Your thoughts on germinating beans

I did 3 experiments, as follows: (1) I put several beans into a small black plastic shot glass with distilled water (changed every other day) and put it in the back of a dark closet. (2) I put several beans into Nirvana's LED Propagator Pro and kept the soil moist with the supplied Bacto mix. (3) I put several beans into a folded wet paper towel and put them into a dark low heat box. On my test, it seems as though the old wet paper towel trick works best. The Propagator did'nt even germinate and had to move the seeds to wet paper towel. The plastic cup worked, but was very slow (twice as long) and beans were barely opened. All beans were started at the same time. Your thoughts and experiences?

cup o water out the faucet, in cupboard for however long

Experiments with different methods are extremely fun to be involved in. That being said, I have always used the paper towl method with a warm dark place. I have executed 100% germination rate. and of course throw my beans in a cup of water for atleast an hour to "weed" out all of the seeds that sink which of course means nooooo good. (I have always used bag seed).

I have tried the same methods as you and came up with the same results, wet paper towel ftw. never had a issue doing it this way. Once they pop i put them in a propagation chamber and let them grow from there.

For a long time I personally have had very good luck with the ole tap water in a cup for however long routine like smokeytokey said, but recently have tried the paper towel method alongside of the soaking in water method and have found that the paper towel works at least as good and had seeds popping just as fast if not faster with the paper towel method.

Don't forget to scuff your seeds.

Small pot + medium(soil) + seed + water. I've done this for tomatoes, cucumbers, melons, herbs...and cannabis. It worked fine for all of them.

Thanks for your input 3way. When you say that you throw away the floaters, please elaborate. My limited experience has shown that if you scuff the beans prior, you will not have any floaters. Your thoughts?

(Day#1) I scuff and soak for 12-24 hours, (day #2) plant in damp soil, (day #3) my seeds sprout like clockwork... All that paper towel stuff is a waste of time to me... I don't have to worry about shit drying out and killing my $$$ sprouts, I don't have to worry about the taproot getting to long, I don't have to do a whole bunch of extra unnecessary steps, etc... All I have to worry about is catching it as soon as it sprouts so it doesn't stretch, but even that's not a big deal... I can just add more dirt... I guess to each their own..

bird dog said:

Thanks for your input 3way. When you say that you throw away the floaters, please elaborate. My limited experience has shown that if you scuff the beans prior, you will not have any floaters. Your thoughts?

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He said he gets rid of the seeds that Do Not float when initially placed in water.... All of the seeds I have ever placed in water floated for at least 12 hours, so Im guessing that if they do Not float right way, that's be a good indicator that you have shit seeds.

doniboy said:

I scuff,(day#1) soap for 12-24 hours, (day #2) plant in damp soil, (day #3) my seeds sprout like clockwork... All that paper towel stuff is a waste of time to me... I don't have to worry about shit drying out and killing my $$$ sprouts, I don't have to worry about the taproot getting to long, I don't have to do a whole bunch of extra unnecessary steps, etc... All I have to worry about is catching it as soon as it sprouts so it doesn't stretch, but even that's not a big deal... I can just add more dirt... I guess to each their own..

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Can you explain a bit about why you scuff the seeds?

I've heard of people doing that, but I don't know that I've seen the reasoning.

That's interesting what you said about day 1, 2 and 3 doniboy. That is exactly what I did with my beans and none of them popped up and I was forced to take them out of the seed pots (Nirvana Grow Kit with led Propagator) and put them in the paper towels. I must be doing something wrong!

I can't help but wonder how many good seeds have been tossed over the years because they didn't do something arbitrary like sink in a glass of water after X amount of hours.

I took 17 seeds between four strains and floated them in water overnight. Some sank, some didn't. After putting in Ziploc bags, all of them germinated within five days of each other.

Afterward I took another 8 seeds; skipped the soak and went straight to Ziplocs. All Germinated within three days of each other.

C@@L info RiverSix! You put the zip lock baggies into a dark space?

socaljoe said:

Can you explain a bit about why you scuff the seeds?

