Hi all, new to the experience and loving it so far, very scared for my babies though, so let's see if any of you are able to ease my thoughts. I am into day 4 here atm, 3 of my 12 little girls have hit the surface and they seem to be rather flourishing. What I'm wondering is what would be an average time for plants to take to germinate? And is this something I should be concerned about? Also I have yet to test the pH levels, I'm using a soilless mix, I'm getting the stuff to do that today. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated! x)
It sounds like you have planted your seeds directly into a soilless mix. Seeds will "pop" (break open and send out a root) within 1 - 4 days (most will pop within 48 hours). It will take another 2 - 4 days for the seed to break the surface in most cases. I like to have more control, so I germ the seeds using the paper towel method and only plant seeds that have already popped. This way I know that I have not planted a bad seed. I'd give them at least a week before I stated to panic. After that, if you can easily get to the non-growing seeds, you might want to dig them up (gently) and see if they are growing or not. I hope this answered your question and good luck with your grow.
Perfect, thanks so much. I did one method I read to soften the shell, I left them all in a jug of water overnight in warm darkness until they all fell to the bottom.