Seed germination that took forever!

I usually have a 99.9% success rate with seeds, germination usually takes 4 days, sometimes 5. I just put them in the soil, make sure it never dries out, its simple and it works.

A while ago i bought a pack of seeds called Rockbud, spent a little more than i usually do (over $120), planted 5 seeds, waited 2 weeks, none came up, thew them away. Planted 2 more, gave up after a little more than 2 weeks, very disapointed. Planted the last seeds, (obviously not expecting anything to come up), but now after 3.5 weeks(!) one of the seeds has germinated.

What's the longest time you've seen before a seed has germinated? After how long do you usually give up?

I was under the impression that after 2 weeks you can trash it, seems like that's not the case.

You might have thrown out good seeds that never broke ground. I've had a couple seeds that took a week to germinate and nearly a month more to break ground. I forgot all about them and looked in my yard and I saw 3 babies that just took forever to start.

yes seems like i trashed them too fast, it was costly but also a good thing to learn

do the paper towel method.
90% germ rates and you know which ones don't pop. also many times faster to germ and sprout. Good seed should take no more than 48hrs. really good seed in that time frame will pop the shell, and you'll have a full seedling


I've never had seed take longer than 36hour's to pop and maybe 2 and a half days till it was ready to transplant. this is on very old seed as well

yeah what ^qwizo said, ive also never had a seed take longer than 2 days, usually its in the paper towel in the morning and by the following like mid-day its sprouted. i started doing this years ago, and i still use this method. but i >folded wet paper towel>plastic bag 3/4 closed>on a cable box or other warm surface, on top of refrigerators or xboxes or whatever hahah.

I also do the exact same as Desr ^^^ but I've used Rapid Rooters which work very well too.

qwizoking said:

do the paper towel method.
90% germ rates and you know which ones don't pop.

Click to expand...

I have 99%+ germ rate so far (growing for 10+ years), except this one time.. I use soil in party cups.. i don't like the idea of handling / planting the fragile seed after it has already sprouted, also a bit more work with paper method than just planting it directly into the soil.

It usually takes 4 days before i see the seedling, obviously it has cracked open earlier than 4 days

lol..
someone got upset?
a plant germed outside soil will start growing
sooner faster, a seed germed outside soil till the shell falls off Will start growing even faster. on day 4 it shouldn't have
just popped the surface but already have 2 sets of leaves etc.

so why'd you make the thread then if you already know? Or whatever with your years of experience.lol
you don't like my opinion?

you wouldn't have potentially tossed good seed if you had used that method. in any case they were bunk. usually too fresh from my experience

i use the paper towel method and seeds are usually ready to place in soil in 2 days. however i had some in 8 days before they did. kinda forgot about them. thanks for your story nano, defn give the seeds more time to germinate if its not too much trouble to do so.

qwizoking said:

lol..
someone got upset?
a plant germed outside soil will start growing
sooner faster, a seed germed outside soil till the shell falls off Will start growing even faster. on day 4 it shouldn't have
just popped the surface but already have 2 sets of leaves etc.

so why'd you make the thread then if you already know? Or whatever with your years of experience.lol
you don't like my opinion?

you wouldn't have potentially tossed good seed if you had used that method. in any case they were bunk. usually too fresh from my experience

Click to expand...

Why would you assume i got upset? I just explained the method i use and that its been successful for me over the years, it's been very rare that i've had to toss somehing. Maybe it's been pure luck but i'm not going over to the paper method with this success rate of germination.

I really doubt these seeds would have cracked open earlier with the paper towel method though. For seeds that takes forever to open it would be very easy to forget to moisten the paper, which i assume you must do (i doubt paper hold moist as well, and for as long as soil) I'm glad i used soil since i just basically forgot about them for the last 1.5 weeks, thought it wouldnt come up after 2 weeks.

I havent claimed i knew seeds could take up to 3.5 weeks to crack open, never experienced it before, that's why i asked if people have experienced it as well or after how long people decide to toss it.

Anyways, I googled and found a thread about RockBud, seems like more people have experienced the same as me with these seeds, found another poster where 1 out of 10 seeds germinated + another user who didnt get even one seed to germinate.. Must be really old seeds or something.