Germination question and doing it under a Mh 400w bulb

Since plants like the Mh blue light spectrum while in the vegetative phase for growth, would it be beneficial to germinate your seeds under the Mh light? Is it really not that important? I'll be germinating them in a little greenhouse (flat tray with clear plastic dome) in 1" rockwool cubes. Is indirect sunlight enough even though its February and theres only ~7 hours of good daylight a day? I dunno its my first grow and I want it to start out as good as I can. Trying to get this down to a science. You guys rock I've learned so much from reading countless posts.

Light for germinating isn't as important as temperature and moisture. In fact you want to keep light off the seeds as much as possible is what i've read all over the place. I jsut put mine in dirt and put it under a grow light for heat and spray misted the dirt everyday accordingly. Worked out great, got 100% success germinating. But the 400w light is kinda powerful for seedlings just sprouting, just make sure to keep it kinda high off the seedlings

yeah the light def wouldn't be right on top of them. I might buy a heat mat to help. Or maybe ill just pop them on a heating register on the floor somewhere LOL. Yeah I see people that do the paper towel thing usually put them in a dark place. I just don't want to do it that way because thats how a second grader would do it. Seems like and have read theres a bigger risk of damaging that first vital root.

Theres alot of controversy over the paper towel method and the dirt method, point is, just find whatever works for you. I tried the dirt method, worked great, so thats how i'm gonna do it. I think people just like to see results and in the papertowel they see the seeds crack, in the dirt you don't see anything sometimes for a week hehe. But ya, my next batch of seeds I'm going to get a heat pad cuz i think my temp was an issue with my growth with these first seeds, so ya might be a good idea to get one of those if you can afford it.
And just remember to keep the cube moist, don't soak it, just give a squirt every so often

an easier way to find out if the seeds are viable before putting them into the soil is to soak them first, within 2 days you can tell if a seed is good and then put it into the soil and have em pop up within a few more days. heres a good example.
http://www.weedsthatplease.com/germinating.htm
i just wanted to throw that out there since you guys were discussing germinating methods, its a little bit off topic, but it does also tell you about when to start lighting. so in a way its kind of on topic.

i used a dual spec 400w hps to germinate my seeds kept it about 3 ft above them to start with. i kept it on so it was on when the seeds broke the surface. i used the paper towel method with a 100% germ rate done 6 seeds, as soon as there was a tap root put into root riot cubes being gentle using tweezers. mine broke the surface within 24 hrs of putting in root riot cubes. growing cheese and lemon skunk, i lost 1 when i was transplanting into bigger rockwool cube dropped her and the root riot cube bust up i replanted but it died.mine are going well now im 16 days in after germinating and they are flourishing keeping short but loads of nodes got the light about 20 inch off them now .

darkdestruction420 said:

an easier way to find out if the seeds are viable before putting them into the soil is to soak them first, within 2 days you can tell if a seed is good and then put it into the soil and have em pop up within a few more days. heres a good example.
http://www.weedsthatplease.com/germinating.htm
i just wanted to throw that out there since you guys were discussing germinating methods, its a little bit off topic, but it does also tell you about when to start lighting. so in a way its kind of on topic.

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Liked the link! Thanks!