Supernatural by EG preservation project

[Dirt_Wizard]

@inhumantheory

Okay, friends. I’m choosing the soak 1% peroxide and water then paper towel method as that has been a method that has always worked for me in the past. I’ve managed to pop 5 year old seeds before but never anything older than that.

Here’s a tip I haven’t tried yet but comes highly recommended, it’s just a particular way to do the paper towel and Ziploc tek that makes it easier for old seeds to drop a first root out by assisting it with gravity and the natural urge of a seed to orient itself downwards toward the magnetic core of the earth. From what I understand, when seeds are planted upside down and have to turn their shoot around, they are not necessarily just moving away from light, they’re also orienting themselves using gravity and the Earth’s magnetic field.

Jordan of the Islands

Definitely not your method holding them back. I usually use moist paper towels too (all white - no dyes), and I used to put them in plastic containers exactly like you do. But now I put the moist paper towels in a ziplock bag, and place that in a Priority Express Mail envelope (about 9x12), and I hang that up in a warm place. The envelope keeps the beans in the dark, and hanging it up ensures the taproot heads straight down, which makes them easier to transplant.

PSA - Starting Seeds

Like many, I still pop seeds with damp paper towels. However, on a few occasions I’ve noticed the little root hairs can migrate through the plys of the paper towel; making it a challenge to remove them without damaging the fragile little roots. I discovered these blue paper shop towels that are more woven and fabric-like. They are very durable and protective of the little babies. They are sold by Harbor Freight Tools for $2.97 but you can catch them on sale for less. Here’s a pic: [image]

Kashmir Crowdsource Testing

I’ve started doing vertical, folded in paper towel, in a Ziploc, above my light with a little worm castings tea. Sprouts are strong and straight and shed helmets with no problem. Let them get about an inch and then into coco or straight to hydro bucket. Don’t think I’ve had a germination failure since doing it like this. Being vertical they never seem to dig into paper towel they just slide through

BOG Grape Punch redemption run

Hey @MumenRyder , so when I germinated these I did so vertically by putting the paper towel flat into a ziplock and hanging it from the pole in the top of one of my tents. This promoted straighter tap roots as they automatically want to grow down. As for leaving them too long I would say you could check them once a day. The seedling has enough energy stored to keep growing well past shucking it’s shell so it will be hard to leave them too long really if checking daily. After that I just make a h…

Another good hack/tek for seed starting as well as a lot of other organic garden things is getting a thrift store yogurt maker or two for $5-10. A complete unit will come with a (usually) clear dome lid and individual cups for each slot, with lids and probably extras. Yogurt makers are specced to keep the inoculated milk at 108-112F (ideally) so it’s a little hot, but by either leaving the lid off and using spacers under the cups, or the addition of a resistor dial plugged between it and the wall you can dial that down to whatever nice warm temp you want. It’s a DIY germination machine! Hope MM is okay out there we haven’t seen him in a while here:

PSA - Starting Seeds

yes I always soak them first, and then in to the towels. Some seeds are more stubborn than others, also. The yogurt maker is like that cupcake pan but it’s slightly heated, which will help with the propagation as well. Here is the type of yogurt maker I was referring to: [s-l640] when you find them at thrift shops they are usually missing the lid, which is ok, you don’t really need it, though it might come in handy as a humidity dome if it still has one.