Still nothing tonite… begining to worry again.
1 day in shot glass and now 2 days in papertowel in baggie in paperbag @75F… nada
I’m not sure what to tell you. I have 100% germination rates. I will try to put my whole soil-based procedure below just in case something pops out at you…
Place seed in a glass of room temperature water. The type and pH of the water doesn’t matter at this stage. All that matters is getting some moisture inside the seed. Put in a warm (77-82°F) completely dark room for 24 hours.
After 24 hours the seed should have sunk to the bottom. If not, poke it with your finger and it should sink. If it does, it has absorbed the water and the germination process should have begun. If it doesn’t, give it another 12 hours. After that just proceed to the next step whether it sunk or not. Too long in the water and it may drown.
Lightly moisten a paper towel and place the seed on it. Fold the paper towel over so the seed is sandwiched inside. Place the paper towel inside a ziploc bag, then place that on a plate for stability. Put the plate inside the warm dark room for 12 hours. Carefully remove the paper towel from the bag, open it and inspect the seed/root. A root will usually appear in 12-24 hours.
Keep checking the seed every 12 hours until the root is about 1/2” to 3/4” long.
Poke several small holes (I use an ink pen) in the side (not the bottom) of a 8-10 ounce styrofoam cup. Fill the cup with potting soil or just good dirt, but nothing with nutrients. Fox Farms Light Warrior is my favorite. Give the dirt a very small spritz of water just to lightly moisten it.
Use a pen or your finger to make a small hole in the dirt. Use tweezers to carefully place the seed in the hole and cover it with just 1/4” of dirt.
Place the cup in your warm dark room and cover it with a humidity dome. I use a 2 liter bottle cut in half. Spritz the inside of the dome with water, then place it over the cup.
Check the seed every 12 hours. Usually you will see the seedling pop out within 24-48 hours. Spritz the humidity dome every time you check the seed to keep the humidity very high.
Once the seedling has reached 1 to 1-1/2” inches in height, you can move it under a light. Use a 6500K CFL bulb about 4-6” above the plant and keep it running 24 hours a day. Continue to use the humidity dome over your plant. Spritz the inside of the dome every 12 hours. Keep everything in the same warm room as before.
Overwatering is the most common cause for the death of a plant, especially during the seedling stage. Give it just 10mL (I use a 10mL plastic syringe) once a day, in a ring around the plant. Do not water near the stem as it will weaken it.
Use the leaves as your watering guide, making a ring around the circumference of the plant. Continue this method as it gets bigger and you will always have the roots seeking further out for water. When the plant gets close to the edge of the cup, you may need to increase the amount of water you give it. I find I am usually giving the plant 20mL of water by that point.
When the leaves are the same width as the cup, your roots should be at the sides as well and it should be ready to be transplanted to a pot. Use a knife to vertically cut the cup in half and you should be able to remove the plant without causing it any stress.
If you use a high-nutrient soil like Fox Farms Ocean Forest in the pot, you shouldn’t need to give the plant any nutrients until it is well into the flowering stage. I like to layer my soil with stages of nutrient levels that the roots grow into as the plant matures.
I literally just finished germinating 4 seeds this morning.
24 hours in water.
36-48 hours in paper towel inside baggy
Placed in soil at 6pm last night. 6am this morning they are 1/2" out of the soil. I expect to be putting them under light by this evening or tomorrow morning.
Best of luck. I hope some of this helps you.
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Hi. Thanks so much for all the info. Only small differences I see is my dark room is around 73 - 78f and I have my baggie inside a brown paper bag.
Since it’s winter here in Illinois could the cold weather during shipment have killed them. Out of trying 8 seeds 4 before and now these 4 None have popped. The first four I did everything from Hyd peroxide in water to sanding and scrapping ends with no success.
Thanks again for all your info. Will keep at it
Thanks
Al
Cold won’t hurt them. That’s actually how most people store seeds long term.
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Kinda what I thought.
Not 1 single seed out of 8 popping in two different try’s just don’t make any sense to me.
I understand here and there one not but this just don’t. I’m going to let them go for at least thru weekend to see what happens.
