How to germinate seeds and when to start giving them light ?
have you downloaded the grow bible? It will take you through germination in there…as for light, there are a couple methods or schools of thought. Some put them under a cfl right away before they even sprout…others wait until they have sprouts… my personal thought is put light on them as soon as you have them in soil… the sun shines everyday rather the seeds are sprouted or not…and the heat from the surface might let the lil feller know which way to grow.
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I soak them for 14 hrs in a cup then I put them in a paper towel on a plate I keep them in a dark place and keep the paper towel moist once the root is about an eighth of an inch I put them in my medium and then turn on the lights works for me
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@Miagrace16,
I use the other paper towel method. Works for me 100%
I give them light while still under soil it helps to keep the soil warm while they pop up.
Will
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I use 1.5" rockwool cubes, and have almost 100% germination rate. You place light and a small fan to stimulate the stems to strengthen them immediately after they sprout. 
Happy growing.
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Only the steps I posted in answer to original question. Less steps, less chance of killing the sprout.
Commercial and Professional growers always use a starter cube or medium of some sort.
rockwool cubes
Oasis horticubes
PropMix in trays
peat pellets
starter mix in trays
Seed sprouts and you place it in the pot or system that you want to use.
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I was soaking mine up to 18hrs 1st time they popped before I put in paper towel. Then 10 seeds and none popped. The last time I soaked for 6hrs then moved to paper towel and in 3 days I had a 3/4 inch taproot on both seeds
Update : We let the 4 seeds soak in water for 24 hours . It looked like 3 of the seeds had started to root. Last night we placed them in our hydroponic system . We are using coco and grow stones 50/50 mixture for media. We took our starter plugs and got them very moist and placed them in our media. Then we put the seeds in the starter plugs and covered the hole with a piece of starter plug . We also took a clear cup and sprayed the inside of the cup and placed cup over seed to give it more moisture . Let me know if anyone thinks I should do something different . Thank everyone for the feed back!
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Once the seed roots should I place the seed with the root facing down or does that matter?
PLace the root down. Definitely, very important.
If you have a sprout that you have to fight in order to turn it the right way; Do the best you can. The root will naturally head downwards into the soil, even if it has to curl around to do it.
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2 out of the 4 seeds have just started sprouting out of the soil. Tomorrow I’m going to turn on the lights and do a 18 on 6 off light schedule .
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@Miagrace16 how did your ladies turn out in that hydro system? … Just curious…
They did very well but I stunted them early on from over watering