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Seed Sprouting


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So, you want to grow your own marijuana? Well, unless you've got a growing mate or can source some clones, you're going to have to sow some seed eventually to get your garden started... This guide will show you how to do it in a few different ways, hopefully with lots of input from others who'll make many suggestions and comments about their own methods.

 

This is my own methods mind you, just what I do in my garden. There are more ways to grow pot than there are gardeners who smoke it, so you will likely just end up taking a bit of this, a bit of that, and adding your own innovations, and viola! You're growing weed. :peace:

 

But let's get down to it eh?

 

Firstly, you'll want to get some idea of what kind of growing you're going to be doing. There's little point in sprouting your seeds directly in the ground outdoors if you plan to grow them in a hydro system indoors later, and likewise for using rockwool cubes to sow if you're only going to transplant out into guerrilla growing circumstances too. Well, you could get some conceivable advantage to doing things those ways, and I'm sure some have, but it's difficult, and it makes life hard.

 

So to start, decide how you'll grow em, as this will decide how you'll sow em. :P

 

If you're planning on hydroponic growing, you may want to initially sow out your seeds in rockwool, perlite, vermiculite, or a mixture of those two, or perhaps even for those thinking cocopeat organic type hydro, a media of cocopeat.

 

If you're planning on growing in soil, you should consider using a seed-raising mix, as this will be low in nutrients, much more drainage and sterile. You can certainly sow direct into potting mix as well, or mix up a small amount of the future potting mix with river sand or perlite to lighten the mix up. Drainage is key in soil growing, so make sure it's good.

 

You can also use little peat-pots, which look like discs of peat with a tunic on it, until you water them and they expand to make a small cylinder of coco-peat or peat-moss. These can be then transplanted after germination into the growing soil, and the peat will merely make up a part of the end mix as it breaks down. The roots can easily penetrate the outer tunic of fiber on these jiffy pots as they're sometimes called, so you won't want to be waiting too long before potting up.

 

So let's move on. Firstly, we'll deal with a basic method for "sprouting" seeds. This is a process whereby you soak seeds either in a cup of water, or in-between a couple of paper towells which have been sprayed down with water as well. The best water is distilled if you can get it, but tapwater should be okay too.

 

To sprout seeds, just pop them into the cup, or place a few between a couple of sheets of paper towelling. When paper towel sprouting, you'll need to make sure the towel never dries out. If it does, it could kill the sprouting seedlings. You can do this by placing the towell on one small plate, then seeds, then another sheet of paper, then another plate to seal it. This keeps the humidity levels up and stops the paper from drying out.

 

With a cup of water method for sprouting, simply stick your seeds in a cup of water, and leave in a warm, dark place. Check on sprouting seeds daily, more often if possible, as they'll sometimes come out very quickly. Leaving seedlings sprouting too long will stunt them, which is why I don't do it much nowadays, preferring myself to direct sow into small pots. But yeah, check on em daily, and if you see a little white shoot popping out of the seeds end, you'll know they've sprouted and are ready to plant up!

 

Right, so it's been a couple days, your seedlings have sprouted their little tiny tap root, what now? Well, very, very carefully take your sprouting seeds and bury them, tip down, in about 1-2cm deep of media. (whichever, less deep in heavy, close media) They'll orient themselves anyway if you don't place them in quite the perfect position, so don't be too fussy bout it. If you can, a good idea is to wear some latex gloves, as the acids on your fingers can be very harmful to the developing taproot. So either use tweezers, gloves, or be bloody careful with em!

 

Within another couple of days they should sprout their little heads above the surface and there you go. lol

 

The other main method is to "direct sow" which can mean sowing into the final position where they'll grow, or into smaller containers which the seedlings can start in, to be transplanted up later.

 

This is about the easiest way to do things IMHO, and it removes any risk of damage to the fine and delicate roots of a germinating seedling. Just take your seeds and plant them about 1-3 cm down in the media, and water well. You won't need to keep watering unless you've got a very small pot, like a seedling punnet, (not really recommended for MJ seedlings mind you, you're better off with a larger container) and the temps are high. Of course, if the media becomes dry, the seedlings won't like it, so keep an eye on things of course, but usually one good soak is all the seeds will need to get themselves going in most media. Expanded clay might be an exception there, but I don't know of too many who'd germinate direct in it.

 

Once the little bubbies come up and outta their media, you can start to water them, and that's another subject to consider.

