I germinated by first lightly sanding the seeds with a nail file for approximately 30 seconds - 1 minute. I do this by taking about 5 seeds, make a cup with my hand place the seeds in the "cup" and lightly rub the file over them.
Some seeds needs to have the surface of their shells scratched or nicked inorder to wake the seed up from its sleeping period called dormancy. once water gets into the scratch it triggers hormones that causes the seed to awake and begin germination.
Next I soak the seeds in a cup of water. I simply get a coffee mug, fill it half way with melted snow, or rain water and sit it on top of my surround sound amp, which keeps it warm. I only leave them in there until most of them have sunk to the bottom. When I have a good feeling that most of them will sprout then I use the paper towel method to germinate seedlings.
I use a coffee mug bcuz it stores heat better than other types of cups, and I use melted snow bcuz, well hey its wintertime in Ohio and we got plenty of free snow, so why not?
My germination method is not different than what you would read -
2 paper towels, 2 plates...
I fold one paper towel in half and sit it on the plate. I take the coffee mug thats halfway full of rain water and seeds and dump half the water on the paper towel, pick out the seeds with a spoon and set them in a circle on the paper towel...
I then take the other paper towel, fold it in half and simply place it overtop of the seeds, I lightly sprinkle the remaining water over it just until i start to see the form of the seeds thru the paper towel..if I added too much I'll just add another folded paper towel to the top layer, but the important point is to make sure the paper towels are fairly damp..and then I put the other plate on top.
I stick that next to the vent in my room bcuz seeds only need to be at room temp to germinate..10*deg too low and its too cold...10*deg too high and they'll probably cook!
and after the taproot sticks out about 1/4 of an inch I plant into my jiffy cubes, and place the cubes into the "jiffy dome" with the lid on it for humidity. I stick that next to my heat vent so its constantly just above room temp, and wait...