The way I pop seeds is to put them in paper towels wet them put them in a plastic bag and put it on top of the refrigerator I have never soaked them or used peroxide and I get almost 100 percent germination except for one order which got crushed during shipping
Thanks for info. So far I have always soaked them for some period of time and then tried lots of ways afterwards to get them to pop if they haven’t in the soak. But I now have 8 seeds that nothing is happening no matter what. And I give ILGM where I got them all the credit in the world in that they have already told me they will replace them. Just don’t want to try more of the 12 seeds left from the order and have same thing happening.
I am popping a couple beans today @Gwrgenau so I figured that I may as well show you my method
place seed in paper towel and fold up. Then wet the towel. I squeeze out a good amount of water so the towel is not dripping wet.then place in a sandwich bag which I label if I am doing multiple strains ( which I am today) then I place them on top of a refrigerator with the side of the towel with the least amount of layers over the seed facing down . And I will check on them tomorrow morning then every 12 hours after that . Most of the time they will pop within 48 hours . I will reply with the results as I check the seeds . I don’t know if this will help you but I figured why not post since I am popping anyway
Thanks for the reply. I went out and got a plant starter mat and temp controller for it thinking maybe that will help. Set it at 80f with four seeds in paper towel and in bag along with two in rooter root starter pods. Nothing. Now these are the previous ones that I soaked in water for at least 8 hours. Got another 12 that I will try again with a couple around Friday this week. Wanted to give these more than enough time to open. Will post whatever the outcome is.
Got three plants finishing up right now with seeds from ILGM that were a year or older and had no problems getting them to pop. And ILGM has been more than great with me on these so I will continue to buy from here just frustrating with this order.
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Very nice… just threw mine out last night… was in paper towel for 10 days and nothing. Will be trying some more tonight. Still have two in root pods… but dont look good for them either… seven days and nothing… will wait a few more days just to make sure… hate to give up to early. But its looking like bad batch of seeds on this order.
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I just germinated my first ever girls, white widows, and it was 4 days before itty bitty taproot started showing. I then put them in a wet paper towel on a small plate for just over 24 hours, and the taproots went nuts. Next time I may just soak for 24 hours or so, and then move over to the wet paper towel
Thanks for this thorough answer to the original question. My White Widow seeds germinate just fine in the wet paper towel. When transferred to potting soil, they fail to sprout. I am using a spray bottle to keep the top of the soil damp, at a a temp ranging from 72-80 degrees. The root shrivels and the seed never sprouts, even after 8 days. I’m on my third try, now.
It sounds like you are giving it too much water, and too early. I never give it any water until after it has sprouted. The only thing I do up until then is put it under the humidity dome.
Noted. Thanks, Tommy. I’ve got 3 seeds now in the towel. When they germinate, I will put them in damp soil, cover with the Jiffy Pot Domes and then leave them alone until something happens. I had been spritzing them with the spray bottle at least twice per day. Too much water, I guess.
I am trying again. I put 3 germinated seeds with tails in moist soil, spritzed with the spray bottle a few times, and covered with humidity domes. 4 days later: nothing. Would you still avoid watering at this point?
Hmm. You should have seen something by now. Give the soil a spritz or two of water.
If you feel adventurous, you might take tweezers, a pen, a small screwdriver, etc. and lightly scrape away the soil from one of the seeds to get a glance at its condition.
I’ve been having the same issue ever since summer started here. My seeds aren’t popping via the method that worked for me before. I’ve read that seeds ‘drown’ if they soak too long and it’s mixed as to whether it’s better to float or sink in a glass. It’s like how people say they can look at a seed and determine sex. Umm, maybe?
I always use distilled by the jug. I do a short soak followed by moist paper towel in a Sam bag, with a heater facing it. I’ve noticed that p towel gets colder in bag than temp outside of bag.
Post-feedback, ima up my heater closer to 80*. I’m also gonna use tinfoil instead of a Sam bag to keep p towel warmer.
If those things don’t work, ima try smushing sides and pricking an edge before I trash em. I’m doing randos too, so it’s quite possible that many are in fact duds. Doesn’t mean ya give up on practicing with freebies.
Thanks for all your help, everyone. Y’all helping them helps me