 

Well, that was a quick, concise, (for me anyway) and probably confused description of how to germinate seeds. If anyone has anything to add to it, and I'm absolutely sure there will be, then just reply away and we'll get a good discussion, and out of that a good faq, going. :P

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Is there any difference having the taproot upwards or downwards?
This can be a very contentious topic as many growers will swear by one way or another, I take mother natures view of things, she doesn't care which way the seed is pointing so why should I. ::P:

 

:P

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I have seen timelapse footage of a seed geminating and when the root breaks out of the shell it seeks the surface, when it finds it, it does the u turn and goes straight down.

 

A seed it basically a ball of stored energy to give the plant a shot at life before it can produce energy from soil/nutes and sun/lights.

 

What i was told is to plant the seed point up so it doesn't have to make a turn to seek the surface. Point up it is pointing in the right direction and uses less energy because it only has to make one turn when it hits the surface. Once it makes that turn and sets a deep enought root the whole shell/cotyledon part will pull out of the medium and start collecting light.

 

If you are germinating in water and planting the seedling it doesn't make much difference but if you are using jiffy pots, coco or soil to germinate it just makes it less of an effort for the seedling to get established. Most of the seeds i have planted have kept the cotyledons well after the plant is established, that having been said, mother nature doesn't set all seeds point up, millions of years of evolution has made sure the seed can germinate from any position.

 

Setting seeds point up gives them a slight advantage and that's what it's all about.

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The roots and shoots will appear from the pointed end, with the taproot making a turn towards the earth no matter which way it's orientated, and the shoot pulling itself out of the soil when the taproot has established a foothold.

 

Little difference, from my own experience, can be seen if you plant seeds sideways, up, down, or even on diagonal planes.

 

As pickle has said, millions and millions of years of evolution, including that influenced by humans, (we tend to take seeds from plants which stay in the calyx, rather than those which are loosely held at the base and fall out easily, a few thousand generations of selection this way has a marked effect on the characteristics of the seeds and strains resulting...) has taught seeds that you must survive no matter which way you're orientated in the soil, if they were picky they'd have died out a looong time ago without some sort of counter mechanism, (like winged seeds, heavier at one end etc...)

 

But yeah, it's a contentious point amongst some, and to that end, whatever works for you, you should probably keep doing. :P Unless you've got atrocious seedling survival rates that is. :P

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The point i was trying to get across is the root will seek the surface and wont turn down and establish a root system until it finds it, if you drop the seed in point up it comes out of the shell heading straight for the surface and doesn't have to make a turn to get there, if you put it in point down it can waste tons of energy trying to find the surface.

 

An interesting experiment to try is to plant some bagseed in a glass container with some sort of light proofing around it and put the seeds in at different orientations right next to the glass, germinate the seeds and see how they grew. Whichever way you put them in they all seek the surface then turn back down to establish roots.

 

I can't be sure if they fight gravity or they blindly strike out in any direction they are pointed in but i am pretty sure they turn in reaction to the light when they hit the surface, it would be quite simple to find out though, get two glass containers and only light proof one and if the roots go straight down in the container that isn't lightproofed it means the light passing through the glass is enough but if they all seek the surface in both containers it means they fight gravity to seek the surface and air maybe is the trigger to make them turn around and if they all strike off in whatever direction they were pointed they must just randomly seek the surface. Which raises the question, how for will they go in any direction before making a turn and seeking the surface in another direction (theoretically they could be planted point up but too deep and turn away from the surface)? I never tried to find out because knowing they seek the surface is all i realy needed to know.

 

I realise my experiments need a little tightening up but i am sure you get what i am driving at.

Edited by Pickle
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here i was thinking that the taproot was directed by gravity...read that in the ultimate guide to growing marijuana by mel frank and ed rosenthal...top book btw.

 

personally every time i have sprouted a seed its been directly in the medium...saves fussing around, touching and possibly killing the seedlings off....

 

if you are going to transplant a small seedling from soil to hydro, just rinse off the majority of the soil and it should be all good...a few of my mates have done that with no problems at all ;) so yeah i dont think there is a real need to sprout them in the setup...is also a major waste of light and power doing that :thumbdown

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yeah, im with you mate. ;)

I dont understand what the deal is, I have always direct seeded my seeded plants.

 

Now days all I do is throw a seed in a pre-soaked rockwool cube and keep it warm.

 

I have had one out of that last ice strain that didnt come up but I left them for about 3 weeks and pulled it apart to see if it popped and it had, It also looked like it was trying to turn around and didnt have enough oomph to do it?? :scratchin

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so how long is the average time for rockwool? I'm trying it instead of my normal coco method. I poped them first in wet paper towel in a snap lock bag, then placed them in rockwool. but it's been 8 days and i got impatient and ripped the cubes open and nothing is happening. little bit worried. :scratchin

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