Seed germination help

B

blueridgegrow

New Member
Almost three weeks ago I placed two purchased seeds between damp pieces of paper towel. I left them there and the seeds busted open in 2 days or less and the radical appeared. I used tweezers to put them in a premoistened peat pot and have kept them in a seedling dome under flourescent light (for warmth) and I has been a constant 77 degrees with small amounts of water as need to maintain a moist medium. Why am I not seeing sprouts? Am I impatient? Any thoughts??

Thank you!!
 
Thanks for the insight. I had a warming mat under it but the temp started climbing I to the upper 80's so I unplugged it. I'm just not sure what else to do.....if anything???
 
is it possible the seeds dried at some point,=try again......... damp could go either way when describing germination,
and some seeds genetics are weak...
..what type of florescent, (usually a poor source of heat) airflow, dirty fingers (a little nicotine goes a long way toward toxic)
it seems you are very patient.....i would be scratchin my head too!.......i like rapid rooter plugs, dark til sprout cuz roots hate lite!right!
it seems that germinating is the one thing i do very well, thankfully this place is riddled with genius, no doubt you will get or find great advice here....keep trying and much luck...
 
Thx again guys, I haven't let them dry out, the peat pots have remained moist and I don't think the fluorescent light has affected them since the seeds are slightly covered with moist soil (less than 1/4 inch). I welcome your comments so I don't replicate the issue, seeds are expensive and hard to get.
 
Also, what methods do you guys advise for germination? I grow in soil and planned to germinate in the paper towel and move to the peat pots for sprouting and then move to the final grow container.

Thanks again guys!!
 
Hey blueridge,,I live in the blue ridge mountains !! I germinated mine in a paper towel kept warm and dark. I tried putting them straight in the soil and nothing happened,, a friend gave me a bunch of seeds he had in an ashtray,lol. None of them came up,, so I ended up using some bag seed that came straight out of the buds in the bag. I got 10 lil plants going now,,shooting for some sleep meds, maybe try to make some tincture also.:thumb:
 
tap water, folded papertowel (fairly damp), ziplock bag (closed, checked daily), sandwiched between 2 paper plates & set in a HUMID area(veg. tent, 16+hrs light daily)

When the tap root shows, it goes into a fairly neutral soil-mix (i.e. 0.13-0.08-0.08). I give it a week to show proof of life, b4 I reclaim everything--

@ the 1st sign of paling, they are transplanted into a more commonly enriched/amended soil (store bought--found anywhere). Water as needed...
@ the next sign of paling I'll administer/begin nutrient/regiment scheduling...
 
I take a paper towel and fold it into a 4 page book ,place it on a black plastic tray spray it wet put in in my bottom drawer in the back on the right side as thats close to the heat register in my room.....i squirt some peroxide a day or 2 later and they're sprouted!i line the bottom of a small net pot with popcorn rock,place a root riot plug with the minibabe in it , i put em in a black sided tub , pump an airstone in a jar o water, cover it with glass and im off to rootville in 10 days.............
 
Dude, was the rad facing down? I like to put my rads directly in the bag I'm gonna finish with, it's so much easier and my babies love not having to deal with the added stress of transplanting, mine are usually up within a day or two.
I germinate with ph water of 6.5 in moist paper towels between 2 plates sitting on my DTV receiver, I don't look until 36hrs later. By then I'm golden, oh! 1 more thing you can't shut off your receiver during the process.

Best of luck dude!
 
Well for me , not a fan of the peat or jiffy pots, even though all my seeds germed, I use a small glass filled with room temp water and place in a warmish dark area for three days, usually you find the seeds have cracked I dont wait for any long tail they go into roots organic soil and the soil is moistened and then they are wrapped in plastic wrap with a coulpe very small holes and again in a dark area until the first sign of the seed breaking soil and then cfls or my window sill for light. 21 for 21 so far. I have also had really good luck with the paper towel method as well. Peace and happy growing, OG
 
Distilled water in a shot glass with the seed in a dark place for 12-24 hrs. Until the seed sinks. If it hasn't sunk after about 18 hrs try touching it with your finger and it will usually sink. In my experience if it doesn't sink in this amount of time it's probably not going to sprout. After it sinks try the paper towel method and you should be able to put it into a Rapid rooter cube within another 12-24. You want to put it into the RR before the the little tap root gets very long or it can be damaged very easily. I don't like to use tweezers for this step because they are metal and hard and the seed and tap is very soft and delicate. CLEAN fingers seem to be much gentler on babies. With tweezers its kinda hard to tell how hard your squeezing. I have a propagation tray that has an insert the RR's fit into perfectly. I then cover them with a little bit of coco (you can use whatever medium you want but use just enough to cover the hole and block the seed from light) and under a dome and a T5 but CFL'S work great too. This way works fantastic for me. I can't think of a time it didn't sprout a healthy plant that I could try not to kill. I had several not germ before I started doing it this way. Blueridge your right seeds are expensive and hard to come by sometimes. If you haven't already learn to take clones. Hope this helps.
 
