So you have your seeds and you are ready to germinate them, but what method is best? Firstly i will say that in the natural world plant seeds arrive at ground level by many different methods, they can drift on the wind like dandelion seeds, be eaten by animals and pass through their digestive system to emerge in an obvious pile of ready made fertiliser! or simply fall from the flower and land on the ground directly below the parent plant.

All the info you would normally read on Internet forums and alike would suggest you to place your seeds in a damp paper towel on a saucer and place them some where dark and warm until they crack and produce a tap root. This is ok but it is flawed in its method as you now have to transplant your newly germinated seed to your rooting medium, by doing this you risk damaging the tap root which at this stage in its life is extremely tender, remember seeds never naturally fall on damp tissue!

You will need from your local hydro store some Rockwool plugs, these are about 30mm-1 inch square  cubes or cylinders,  a shallow tray to place your plugs on to, an opaque polythene bag large enough to place your tray into or a propagator lid,  some small pieces of black polythene, a small water tight container, 1 half bucket of water and of  course your seeds. Please fill your bucket the day before and let it stand overnight before use, this is to allow any trapped chlorine gas escape.

First take the small container and half fill it with water from your bucket, now place your seeds in the container of water and let the seeds soak for 24 hours in a warm dark place, this allows the seeds to imbibe themselves (take water on board) and thus begin the germination process. After 24 hours you may notice that the seeds have cracked and are showing a thin white line along one edge, this is because the seed has swollen where it has taken water in and is perfectly natural. If there is no crack don’t worry this just indicates that the seed has not taken on as much water as those that have cracked. This is the first stage of the seeds development and you can now safely transplant it to your Rockwool plug with no fear of damage. It is worth noting at this point if you intend to grow more than 1 variety you will need to use a separate container for each strain and label them accordingly to avoid any identification issues at a later date.

To prepair your plugs it is essential that they are soaked in water before you insert a seed into them, so place the required number of plugs into the bucket and allow them to soak for 10 minuets or so. Now place them onto your tray and with a Biro lid or similar make a small hole 5mm deep in the tops of the plugs and insert 1 seed per plug, at this stage you may want to place your tray in its final position in your green house or grow room. Next fill the tray with water from the bucket to approximately 10mm in depth and take the small pieces of black polythene and cover each seed individually this stops most of the light from reaching the seed. You should also label each plug for identification, I usually use a CD marker on a small square of plastic cut from a 4 litre milk bottle and pin it to the plug. Now place the propagator lid or clear polythene bag carefully over the tray and let mother nature do her thing! If growing indoors i suggest turning on your grow lamp and positioning it 500mm above your tray, this will raise the temperature and help maintain the RH (relative humidity) level inside the germination unit.

When your seeds start to germinate proper they will first put down a tap root followed by the emergence of it’s first two leaves (cotyledon leaves) which will start to lift the black polythene from the surface of the plug, it is at this stage advisable to remove the black polythene to allow light onto the emerging seedling and it is now possible to start lowering your light source to avoid stem stretch. We will leave the seedlings inside what is now a propagator until they have developed their first or second set of true leaves (the serrated ones) and are showing showing signs of root growth out of the plug. It would also be wise to remove the remaining water from the bottom of the tray and replace it with a very weak hydroponic nutrient growth solution.

Weed Seed Fact: a seed contains enough nutrition to grow to its first true leaf set.