The Germination Sticky Is very Informative, however, I Can't Find Anything About When To Begin Watering the sprout and using lights, as Soon as i can see anything or after the cotyledons?
usually what I do is take a hand towel, and wet it and put al of my seeds in there. Put that in a warm(NOT hot), dark place. give them a couple of days and soon some of them will crack and sprout a taproot. Now plant them in soil(or other medium), with the taproot faced down. and toss em under the lights. moisten the soil very well when you first plant your seed, but then dont water again until the soil actually needs it, aka, it gets dry. USUALLY you don't need to water until the seed ends up sprouting out of the soil. EDIT: but to be honest, it's not at all important for them to be under light until they pop up outta the soil.
Thank You I Appreciate your time and response. Theyre just starting to be seen above soil. My closest hydro store is 73 Miles away through cities and over mountains. Do i have ANY Hope with Wal-Mart/Lowes Soils??
Yes, I know several people who have grown multiple times in organic soils from home depot, lowes, etc. Def. not my first choice, but in all honesty if you stay on top of everything else, the soil shouldn't hold you down much at all. The only thing i would make sure of, is that the soil doesn't contain anything that will hurt your fragile new seedlings. (again organic soils not containing ferts. should work fine.)
When they do sprout dont have a 600w HPS waiting for them, I use a 150w CFL, and keep it 2 feet up so that way the young sprouts don't get burnt, but have enough light to start growth, then switch over to a HPS MH mixture of light once I see leaves, and a branch or to begin. A tip to germinate quicker is to soak the paper towel in a mixture of ph'd water, and 3% hydrogen peroxide, the peroxide will give off the extra oxygem atoms, and promote growth quicker.