Hello! When germinating your seeds straight into moist sol, does the seed require light right away or when it sprouts out of the soil? It's been sitting in soil in a humid but dark area for the last 24 hours. Thanks for all advice!
Put light on it. If nothing else, it adds a little warmth that could speed up germination. The germinating seed does not need light until it pops through the soil, but a few points: - Soil doesn't act like a total light barrier at the surface, especially if the soil is loose, all those little bumps and spaces and crevices allow some light to penetrate a short depth. So while you may think your germing seed is still "under the soil", it may in fact be sprouting up and can sense the light penetrating the upper soil, which can give it some early energy for growth and/or stimulate it to grow up towards the light a little quicker. So basically it can help the sprout pop through sooner and stronger. - Once the baby sprout does pop through the soil it should be getting light immediately, and you may not be there at the right moment to turn the light on. So I say just leave it on, that way the sprout will get light from the very first moment it can benefit from it. It can help the sprout grow quicker, stronger, and lower/more compact (less stretching). By leaving the light on the light will be waiting for the plant, not the plant waiting in the dark for you. - At most you'll be running the lights for a few days when maybe you didn't "need" to. To get started a single 23w CFL per sprout is plenty, so your extra cost is pennies per bulb. Considering everything you're investing in your grow, IMO it's well worth it. To put it another way, putting light on it now can't possibly hurt and comes at virtually zero cost. Just check the soil more frequently to keep it moist, the bulb can dry out the soil faster.