Daurwid’s Propagation Guide Lesson by: Daurwid (Pre-work stolen from ChrisD) Topic: Germinating Cannabis Seeds Summary: This lesson will teach you to germinate your seeds
Materials Needed:
Your Seeds
Small container capable of holding water with a closing top or seal.
Two sheets of paper towel
Water (Ph neutral)
2 Dinner Plates or Tupperware
Instructions:
Fill container half way full of water.
Place seeds into container gently into the water.
Close and/or seal the container.
Cover container with 1 dinner plate.
Wait 24 hours.
Remove dinner plate and check if seeds have dropped to the bottom of the container.
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Gently swish the water if seeds have not dropped to see if they will drop to the bottom.
If most seeds have dropped to the bottom of the container move to next step, if not leave seeds for another 8 hours and go back to step 7. Do not leave seeds in container for more than 36 hours. You do not want them popping in the container. If a seed pops inside the container, get it out immediately and into your grow medium.
Place second plate over the first - do not crush the seeds.
Keep paper towel moist and check your seeds daily. When you see your taproot “pop” you can plant your seeds into your grow medium.
Additional Information:
Keep your germinating seeds, paper towel, and plate moist to avoid drying out the paper towel.
Keep seeds in darkness. From my experience, I get more germinating seeds when they are kept in the dark.
Keep seeds in a temperate environment. Not too hot and not too cold. 70-72 degrees fahrenheit seems to be best.
Notes:
This process works very well for seeds that have been stored for a long time.
Your mileage may vary.
I have started seeds using your method. I have run into one issue so far. When I transplant (gently) into a wet peat plug and the “popped” seed tap root is in then growing but gets a kink in the stem. the kink slows the growth considerable. What do I do to stop getting these kinks?
I dont think we can control 'kinks" too much because that is just how plant growing is. Maybe transplanting to medium when you see half and inch of white root instead of a full inch. May have been a funky seed too.
I used to use this method and it worked well for years.
Lately I’ve changed protocol a bit. I just couldn’t help thinking about all the nasty chemicals that get used to create paper towels and decided that I didn’t want to incorporate them into an organic grow.
The only thing I changed was … no paper towel.
I still soak in water overnight or until they drop, but then it’s directly into some starter soil in a solo cup or similar sized container. After a couple of weeks of healthy growth they get transplanted to larger containers.
I just found it easier when doing large runs. I also did some reading in all the nasty stuff that goes into a paper towel as it is manufactured and it just seems counterintuitive to an organic set up.
I also stopped waiting for the root tip to grow at all before transplant, IMO it’s just not necessary and begs to be damaged by an inexperienced grower.
Anymore, all I do is a 12 hour soak. All seeds ( floating or not) get transplanted into solo cups with mild soil, I like Roots Organic for this. I plant them about 1/2” deep and pay no attention to seed orientation, just drop them in carefully. Soil should be moist but not saturated. Last time I popped 38 seeds and got 35 to germinate no problem!
Popping a new batch today actually, got some new Bodhi to play with!
Makes sense for a large grow. I like to let the tap root come out before I put it into the rockwool because I’ve had a few tap roots decide that growing up into the air instead of the rockwool was a good idea.
