Paper towel method vs Jiffy's

[lovesto420]

I've been starting from seeds for a few years now and have found while the paper towel does work I find it incredibly tedious. Especially if your starting a good number of them.

Has anyone just tried just going to a standard 1" Jiffy puck after a 24 hour soak? I been thinking about any reason why it would give a less success rate and the only reason I can think of is you can't see the tap root grow out. For warranty purposes I figure.

I just want to soak, go straight to jiffy on a seedling mat. Why could possibly go wrong?

What you think?

 

[Scientific]

I haven't used them yet, but people who have seem to just love love love General Hydroponics Rapid Rooter plugs. Check 'em out.

 

[freakbudz420]

I soak for 12-24 hours. A lot of the time they've already cracked after that. If there's a little root already you can skip the paper towel tbh. A lot of people like it just because you get a bit more tap root. I go from the water to damp paper towel in a plastic baggy in a warm dark place for another 12-24 hours. By that time there's usually a bit of tap root and into jiffy pellets they go . Works for me 99% of the time. Here's a shot one day after going into the pellet.

 

[smeghead]

I've been starting from seeds for a few years now and have found while the paper towel does work I find it incredibly tedious. Especially if your starting a good number of them.

Has anyone just tried just going to a standard 1" Jiffy puck after a 24 hour soak? I been thinking about any reason why it would give a less success rate and the only reason I can think of is you can't see the tap root grow out. For warranty purposes I figure.

I just want to soak, go straight to jiffy on a seedling mat. Why could possibly go wrong?

What you think?

Hi lovestosploog.
I use jiffy pellets all the time, have done for over a decade.
I soak the seed for 24 hours then into the jiffy. I place the jiffy into a heated probogator with the vents shut. After three days voilà, when I see leaves I open the vents.
If you do only do one jiffy at a time it can dry out quite quickly, so I add a few more empty soaked jiffy's to keep the humidity up.
I've only lost one seed in ten years. (And that was a freebie? )

 

[Fuzzy Duck]

Love the little pucks to bits just soak em for 10 mins & away you go, i have used rapid rooters in the past but i only grow a few plants for percy ya see & those packs of 20 plus just dry out between grows.

I don't soak the seed either as their is enough moisture in the puck to do the job & just keep it moist in till seeds sprout.

But each to their own preferred method to be honest



Germination temp is best around early 20c or aprox 68f give or take a little.

Never tried paper towel stuff to me it seems like a right royal pain as the paper towel may dry out to quick... who knows ?

 

[Cultivator]

Check oht my current journal and i explain why i use the paper towel method. There are many viable ways to germinate seeds but in my experience none more reliable than the paper towel method. Ive germinated thousands of seeds this way and get 99.9% success rate which is as good as it gets. I think it is simple, no hassle and always ready to transplant in 48-72 hours. Ive just germed 60 odd in my current journal, all germed in 3 days and potted up. I lost 1 seed but i put that down to a dud seed.

However you do it its important to be patient as this first week or so has massive consequences to the rest of your grow. Always use mycorrhizae when planting seedlings for rapid growth and to get mega healthy roots in a very short time. Seeds arw expensive and when germinating close to a 1000£ worth at a time its important to choose a method that gives consistant results every time. As i said check out my current journal in my link and i show how i germinate in bulk but i will also show in a few weeks how to manage selecting mother plants and how to take largw numbers of healthy cuttings amongst a load of other cool stuff.


Peace.

 

[FatNeil]

I haven't used them yet, but people who have seem to just love love love General Hydroponics Rapid Rooter plugs. Check 'em out.

Yeah, I've had 100% success rate so far through 4 grows with these. Only downside is I've only seen them in 50 packs

 

[Scientific]

If you look on Amazon, some resourceful person has started breaking 50-packs of Rapid Rooters and sells loosies--one for $4, five for $6, 10 for $9...

 

[lovesto420]

My big concern was that towel drying out while I'm gone. Fiddle farting with misting it watching for runoff, surgically extracting tap roots, is the cupboard warm enough?... blah no thanks.

I went with Jiffy 701's with a dome on a seedling mat, should be more than fine. I will report back on success rate, the more info we get the better we get. Thanks for you input.

And to the Cultivator that starts 100's on paper towels, I admire your dedication to the cause

 

[Scientific]

My big concern was that towel drying out while I'm gone. Fiddle farting with misting it watching for runoff, surgically extracting tap roots, is the cupboard warm enough?... blah no thanks.

I went with Jiffy 701's with a dome on a seedling mat, should be more than fine. I will report back on success rate, the more info we get the better we get. Thanks for you input.

And to the Cultivator that starts 100's on paper towels, I admire your dedication to the cause

A towel in a bowl loosely covered with some Saran Wrap won't dry out unless you leave it untouched for days. But whatever works for you!

 

[lovesto420]

I should also mention there's 6 varieties in there that I don't want mixing together. Last year I did 14 and I had to be so careful when I lifted the edge for a peak.

Didn't CKS say not to cover your towel in their recommended steps?

 

[Scientific]

Didn't CKS say not to cover your towel in their recommended steps?

I've adapted their method to make it my own. (I put the towel in bowl in the closet and loosely (barely) cover the bowl with some Saran Wrap just in case I space out and forget about it.)

I think CKS says not to wrap because people want to enshroud the towel and cut off all oxygen.

 

[Cultivator]

Yeah the towels should never dry out and roots shouldnt pierce the towels either if you use a strong kitchen towel. I layer the towels and have diff seeds on diff layers. They should never be on the towels morw than 3 days - 4 absolute max. I put them in between plates and wrap with plastic rubbish bags or place in tuppaware tubs with the lid on and just leave one corner open.

Absolute guaranteed results everytime. But like everything else its what you prefer.

 

[Scientific]

Crossing over into the comically obsessive, I germinate my seeds with the damp, folded paper towel vertical in a tall bowl and the seeds folded with the pointy end down so the root emerges and grows straight down with no kinks or hooks. Sound silly, but it's just one more little thing that gets the plant off to a flying start.

 

[MiOutdoorsman]

I soak them for 24, then put them on a plain white paper towel and dampen it. Then fold it up to a square shape and put it in a sealed Ziploc sandwich bag. So far I'm around fifty good and one bad. The baggie keeps it moist they usually crack after one or two days

 

[MiOutdoorsman]

I forgot to say I put it in a dark cupboard

 

[lovesto420]

Just to put this thread to a conclusion. I did seeds directly into Jiffys with a seed mat and dome. I would say 2/3 took quite quickly but I ran into a problem with the dome being left on to long after they germed. Some of new tops just went to mush by the time I caught it, it was to warm and humid in there. I had the top vents open but it was not enough. Whoops! The others that did not poke up cracked and grew a small tap root but just they just stopped and rotted. Overall it was too warm in there for too long. I then killed off more by accidentally dropping something on the tray...

I needed more, I did them by CKS recommended method and got 30/30.

So the moral of the story (for myself, because others are wiser than me here), don't be lazy. Use a paper towel