I've heard of people doing that, but I don't know that I've seen the reasoning.

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The shell of the seed is like a protective coating. A seed needs water and heat to seep into the inside signaling it to to germinate. Scarifying/scuffing the shell help the water, air, and heat get there quicker.

bird dog said:

That's interesting what you said about day 1, 2 and 3 doniboy. That is exactly what I did with my beans and none of them popped up and I was forced to take them out of the seed pots (Nirvana Grow Kit with led Propagator) and put them in the paper towels. I must be doing something wrong!

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I don't use bag seed and after having $80 worth of seeds killed because the paper towel some hoe managed to dry out, I don't stopped taking that risk. Maybe I've been lucky so far IDK, but it's worked for me and so far everything I've planted has sprouted within 3 days. I use solo cups and light warrior by foxfarm.

doniboy said:

The shell of the seed is like a protective coating. A seed needs water and heat to seep into the inside signaling it to to germinate. Scarifying/scuffing the shell help the water, air, and heat get there quicker.

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Ok, makes sense. Follow-up question: have you planted/germinated unscuffed seeds and scuffed seeds side by side to see if it makes a difference?

My cannabis growing experience goes back about 2 months, so there are not many methods I've experimented with. So far I've simply planted the seed and kept the soil moist and warm, my results have been good. I'm always curious about what others are doing, well more importantly, if there's something I could be doing better.

I did plant one ak48 that was suffed and soaked and one dutch passion skunk that wasn't soaked, but was suffed and placed straight into soil. They both sprouted st the same time. No, I haven't tried doing a side by side of stuffed vs unscuffed, but what's commonly referred to as scarifying has been discussed in book written by people who know their stuff. I don't know if it really makes a difference, but it's working for me so far..

Right on. Like I said, I'm curious...sometimes too much for my own good. Maybe something to mess around with in a future grow.

socaljoe said:

Right on. Like I said, I'm curious...sometimes too much for my own good. Maybe something to mess around with in a future grow.

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Yea, I think if it ain't broke, don't fix it. I had no success at all with the paper towel method, but others will swear by it and had no success doing it the way I do it.

bird dog said:

That's interesting what you said about day 1, 2 and 3 doniboy. That is exactly what I did with my beans and none of them popped up and I was forced to take them out of the seed pots (Nirvana Grow Kit with led Propagator) and put them in the paper towels. I must be doing something wrong!

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Okay here's an experiment Bird Dog and SocalJoe. Perfect timing too lol. I 'm about to try my hand at growing Auto's for the first time. I had 2 Short Rider and 2 Northern Lights Auto Fem by Nirvana that I had soaking in a cup since about this time yesterday.

1. Around Friday 03:00 AM 5/31/13 EST -5UTC I put a little tap water into 2 labeled solo cups and placed both sets of seeds into them. @SocalJoe, I forgot to scarify the seeds, so nothing special has been done to them.
2. I normally plant the seeds into soil as soon as they sink to the bottom of the cup. The seed I'm using in this experiment took the longest to sink.
3. I normally germinate in FoxFarm Light Warrior, but I'm planting the seed into a mixture on FoxFarm Light Warrior, FoxFarm Ocean Forrest, and some extra Perlite mixed in.
4. I planted the seed about 1 knuckle deep, and used a water spray bottle filled with PH'd water to wet the soil.
5. I closed up the tent, and turned off the lights.

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This is my first time germinating Auto seeds, so hopefully they will still sprout by some time Sunday or earily Monday...

bird dog said:

C@@L info RiverSix! You put the zip lock baggies into a dark space?

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Yeah I did. The first were put in a cardboard box and the second were just laid flat in a dresser drawer. Honestly, the only reason I did that in lieu of straight-to-dirt was to prevent pots and soil being tied up to find out which are duds. Fortunately none were.

Now that I think about it, the ones I put directly in bags germinated just as quickly. Some were actually popping at the 24hr mark without a soak and none of the ones in water did that. Things that make you go hmm.

RiverSix said:

17 seeds between four strains

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Correction: three knowns and a variety pack, so it's anyone's guess how many unique strains there actually are.