Has anybody had any problems with germination?

I am several strains into trying to make one of the shortest and quickest plants possible. Just a hobby really. I could luck out but who knows...
But, in the latest creation, I am having a real hard time getting my harvested Auto-flower seeds to germinate. I think they just need a hella lot of heat being that there is Mexican Ruderalis in it's genetics along with a local Ruderalis that I picked out of a field. Left over from WW2..

I dunno. A heat pad has increased my germination to about 30% up from 10%.. Any advice?

first is how old are the seeds? also where are you storing them? i always wet a papertowel and fold it then put in my seeds and wait. i put the papertowel in a ziplock and lay it on the fridge for heat always germinate in 2-5 days. alot of oldies will not germ. on a full moon but thats bs. ive done both.. after 7 days i dont get a tap root i trash them.. good luck.

generally, seeds fail to sprout due to being planted too deeply. i always place my seeds directly in the soil. using the paper towel method adds
another handling step. GL

alley.walker said:

I am several strains into trying to make one of the shortest and quickest plants possible. Just a hobby really. I could luck out but who knows...
But, in the latest creation, I am having a real hard time getting my harvested Auto-flower seeds to germinate. I think they just need a hella lot of heat being that there is Mexican Ruderalis in it's genetics along with a local Ruderalis that I picked out of a field. Left over from WW2..

I dunno. A heat pad has increased my germination to about 30% up from 10%.. Any advice?

Click to expand...

That's cool. .. I gave you rep for this project in your other thread.

Obviously, how you germinate matters. Optimally, you want the seeds at roughly 80F, not much hotter or colder. Temp stability helps. If you can help it, you don't want them getting cold at night; also short bursts of really high temp during germination (say over 90-95F) can reduce viability. Needless to say, if the seeds dry out at any point during germination, they're toast. You want them constantly moist, but not totally drenched.

I've also made a few comments in the other thread you put up on this, and will repeat them here:

a. Early harvest of seeds reduces viability. You really want to harvest your seeds as late as possible for max viability.

b. Light intensity matters. You need lots of strong light (ie direct sunlight or at least strong HPS) to create the best seeds and get max seed viability. If you're doing your growing under LEDs in particular, its possible that light spectrum may be playing a role here.

Also, and this is purely speculative, I suppose its *possible* that there is a genetic component to your poor viability, (IE the genetic mix you've created means that certain phenotypes are simply non-viable or have reduced viability). If grown and planted side-by-side seeds from some plants give you excellent viability, but others don't, this might be at play.

Hope that helps a little, and good luck with this project.