Hello, recent user, first time poster, but long time reader here. I am thinking about starting an outdoor plant with some seeds a friend bought but cannot use and was wondering if I plant the seeds in a proper medium with everything it needs do I need to germinate it first or can I just take the seed and place it in the ground? Edit: The seeds are Amnesia Lemon
of course you can, that's how the plant would reproduce naturally. you shouldn't really even have to bury it in the soil because the seed would land on the surface
Don't germinate in a towel. Nature is meant to drop the seeds into the dirt and that's the best way. Just make sure they aren't too deep I always plant the seed straight into the five gals and I have a 99% success rate. Your just adding another unneeded step and a chance at ruining the tap root during transplant. I have also found that plants in larger containers grow waaaaaaay faster. Check my journal if you wanna see
Personally, I've recently switched from pre-germination to directly planting in the medium. The reason I've done this, was this cold season I've had a huge problem with the fungal disease "dampening off" which causes seedlings to fall over midway where the fungus eats away the stem. This can be caused by high humidity + cool/cold environment, since spores and bacteria are everywhere, and once a suitable environment for them to grow in, they will grow. My problem was pre-hydrating medium, along with stale water carrying the contamination, so I started hydrating the medium directly before planting the seed, about half inch deep. I've had 100% success rate on my germination for good quality seeds, I've never had one not sprout. The problem always appeared early seedling stage, however since I've directly planted I have a 100% survival rate for my seedlings. I also feel like I run far less of a risk of damaging the fragile taproot during initial planting on a seed already germinating.