Seed Germination Trick

On 5-8 I started 8 seeds germinating in wet paper towels on a plate in a dark room. I also started 8 seeds in a glass bowl of wet Soil Moist.

Today, on 5-11, 3 of the 8 seeds in the paper towels had formed a root.

All 8 seeds in the soil moist have roots that are about 50% larger than those in the paper towels!

As an added bonus, removing the seeds from the soil moist should be a snap. In the past I've had roots grab hold of the paper towel.

Thought I'd share my li'l discovery. Pardons if somebody else has already tried this.

Sounds like a good trick, but what is wet Soil Moist? Also, what was the general temperature of the place where you germinated the seeds?

Edit- Googled it. Let this be a lesson to all you noobs.... lol

But, my temperature question still applies... I have heard that you need some heat, like on top of a computer modem.

The room I germinated in stays between 75f and 80f. No added heat.

Glad you pointed that out though. I usually germ on top of the frig towards the back under the cabinets. I can't help but wonder if they would have done a bit better up there.

I'm going to leave one bean in the soil moist and see if it'll actually sprout in the stuff

I was completely taken aback by the success of germing in soil moist. I posted a hypothesis about it a month or so back but never received any responses.

Send me on a power trip. Name the method after me

now we'll be seeing posts... "so i just TCG'ed my seed's... how long should it take in the soil moist?"

This is also worth a try for people that have a difficult time germinating seeds. Get a jar about 500 ml and some distilled water. Fill jar with the distilled water and add a drop of Superthrive and a few drops of rooting hormone. Shake jar vigorously for 5 mins to mix and aerate solution. Insert your seeds, all will float for the first 1-3 hours and then they will start to sink. If some seeds keep floating shake jar slightly to cause them to sink and keep the jar in a warm a place 78f-86F. Check seeds every 3-6 hours. When the seeds crack open and small taproot is visible plant the cracked seeds in preferred moisten medium 1/8"-1/4" deep. Place the containers with the seeds into a plastic bag to keep the humidity levels up keep in a warm area 78 f - 86 F. When sprouts break surface of soil remove from bag place under main growing light.

I picked up a bottle of Superthrive yesterday. I mixed a couple of drops in a mister bottle of water. I'm using that to keep the top of the soil moist.

This is the first time I've ever used Superthrive. Is there any harm in using this stuff throughout the grow?

Well, the results are in.

7 of the 8 seeds germinated in Soil Moist have broken the surface.
1 of the 8 seeds germinated in wet paper towels have broken the surface. Granted, of the 8 seeds done in paper towels, 5 of the 8 took a day longer to germinate.

I'll continue to monitor to see if any ill effects come about from the Soil Moist method. So far they seem very vigorous.

lumberjack_ian said:

now we'll be seeing posts... "so i just TCG'ed my seed's... how long should it take in the soil moist?"

Click to expand...

The answer to that, my friend, is 3 days or less

For my next trick, I'll germinated a seed in Jello Gelatin

maybe raspberry

or lime.

WWTCGD?

this experiment is flawed.

Everyones paper towels are different.
If U use an expensive paper towel like I do, then the bleach will kill the seeds the moment a taproot shows.

I found it best to use a shop towel since it contains no added chemicals:
but then again that method could be flawed if someone is using a different type of shop towel or different water...

too many damn variables with germinating..

hell look in my journal i use wet sock and 100% 2 day germ check it out

Spittn4cash, you make an excellent point. I tried to use the scientific method to the best of my abilities but was limited by the number of seeds available and the amount of space/lighting available. I never considered the bleach in paper towels. Excellent point. I've never tried shop towels so I have no basis for comparison. Next seed grow, I'll give that an equal shot as well.

I don't consider it flawed in my conclusion that soil moist may be better than paper towels. I will try to compare it to shop towels as well as soaking in a cup of water and any other germination method I can find. On the bright side, three days germ and two days to sprout is pretty nice.

If anybody else has some seeds to test with, I invite you to try all methods and compare. I thought this was worth testing and had the seeds to spare. I seriously doubt it'll have much impact in the long run but I'm always willing to test any logical hypothesis. I went into this without even knowing it would work and had great success.

Cheers!

abudsmoker said:

hell look in my journal i use wet sock and 100% 2 day germ check it out

Click to expand...

LOL, a wet sock! No shit! There's no reason for people not to get great germination rates no matter the medium. That's great stuff ABS. The only reason I tried this was because I had some issues with roots grabbing hold to the fibers of the material (paper towels) I was previously germinating in.

I think the reason my Soil Moist sprouts are doing well is because they retained a little of the Soil Moist material when I moved them to soil. Who knows? Maybe it all was just luck and the Soil Moist method is pointless to begin with. Hell, they could develop root rot before the first true leaves appear.

In any case, I'll post results every Sunday. I've got the soil moist seedling pots marked for reference.

Cheers!

tcg do you think that you could clone in the soil moist?

best way to spruce seeds is to either coat the seed itself with root/cloning hormone or tread the medium in which it is planted with this. seeds pop up in less 48h to about 95% i would say. never had a failing seed nor had to wait longer then 48h for the first leaves to show

try it

lumberjack_ian said:

tcg do you think that you could clone in the soil moist?

Click to expand...

sure you can clone in moist soil, as you can in a water glass. you can even clone without rooting hormones used, it has been all done before

er... should i say... can you do it effectively? as much so as rockwool or oasis cubes? i ask because the soil moist is readily availible to me as the others are not...

yeah i guess you can clone in horrible conditions
but is soil moist NOT a horrible condition?
i guess thats what my question is

lumberjack_ian said:

er... should i say... can you do it effectively? as much so as rockwool or oasis cubes? i ask because the soil moist is readily availible to me as the others are not...

yeah i guess you can clone in horrible conditions
but is soil moist NOT a horrible condition?
i guess thats what my question is

Click to expand...

it is very possible that roots grow in that, you need no rockwool for the trick i switched to soil at the moment and start and clone in jiffy tabs, of course i use an agent to not to push my luck an single inch but it will work to 50% even without such an agent. also, must gardening centers carry rooting/cloning hormones, i bought my there. walmart has for example a good choice even if i had walmart so it is not trick to buy that stuff, and if they ask say you taking clones from your mom's/sis or who ever sill plant they never ask

what you could do as well is to dig a low branch into soil and leaving it still attached to the plant for 2 weeks or wrap soil with some foil around a branch, that works too but takes a bit bigger plant to do so.

i did the same thing here, fast germination: dirt vs dirt + towel, then as the sprouts came up I used greenthumbs rooting hormone to get some extra rooting action out of the seedlings. My conlcusion was that dirt was better than paper, so right on TCG, we're on the same page.

I have always, well my last two times germinated in dirt because I never understood the logic behind having a root pop outside of the dirt. I guess that s a dirt farmers perspective...

As far as the superthrive, I AM A BELIEVER! that shix revived two of my deadest plants. they have now been rejuvenated and are getting new growth! The bottle says to use at every watering, so I wont argue with that, even though it smells like piss.

I also use it outside on my vegetables, superthrive saves!

gracias verde