Here is how I sprout in paper towel. Most of the details aren't important- only temps and humidity really. A lot of people sprout this way. A lot of people sprout other ways...
First- choose some seeds. I want to sprout seven new strains today. Most of these plants will be going into the auto-watered section of my flowering room. This part of the grow is a DTW (drain to waste) hydro setup where I grow smallish one-off plants to try new strains, mostly just for fun. I don't veg them long enough to get a clone off of them. So if I find something special, I have to either try to reveg it, plant/order more seeds of that strain, or (most often) just wish regretfully that I'd cloned it. So I will be choosing six seeds for this that seem interesting. The DTW area is where I use up weird seeds, mystery seeds, freebies, and stuff I wouldn't get around to growing otherwise.
The main part of my grow is larger plants in sunshine mix, using mostly ten gallon pots. Those strains are the proven keepers, which I clone and reveg and keep going over years.
Because the DTW plants will be all fed from one reservoir- it's very helpful if the selected strains have roughly the same nutrient needs and a similar flowering time.
None of this has anything to do with what you, personally, need to know to sprout seeds in paper towel, lol. It's just me blathering -documenting my process.
Ok-this is what I've chosen (second pic down there somewhere*). The Chocolate Mint is one I've heard enough good things about that I'm going to assume it will be a keeper, and it will be vegged longer and cloned.
The other six, for the DTW, are mostly heavy indica strains. Dark Angel, Afghan, Afghan x Black Dominica, Nicole Kush x Morocco, Strawberry Blue, and a sort of mystery seed from one of my Critical Cheese plants. I'm pretty sure it's a cross of the Cheese and a Thai Stick plant, which means it's definitely not as indica as the rest but wtf I'll throw it in.
I put each seed in a labelled fold of paper towel. In this case I made small 'bags' by taping the folded paper towel together. After the paper towel is moistened the seeds will be unlikely to roll out.
I get a container with a lid, like the tupperware variety. Put a layer of paper towel on the bottom. Dribble just a little water on to the paper towel until it's damp. Not to the point that it's completely soaked or there is any water pooling in the bottom of the container.
I could be using seven separate small labelled containers which in some ways would be smarter and save the risk of mix ups, but I'm feeling lazy.
This is sort of a weird container. I'd usually use one with lower sides (less air space to keep humid). But it's all I see around right now and will work fine.
Put the folded packets in there and sprinkle just a little more water around till they're damp as well. A spray bottle would work well for this.
Seal the lid.
Put it in a warm spot. Somewhere on the warm side of room temp - like 25°C/ 75-80°F (I'm guessing). Ok I'll throw a thermometer in and see what the actual temps are.
I'll report back tomorrow. After 24 hours most should be starting to sprout. By 48 hours the rest should have sprouted unless they are duds or unusually slow.
Almost none of the details of this post matter, except that you want your seeds to be in a warm and humid environment. These are the relevant factors that sprout all seeds. There are too many variations on the theme to list, but temps and RH are what matter.
I don't like sprouting in the pot because I've personally had less success with it, and mainly because I like to know for sure whether or not they sprouted before I plant them. But many people do plant directly, and get perfect success with it.
It took an hour to organize this post. The last pic is of the container after this time. Humid. Could be a little warmer.
Will update tomorrow.
* I do hope that someday on this forum we will be able to embed our photos where we want in our posts, so that texts and pics be viewed in linear fashion like almost all other websites. Or maybe I jus haven't found out how to do that yet. For now it will have to be just text, with a jumble of photos down at the bottom
it was a real wrestling match with the site trying to upload pics and get the post to work, but I understand it's a work in progress and maybe not very iPhone friendly.
Plus - I'm sorry the seeds pic somehow got reduced in quality so it's hard to read the labels. Not sure what happened there.
First- choose some seeds. I want to sprout seven new strains today. Most of these plants will be going into the auto-watered section of my flowering room. This part of the grow is a DTW (drain to waste) hydro setup where I grow smallish one-off plants to try new strains, mostly just for fun. I don't veg them long enough to get a clone off of them. So if I find something special, I have to either try to reveg it, plant/order more seeds of that strain, or (most often) just wish regretfully that I'd cloned it. So I will be choosing six seeds for this that seem interesting. The DTW area is where I use up weird seeds, mystery seeds, freebies, and stuff I wouldn't get around to growing otherwise.
The main part of my grow is larger plants in sunshine mix, using mostly ten gallon pots. Those strains are the proven keepers, which I clone and reveg and keep going over years.
Because the DTW plants will be all fed from one reservoir- it's very helpful if the selected strains have roughly the same nutrient needs and a similar flowering time.
None of this has anything to do with what you, personally, need to know to sprout seeds in paper towel, lol. It's just me blathering -documenting my process.
Ok-this is what I've chosen (second pic down there somewhere*). The Chocolate Mint is one I've heard enough good things about that I'm going to assume it will be a keeper, and it will be vegged longer and cloned.
The other six, for the DTW, are mostly heavy indica strains. Dark Angel, Afghan, Afghan x Black Dominica, Nicole Kush x Morocco, Strawberry Blue, and a sort of mystery seed from one of my Critical Cheese plants. I'm pretty sure it's a cross of the Cheese and a Thai Stick plant, which means it's definitely not as indica as the rest but wtf I'll throw it in.
I put each seed in a labelled fold of paper towel. In this case I made small 'bags' by taping the folded paper towel together. After the paper towel is moistened the seeds will be unlikely to roll out.
I get a container with a lid, like the tupperware variety. Put a layer of paper towel on the bottom. Dribble just a little water on to the paper towel until it's damp. Not to the point that it's completely soaked or there is any water pooling in the bottom of the container.
I could be using seven separate small labelled containers which in some ways would be smarter and save the risk of mix ups, but I'm feeling lazy.
This is sort of a weird container. I'd usually use one with lower sides (less air space to keep humid). But it's all I see around right now and will work fine.
Put the folded packets in there and sprinkle just a little more water around till they're damp as well. A spray bottle would work well for this.
Seal the lid.
Put it in a warm spot. Somewhere on the warm side of room temp - like 25°C/ 75-80°F (I'm guessing). Ok I'll throw a thermometer in and see what the actual temps are.
I'll report back tomorrow. After 24 hours most should be starting to sprout. By 48 hours the rest should have sprouted unless they are duds or unusually slow.
Almost none of the details of this post matter, except that you want your seeds to be in a warm and humid environment. These are the relevant factors that sprout all seeds. There are too many variations on the theme to list, but temps and RH are what matter.
I don't like sprouting in the pot because I've personally had less success with it, and mainly because I like to know for sure whether or not they sprouted before I plant them. But many people do plant directly, and get perfect success with it.
It took an hour to organize this post. The last pic is of the container after this time. Humid. Could be a little warmer.
Will update tomorrow.
* I do hope that someday on this forum we will be able to embed our photos where we want in our posts, so that texts and pics be viewed in linear fashion like almost all other websites. Or maybe I jus haven't found out how to do that yet. For now it will have to be just text, with a jumble of photos down at the bottom
it was a real wrestling match with the site trying to upload pics and get the post to work, but I understand it's a work in progress and maybe not very iPhone friendly.
Plus - I'm sorry the seeds pic somehow got reduced in quality so it's hard to read the labels. Not sure what happened there.
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