Recently purchased some early miss auto seeds and decided to germinate one following the included instructions to a T. Soaked in water for 15 hours then in a wet paper towel for 5 days before the seed split open exposing the edge of the white tap root. Let the seed sit in the paper towel for 3 more days and nothing happened. So I decided to put it into some wet PROMIX seed starting soil.
The pot is ontop of a seedling pad set to 75* and there are some t5 lights above for a bit of warmth.
If it doesn't sprout within a few days I'm calling it a dud.
Is there anything I should do different to ensure the next seed doesn't do the same?
Hi, Sascwatch, my fellow Canadian!
My first grow was CKS Early Miss (and I've just smoked some, heh heh heh) so she has a very special place in my heart
I also massively screwed up the germination of my first two seeds, so, although I'm not an experienced grower, I have a pretty good idea what I did wrong and have successfully done it right twice now
Most of the suggestions given by CKS are great, but I'd note a few refinements, based on my own experience.
1. Soaking is good -- make sure that they're in the dark (a cupboard, whatever) -- up to 18 hours. Even if they don't sink, don't worry.
2. Put them in a moist paper towel, not a wet one. The first reason the tap root extends from the seed is to search for water. If our paper towel is too wet, they don't have to search and the tap root won't extend. I did that to my first two seeds
So instead of pouring the whole glass of water you've been soaking your seeds in into that towel, just pour a little. Moist to the touch, not sopping wet.
3. Make sure that the seeds are kept warm and dark at this point, during germination. I've had consistent success with putting the moist paper towel with the seeds between two plates, with a normal lightbulb trained right at the top plate. This keeps them warm and dark and moist. My first two seeds I didn't keep warm and they died
I'm sure you could just put your saucers on top of your seedling pad, but I've only tried the light bulb thing myself.
4. Once you have a tap root, put the seed very carefully into your seed starting soil - try not to touch the tap root at all. At that point, yeah, keep it a little humid, warm and don't drown it
Again, it wants moist soil, so the root has to go in search of moisture.
All my very best to you! Let me know if I can help!