Get to Germinating already!

(A beautiful seed almost ready to be plucked and germinated!)

1. First, make sure that the seeds themselves are of quality. In other words make sure they are a reasonable size, not small like a pea of couscous. Some seeds aren't brown, but most seeds that are pale green and near white didn't have time to fully develop their genetics, so it might have a harder time to germinate, not to mention it has a better chance of being a male. Make sure the seed is hard and not easily smash-able. Also make sure the little knotted hole at the bottom of the seed is not damaged, as in it has a perfect circle volcano like depression.




2. When you think you have some good seeds to germinate, you have the option of "scraping" the outer layer of the seed a little to make it easier to absorb water. You do this simply by getting a nail file and gently brushing it on the surface of the seed a couple times. There are other ways to scrape seeds. But in reality, you really don't have to do this. As long as you picked decent seeds, they will germinate. Marijuana seeds retain genetics and germination capabilities far after they are initially created; several years in fact.


3. If you chose to scrape the seeds or not, prepare to germinate by getting a paper towel that you can fold a few times. Before you fold your paper towel, lightly soak it with water to where it's wet, but not ripping. Fold the towel a few times to where it's thick enough to snugly fit the seeds into the last fold. After folding to this point, soak the towel again, but with a little more water and gently squeeze the excess water out.


4. With your seeds, place them into the towel so that they are submerged in the wet paper towel. Make sure there is enough water for the seeds to absorb. It would probably be easier to unfold the towel first, put the seeds on one side of the two sided towel and then fold the other side down snugly and securely.


5. Once the seeds are in the towel, put the towel in a dark place to where no light can reach it. Make sure to put the towel in a mug or something that won't allow it to get outside particles in. Place it in a dark area, to where no light can reach it and leave it alone. Check every 6 hours or so to make sure the paper towel is still damp and re-wet it if it dries up. Check the seeds in 24-48 hours and they should have had tap roots develop and pop out of the seed.

(These seeds are definitely ready to be planted.)

6. When ready to plant the seed, place the seed with the tap root facing down into your medium and cover it with about a little less than 1/8 inch of soil. You want light to reach the surface of the seed to help it complete its germination stage. Be sure to keep the medium nice and moist to give the little seedling its life. After a few days the seed will crack and develop its first set of leaves. After that, just keep them watered and they'll be growing into trees like no time. Just be sure to keep the light on them for at least 16 hours during the 24 hour day.

(A germinated seedling that is on it's way to full on vegetative growth.)

TIPS:

• You don't have to germinate seeds with a paper towel. You can simply put seedlings in a cup of water and put them away for 24-72 hours. However, the paper towel method in my opinion, gives you a more successful germination rate.

(All photos in this article are from images.google.com)