Hey Johnny, I still have a couple WM x MS survivors and I’ve got 3 more of the same beans in a shot glass, 2 of those are cracking as of this morning. The RH in that tent this morning is 50 so Ill be putting bags over the cups with these. I want to try your WC method soon. Just have to pick up worm castings.
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Goat crap works extremely well too. 
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Goat crap 
…
Good to know lol
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You’ll be a convert. I actually showed a commercial guy from Oregon the method last night. Ya woulda thought I showed him how to change lead to gold…
“So, how many don’t sprout?”
“none, I’ve had em all sprout so far, 100%”
“Really? Not one failure?”|
“Well, I did have one batch that didn’t”
“See! I knew it wasn’t 100%!”
“Ya didn’t let me finish. One batch that didn’t AFTER being in the attic for over 20 years, subject to heat / cold swings over 100 degrees annually, but some DID crack, just had no energy to go further”
“NO SHIT! Ok, now I gotta try this, all it is, is worm castings?”
“Yup, and a mist of water with a heat mat below, and a dome and towel for darkness above”
Actual conversation last night…
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I’m going to my local garden store next week, going to grab WC and a couple other things.
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Its so simple, you’ll wonder why we’ve complicated things with shotglasses, ziplocks and paper towels… 
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I’ll never go back.
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I might be finally doing the JP WC method myself. Got a strain that doesn’t seem to want to crack for me for some reason.
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I’m telling you right now, you’re seriously gonna start questioning things afterwards. Why did we complicate seed starting with paper towels and ziplocs? Whats the meaning of life, and IS my purpose here really to overgrow the world? Why aren’t more people doing it this way? Why is the sky blue AND the ocean blue? What is the air speed of a european swallow?
So many questions it will unlock…
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One thing I’m questioning; is it specifically the worm castings that help? Were you already using a heat mat, humidity dome and cover for darkness, but with a different medium? Once I switched to that combination, regardless of the medium I’ve had 100% germination with newer seeds.
I’d be happy if the damn seed unlocked! lol
That’s the difference though. I’ve had 100% germination with newer seeds both in a paper towel and in a glass of water. These are the first I’ve had that need some coaxing. I do have an assortment of random 90s seeds I’ll eventually get to though that will most likely require some special treatment too.
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I don’t actually have older seeds to try, so I don’t know whether it works with older seeds just as well. It does make sense that the closer you can get the conditions to nature, the better they’ll just naturally work… that means plenty of moisture, heat and darkness. I’m just curious if worm castings have anything in particular that makes them great for the purpose, chemically speaking.
Laden or unladen?
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Good question, and I’ve chalked it up to mother nature had a way long before we did. I’ve had success with fresh seeds in a bag with no heat… also kept em over my modem / router, top of fridge, etc… Soaked in water, or water with H2O2.
Always would get 1 or two slow to pop, or pop and fizzle out.
With the WC, I even got 20yr old abused seeds to crack, just not enough energy left to grow. Anything “current”, 100% germ rate, usually in 36 hrs or less… Plus no worries about snapping the tail while handling the paper towel, ya just see a little seed with a tail in the WC and pluck it out with a toothpick.
I did notice that there ARE baby white worms that will gather around the slower seeds. And I gotta figure there’s microbial action going on as well. I think some of that has to play a part somehow…
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@MoBilly has suggested using Goat manure as well, its not a hot fertilizer that needs time to break down, and he’s had success with it.
Alright… you passed the test… We can hang out…
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That seems like the tricky part. Pluck it out with a toothpick? Once they’re cracked, it seems like it’s no better than having them in paper towel. Still need to move them to their actual pots, and that’s still the tricky part. Maybe I’ll just get some worm castings, hollow out a hole in the soil and bury the seed directly in there… even though I don’t have any decades-old, some of them are probably a few years and could benefit from some help. Microbial action does seem plausible.
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Out of curiosity I left some in the goat manure for four days. They grew long taps that had off shooting capillary looking roots. JP said if I left them there a little longer they would turn into the stuff and take root.
I believe he is absolutely correct.
Rabbit manure is the same way. You can plant right into it.
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Another suggestion I’ve seen is to put the seeds in a chunk of freshly-cut aloe stem; can’t remember from whom, I think it was one of our Brazilian members. Apparently he’s had great results with years-old seeds that way too. Maybe it’s worth experimenting with that too, since I have an aloe plant handy anyway. Something to think about for the next set of seeds, but I’ve already dropped the most recent set and won’t have enough room for more unless something goes wrong.
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Yeah, you don’t embed the seeds in the WC, you lay em on top. The tap root will grow an inch or inch and a half without burrowing into the WC. I use the toothpick just so my oils on my fingers dont get on the fine hairs on the roots, or I crush em. I just place the toothpick right below the helmet at the top of the tap, and it usually balances easily. IF you let them sit an extra day or two, and they start to dig into the WC, just pluck up that little but of WC and plant it with it… The WC is dense enough it wont crumble and fall apart if you use a spoon and take a little (enough to get all the root)…
I’ve thought of experimenting with a small patch of WC in a pot, but I also wonder about the moisture level then, that pot / soil will be kinda soaked, more than my tray of WC’s is at least, to maintain humidity… Or it will dry super fast…
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Yeah… I’m pretty sure you have much better manual dexterity than I do. 
I’d prefer a technique that involves moving the medium, rather than moving the seeds. Much less tricky for me that way. I’m using rooting cubes in a heated prop tray now, I’m going to experiment with cutting a little piece out and filling it with worm castings/aloe beforehand to see if it gets them all to start faster; still having some seeds take 5-6 days to show above the surface, though they were seeds Mark said he ordinarily wouldn’t have sold because they were too old. Dunno how old exactly, probably a year or two at most?
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I have some seeds that I don’t mind sacrificing to find out if that works and I have some aloe growing at all times.
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