stick it under the light it will grow under. 3-7 days and they pop out of the soil. Just remove the plastic wrap as soon as the baby breaks the surface. No need to worry about mold, broken tap roots, drying out, etc. No need to transplant the sensitive little baby. Just like nature. If the seed is poor quality not much will help.

 

[Ziminy]

I've always wondered why we don't just plant directly into the growing medium.
I think I'll try that.
But I may have to face the fact that the seeds are bad.

It must be the breeders.
They are breeder packs, so I doubt it's the sponsored website that is at fault.
Not logical that they unpackage good seeds and slip in bad.

Breeder - High Quality Seeds
7 seeds - 6 dead, 1 crack and no grow
They were very tiny seeds and a few were pale.
Also, one of them broke apart when I picked it up.
Rotten?

Anyway, there are tons of reviews for sellers, and we have 420 sponsors we can trust. What about the breeders? Are some better than others? One of the breeders guarantees 80% germination. But how do I collect on that? I didn't buy from the breeder and the seller says they are souvenirs and they do not support people growing them.

Catch 22?

 

[Ziminy]

Okay, the bleach did not help at all.

But as I have been reading more and more about people having various problems because of too much moisture, humidity or over-watering, I considered that maybe I baby them too much and am keeping the soil too moist.

So, I got some Jiffy plugs (peat pots) I watered until they expanded and planted my seeds 1/2 inch into the soil point down.

2 popped up on the third day. I only watered the others once when the peat plugs were very light in weight (clearly almost dried out). After 7 days, I'm guessing there is a problem, so I cut the peat pot netting and gently pull the peat apart. The other 6 seeds had ALL SPROUTED, but were either growing towards the ground or twisted into odd shapes, very pale yellow start leaves.

I took each one out gently, rinsed with PH water and transplanted into Coco with the start leaves out above the coco. They caught up very quickly to the first 2.

I did another batch and planted the seeds only 1/4 inch into the peat. All seeds had sprouted by the 5th day.

So I learned:
1) Most of my problems were because of too much water.
2) Only plant 1/4 inch down if using Jiffy Pots.

Seed Problem solved.
And I used tap water.
Hard as fuck, Florida tap water.
No special nutrients or boosters or bleach or vitamins or nothing.
And I had forgotten to scuff them too.

 

[Ziminy]

At the same time I was doing the peat pot experiment, I also tried 6 seeds in Rock Wool.

Rock Wool was the first thing I tried and it had rotted my seeds in the past, so I gave up on it. But I was reading a post on the forums from someone saying to shake (without crushing) the excess water out of the bottom of the rock wool. So I tried that and within 4 days, all 6 had sprouted.

I did not pre soak the seeds or give them any special attention. And again, I used crappy Florida hard tap water.

The bag seeds are out-performing all my expensive breeder seeds.
I can't kill them.

So I will likely veg them indoors and then transplant into the garden and see what happens. My first grow was (medium grade) bag seeds and the crop was stronger than the original pot as I had been told it likely would be. Better treatment, nutrients, hydro etc.

 

[FreakNature]

Your peat pots might have failed in part because you should plant the pointy end of the seed up, or sideways. The root emerges from the pointy end, then turns and heads toward the center of the earth. The stem and seed leafs pull up into an upright position as they leave the soil, leaving the seed case behind.

 

[Ziminy]

Thank you. I've always read that you should plant them root down after they crack. I'll reverse that.
Maybe this was the entire problem the whole time.