d.c. beard
Well-Known Member
I get asked this question a lot, so I figured I'd throw a thread up on here about how I do what I do hehehe, and maybe it'll help some peeps out.
1. OK, first thing to do is mix up plain distilled water Ph'd to 6.5, you're going to need it a lot at the beginning. I also put .25 tsp of Superthrive and 6 mls of Hygrozyme in it.
2. Soak all the seeds you're going to be popping overnight in a shotglass in this distilled mix. Keep tapping them down into the water till eventually they all drop down to the bottom of the glass (takes about 12 or more hours once they're put in water).
3. Take a small tupperware container and put 2 layers of paper towel on the bottom inside the container. I trim the paper towels down to the size of the bottom of the container. Wet the bottom layer a little to hold it down and to make the seeds stick and stay when you put them in.
4. Put your seeds in on top of this bottom layer and space them out evenly. Don't put more than like 20 seeds in one container, just start another if you have that many.
5. Then put another 2 layers of paper towel on top of the seeds just like the bottom layer. Sprinkle in a little distilled until it's thoroughly wet, and carefully drain the excess off. The paper towels should be very damp, but not dripping wet.
6. Take the container and the lid to a completely dark location at room temp. set the container down, and place the lid on so that it just sits on top not pressed down, and there's a little gap for air to pass through, like 1/8" or so.
7. Check the container about twice a day to make sure that it's still very damp but not dripping wet inside, and you'll probably have to add a sprinkle of distilled every other day to them to keep them this way.
8. Lift the top layer paper towel up on about day 3 to check on their progress. It's usually about 3-4 days total until they're ready to be transplanted. You'll see the small white taproot come out.
9. When the taproot is about 1/2" long, I take and soak Jiffy Pucks in the same distilled solution heated in the microwave until it's warm for about 10-15 mins. I then squeeze the excess water out of them, shape them, and then put them into place in the tray.
10. I then take a chopstick and fluff up the peat at the top of the Jiffy pot, and make a hole about 1/4 - 1/2" inch deep for the sprout to go into.
11. Take a pair of tweezers, and very very carefully gently pick up the sprout by the seed shell and put it white taproot DOWN into the hole you made for it. The seed casing should be only about 1/16" under the 'soil'.
12. Lightly cover up the sprout, and repeat for the rest that you have.
13. Last, put the dome lid back on the tray and put the whole shabang back into a completely dark area for another day.
14. At the start of day 2, put the tray under 18-24 hrs of fluorescent light.
15. Once basically all the sprouts are above the soil and spreading their cotyledons (getting ready to push out their first set of leaves) you can take the dome lid off altogether.
***Keep the temps below 78 degrees at all times and water correctly, because any stress in the seedling stage can make the seedling into a male. Sex is not determined until 1-2 weeks into the seedling stage, and is most heavily influenced by environmental factors such as temp, light, and available water. You want the flouros as close to the seedlings' canopy as the heat form the light allows. If you live in a cold climate or have banging ventilation, you can pretty much have the flouros like a half an inch away from them. If your temps are generally a little higher, keep the lights backed off of them a little more so you don't heat stress them. You can transplant them into bigger pots anytime after the second or third set of leaves.***
Hope this helps, cause this is exactly what I've always done and (not to brag, but...) nobody I know or have ever met gets better germination rates than me. I'm not saying that I'm the best, or that my technique is the best, but rather that this is what I do and if you follow this to the tee then you should have the same results as me. I always have basically 100% success using this method, with the only factor really being the age of the seeds, which has a huge affect on viability.
Good luck, and happy growing!
dc
1. OK, first thing to do is mix up plain distilled water Ph'd to 6.5, you're going to need it a lot at the beginning. I also put .25 tsp of Superthrive and 6 mls of Hygrozyme in it.
2. Soak all the seeds you're going to be popping overnight in a shotglass in this distilled mix. Keep tapping them down into the water till eventually they all drop down to the bottom of the glass (takes about 12 or more hours once they're put in water).
3. Take a small tupperware container and put 2 layers of paper towel on the bottom inside the container. I trim the paper towels down to the size of the bottom of the container. Wet the bottom layer a little to hold it down and to make the seeds stick and stay when you put them in.
4. Put your seeds in on top of this bottom layer and space them out evenly. Don't put more than like 20 seeds in one container, just start another if you have that many.
5. Then put another 2 layers of paper towel on top of the seeds just like the bottom layer. Sprinkle in a little distilled until it's thoroughly wet, and carefully drain the excess off. The paper towels should be very damp, but not dripping wet.
6. Take the container and the lid to a completely dark location at room temp. set the container down, and place the lid on so that it just sits on top not pressed down, and there's a little gap for air to pass through, like 1/8" or so.
7. Check the container about twice a day to make sure that it's still very damp but not dripping wet inside, and you'll probably have to add a sprinkle of distilled every other day to them to keep them this way.
8. Lift the top layer paper towel up on about day 3 to check on their progress. It's usually about 3-4 days total until they're ready to be transplanted. You'll see the small white taproot come out.
9. When the taproot is about 1/2" long, I take and soak Jiffy Pucks in the same distilled solution heated in the microwave until it's warm for about 10-15 mins. I then squeeze the excess water out of them, shape them, and then put them into place in the tray.
10. I then take a chopstick and fluff up the peat at the top of the Jiffy pot, and make a hole about 1/4 - 1/2" inch deep for the sprout to go into.
11. Take a pair of tweezers, and very very carefully gently pick up the sprout by the seed shell and put it white taproot DOWN into the hole you made for it. The seed casing should be only about 1/16" under the 'soil'.
12. Lightly cover up the sprout, and repeat for the rest that you have.
13. Last, put the dome lid back on the tray and put the whole shabang back into a completely dark area for another day.
14. At the start of day 2, put the tray under 18-24 hrs of fluorescent light.
15. Once basically all the sprouts are above the soil and spreading their cotyledons (getting ready to push out their first set of leaves) you can take the dome lid off altogether.
***Keep the temps below 78 degrees at all times and water correctly, because any stress in the seedling stage can make the seedling into a male. Sex is not determined until 1-2 weeks into the seedling stage, and is most heavily influenced by environmental factors such as temp, light, and available water. You want the flouros as close to the seedlings' canopy as the heat form the light allows. If you live in a cold climate or have banging ventilation, you can pretty much have the flouros like a half an inch away from them. If your temps are generally a little higher, keep the lights backed off of them a little more so you don't heat stress them. You can transplant them into bigger pots anytime after the second or third set of leaves.***
Hope this helps, cause this is exactly what I've always done and (not to brag, but...) nobody I know or have ever met gets better germination rates than me. I'm not saying that I'm the best, or that my technique is the best, but rather that this is what I do and if you follow this to the tee then you should have the same results as me. I always have basically 100% success using this method, with the only factor really being the age of the seeds, which has a huge affect on viability.
Good luck, and happy growing!
dc