I know this sounds stupid, but I just got some seeds in from alitude seed bank and I dont wanna waste them. I want to know the best way of getting them to sprout...I would like to do this indoors, so I read on here that people use damp paper towels to do this so I tried that and none of the seeds want to sprout for some reason. I keep the paper towels pretty wet so it will have water the entire time. What ways to you guys use?? EDIT: Im using seeds I have collected from my differnet pickups as "test" seeds, before I attempt to spout the seeds I really want to sprout.
did you add too much water? if you add too much its not good. it has to be room temperature and away from light also.
Thanks for the advice, i was keeping it under my night table which the sun goes under sometimes, i thought light didnt make any kind of difference.
they dont have to be in the dark. it doesnt matter if its light or dark, if they are good seeds and you dont mess them up, they will germinate. paper towel method works best for me, just dont let the taproot get too long [more than 1/4"]. you dont want the root hairs growing into the towel. warmth is good. i germinate mine in a small tupperware container using a moist paper towel. i set them on my external hard drive for warmth [not hot]. never had any problems
Has anyone here used a sponge? I mean just cut a square from a sponge and then cut a little slit to put your seed inside the sponge and then just keep it moist....if anyone has done that, does it rip the roots up at all or have any negitive effects??
Using paper towels just introduces a totally unnecessary extra step. I sow my seeds into my soil mix, about a quarter inch deep - keep them warm (75 - 80F) and moist - they will sprout in 1 to 5 days. Just as nature intended. Paper towels are really a non - starter, they are just favoured by newbs who like fiddling with their seeds - people who can´t leave them alone.
Well im planning to grow outdoors, I really just want to sprout them in my room and then take them out to the spot in the woods that im gunna use to grow these babies. I guess I could just plant them in the ground and come back everyday to water them until they sprout and then take care of them as nessisery.
I find germinating in paper towels first helpful in order to make sure I have a viable sprout under way. I time my plants out in my grow space, and if I get a dud and didn't figure that out for a week or so then the replacment for the dud will be behind all the others. I agree that there are many ways to mess things up with germination. This is a delicate stage of the baby plant's life, and it has to be managed in hours not in days. Yes it can go from properly moist to dried out in a short period of time, from uncracked seed to taproot grabbing at paper towel fibers in a short period of time, etc. Done right, the paper towel method can be helpful, but all cautions are noteworthy that there is not much leeway for error when germinating. To the OP, you certainly can germinate them indoors, either in paper towels or in a small pot with soil or other medium.