Thank you all for the words of experience and information. I will definitely be taking a hard look at germination techniques before I try again.

I could wait no longer after reading posts here yesterday so I cut the peat pots in half last night and the seeds had not grown any since I placed them in the pellet after the radical appeared.....the one with the larger radical protruding had even died (the radical turned brown). I don't want to reproduce this problem.....so, I just want to ask if anyone saw anything with my process that sounded like a problem?? I have not checked my water ph, it is my well water and worked fine for the 4 I sprouted last year. How is the best/easiest way to check ph? Do you guys use ph paper or a meter? which one? I plan to keep growing for a while, so a meter may be a good way to go but $ are short.

Temp has been running 77 F
I have kept the peat pots in a germination tray with a humidity dome.
I added water when the tray got dry or low of water but the pots were always nice and moist.
I germinated in a folded wet paper towel in a ziploc bag....all 3 busted open in a short time but they never done anything after moving them to the peat pots for sprouting. I moved them very carefully. I did use hot water to initially moisten the pots but didn't put the germinated seeds in until a day later so they were cool.

I would greatly appreciate any ideas as to what went wrong.

PS-all seeds were from an order made last year....the were freebies but were from reputable seed companies. I kept all seeds in a dark, air-tight, dry, sealed container at around 60 degrees since i received them.

THANK YOU ALL IN ADVANCE!!
 
I have had the best success rates with direct in soil.

I soak them in a shot glass for 6 hrs or so then direct into dirt. Pointy end up.

I also have used paper towel, but you can't let the rad get to long. As soon as I see it crack open, then into dirt. The shorter the root I think the less chance of damaging it.
 
blueridgegrow said:
Thank you all for the words of experience and information. I will definitely be taking a hard look at germination techniques before I try again.

I could wait no longer after reading posts here yesterday so I cut the peat pots in half last night and the seeds had not grown any since I placed them in the pellet after the radical appeared.....the one with the larger radical protruding had even died (the radical turned brown). I don't want to reproduce this problem.....so, I just want to ask if anyone saw anything with my process that sounded like a problem?? I have not checked my water ph, it is my well water and worked fine for the 4 I sprouted last year. How is the best/easiest way to check ph? Do you guys use ph paper or a meter? which one? I plan to keep growing for a while, so a meter may be a good way to go but $ are short.

Temp has been running 77 F
I have kept the peat pots in a germination tray with a humidity dome.
I added water when the tray got dry or low of water but the pots were always nice and moist.
I germinated in a folded wet paper towel in a ziploc bag....all 3 busted open in a short time but they never done anything after moving them to the peat pots for sprouting. I moved them very carefully. I did use hot water to initially moisten the pots but didn't put the germinated seeds in until a day later so they were cool.

I would greatly appreciate any ideas as to what went wrong.

PS-all seeds were from an order made last year....the were freebies but were from reputable seed companies. I kept all seeds in a dark, air-tight, dry, sealed container at around 60 degrees since i received them.

THANK YOU ALL IN ADVANCE!!
Click to expand...

Is this a second sprout update? If so I hope they grow for ya, The only time I bought seeds was at the shop in Toronto and they told me in a shot glass with just enough water to cover and sit overnight first then the paper towel just like some already said here. If they cracked open they were live seeds and if your water has done it before for you then maybe try and keep temp steady at least dont put sprouted seeds from paper towell in a cooler medium. Some strains could make it probably that way but Im sure some are sensitive too Best of Luck
 
After reading the previous comments and thinking back to my grow last year i decided to go straight into soil (Last year I put 4 seeds in pre-wet peat pots and had plants up within a week).

So, last night I took 6 different bag seeds (I am going to work on my method before breaking out the expensive seeds i ordered), two different types. I picked the six best looking ones. One strain had much smaller seeds than the other (is this an indication of sativa or indica dominance?).

I soaked them in a small glass of bottled water overnight. This morning, the three small ones were close to the bottom of the glass....the larger seeds were still floating, but a little lower in the water (those seeds had good, dark, striped colors....do you think they are bad or they just needed longer to sink since they are bigger?). I filled six chambers in my Hydrofarm germination tray with Burpee organic seed starter, moistened the filled chambers with bottled water and put the six seeds in about 1/4 inch deep and lightly covered. I then put the humidity dome on, plugged in the heat mat, turned out the lights, shut the closet door and walked away. I will let you know what happens.

DOES ANYONE SEE ANY FLAWS IN MY APPROACH AT THIS EARLY STAGE???

THANK YOU FOR THE INSIGHTS!!

brg
 
wyrman said:
Hey blueridge,,I live in the blue ridge mountains !!


Yeah, in the mountains of the carolina's.....last fall the cool, damp weather was a hassle for trying to finish girls. It is especially tough when you grow some of the longer flowering strains. You inside or out?
Click to expand...
 

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