Alot of growers simply stick their cuts in water until roots. Always with some cloning gel or powders.
Some use a cloning machine. Most of these are just a pump and spray heads. On a timer to give a good dry to wet ratio. This promotes root growth faster than the cup o water.
A t5 is all you need for veg or clones. You can get more powerful lighting for veg, but that’s the minimum that they will survive in. Very slow growth.
If you have any questions guy l will help out all I can. I can point you in the right direction to speak to whoever you need.
I will try and answer all your questions. One kit with all the bells and whistles including lights and a heat matt, excluding a tray is the Super Sprouter from Growershouse.com.
Personally I would use rockwool and I find it easier and cleaner to use. Seedlings dont require much light, or nutrients. Once they get to seedling stage you will have to work out what your medium is going to be for transplanting in. During the seedling and vegging stage you want large amounts of nitrogen in your nutrients. My personal choice is Biobizz, something that covers the full growth cycle.
I also saw this very awesome starter kit that covers all the nutrients needed:
I’ve had great success (I germed some a few months back intending to grow, then had to give the seedlings away as I build my setup) following the advice I got here on GN, no expensive or fancy equipment needed:
Drop seed(s) in a shot glass containing distilled, or purified drinking, water (any shallow clear glass works…key thing is clear so you can see your seeds in case they pop a taproot) and place in a warm humid area IN THE DARK (a warm pantry or cabinet works great…or on top of a cable box or something that generates some heat). Leave them 24 hours (i’ve gone up to 4 days before moving to step 2 and had them pop…some will say don’t go over 24 hrs or you can drown the seeds). You can purchase a heat mat that will keep them around 75 *F (that answers your temp question) and a thermostat control if you want to supply even temperature.
If you don’t see a taproot yet, wet (don’t leave them soaking) two pieces of paper towel and put the seed(s) between the two layers. Put the paper towel rig in a plastic bag (don’t seal) and put back in a warm place IN THE DARK. If the taproot pops and sticks to the paper towel, gently spritz the taproot to dislodge it. HANDLE WITH CARE AND USE TWEEZERS!!!
Once you see a taproot 1/4-1” long, plant the seed taproot down into your medium or starter plug. If you don’t see a taproot after about a week with steps 1-2 you might have to be a little more rough by scratching the beans (@PreyBird1 can explain how), or you just might have duds that i’d still throw in some medium and pray daily for. WHAT WORKED GREAT FOR ME - after putting the seed in the medium taproot down I left it in the dark for an additional 24 hrs, and all broke the surface within that time! In comparison, when i’d throw them under light after planting the seed it took 3-5 days to break through.
Cover the seeds with a humidity dome (plastic soda bottles or Ziplog baggies work great too) until your baby breaks the surface (some will keep the dome on until the first true leaves appear…I took it off once the cotyledons were free and perky). Put under a T5 (or you can use LED or CFL bulbs) light 5000-6500K temp.
No nutes! The seed actually contains all the nutrients (energy) needed for the first week or two of initial growth. And there’s no way to keep the seeds fem (it’s either a boy or girl (or hermie) when you bought it), but with poor conditions you can cause your plant to hermie via stress (grows male and lady parts and the bud will be fluffy and seedy).
As far as cloning/propagation, once again @PreyBird1 has some amazing info he’s posted over time…check his threads and you’ll fall down the rabbit hole of info like I did
@hellraiser is IMO the best go to person for new growers. i have watched him walk more people thru their grows. he will hold your hand and drag you across the finish line and that is a good thing.
My germination method is also simple. A little different than the other but close.
I use a TALL glass like a tall flower vase. I fill it with rainwater with about 5cc of liquid kelp per gallon.
Put the seeds in the water, (they will float) I then cut a small piece of paper towel big enough to rub on the sides of the vase, and push them under the surface with the towel.
When they sink to the bottom of the vase, they are fully saturated with the water. Take them out.
Put them in a container with a double layer of paper towels on the bottom soak it until wet but no standing water, then put a double layer over the top of the seeds. Place in a dark place at around 70 degrees.
As soon as you see a tap root come out of the seed take it out and put it in your starter cup. Put the taproot facing UP, the root will form a U shape and that gives it more strength to push up out of the soil.
(nature designed it to happen like that) The shape of the seed causes the fat end to face down and the root end of the seed to face up if everything happens as designed when a seed falls off the plant.
I plant my seeds in pure worm castings they stay loose and soft, hold water good and have all the enzymes and nutrients your seedling needs for a couple of weeks. I have never used anything that grew seedlings as healthy as worm castings.
Of course if you going the hydro route, you don’t want to plant them in soil, root riot, rock wool or most of the other commercial seed starting plugs are fine. Just make sure that the seed can push up through it.
It’s pretty simple really, you don’t need fancy machines I use a 5500K seedling light made by Durolux and can be purchased on Amazon for around $50. For a humidity dome I use a zip-lock bag over the top of a seed starter cup when they pop I take it off.
Thank you @sssportsmfg “nature designed…” raises a really good point (I love biology and it figured this grow thing all out long before we did). I wonder if taproot orientation results in different vigor? Line of thought there - Taproot down orients it already and allows the cotyl’s to pop the surface quicker (maybe better for autos), whereas taproot up forces the root system to orient first and grow robust, but takes longer for the cotyl’s to break the surface as this happens (maybe better for photos to enhance vigor)?
That’s what I love about this forum, so much good advice that you really can’t go wrong!
I try not to out think millions of years of evolution. The curved shape of the root helps it overcome pushing the soil up out of the way as a curve is stronger than straight. It also serves to scrape off the seed shell on it’s way out of the soil. They will come up either way as long as the soil is not too hard or compacted. And I didn’t figure that out lol…I read it many many years ago…made sense so that is the way I have always done it.
machine? We’re using machines to pop beans nowdays?? i’m feeling kinda old. damn.
I have a humidity dome, use starter plugs in it, beans in the plugs, dome sits on a seedling heat mat. that’s it. Once the seedl pops, i put it into a small pot with dirt and under a 8 bulb HO t5 fixture. Sometimes I actually drop a bean into dirt and guess, what, They grow… lol.
Get a solo (or other brand) plastic party cup in the 16 oz range, cut a few slots at the bottom for drainage
Fill the cup with a good potting soil like FF Happy Frog, or coco coir, or any decent medium of your choice
Water the soil with 4 oz of water, ph’d to what is correct for your medium (6.5 for potting soil)
Poke a 1/2" hole in the center of the soil with a pen or pencil
Drop seed into hole, pointy end down if possible
Cover the seed and hole, just push some potting soil over
Place in tent or designated grow space under a light, not too close and not too much watts, want the light to keep the area warm, not dry out the soil. Then leave it alone, no spraying, misting, doming or adding more water. Want temps in the 75-80 range.
In 4-5 days you will have sprouts (if seeds are good) and a couple days later they will be ready to be watered. Once again, water with 4 oz of ph’d water, then let it dry and repeat as needed. Only water when the cup is light and the soil is a bit dry, over watering is the new growers biggest enemy.
See @Marbsbuds, slightly diff strokes for diff folks, and all these peeps have great success with slightly diff methods. Key thing for seeds is they need some moisture (don’t drown them) and relatively high humidity until they pop the surface (then still high-ish humidity for the seedling stage, then drop RH over the course of growth). Keep the roots out of light (in nature they bury underground for a reason). Other than that the only thing you need to add is patience (this part kills me!).
Since I started going straight into the medium like this and skip the paper towels and soaking my success rate is 100% of course I’ve only popped about a dozen beans this way but works awesome
