Do I Have To Germinate My Marijuana Seeds Before Planting?

UncleBuck said:

i do one more thing when planting seeds, i tap on the seed in the shotglass after about a day. if it sinks, good. if it doesn't, i tap on it again 12 hours later. if it still doesn't, sink, i plant it anyway.

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Brilliant !
I'm gonna have to try that myself.

Does anyone have any advice for seeds that begin to pop, stick out a tiny bit(maybe a mm), and just seem like they are having a difficult time getting out of the shell. They've been through soaking, paper towel, etc. They are all fem seeds and popped in a day of going into germ.

Would it be terrible to softly assist the tap root out by using an exacto blade and slightly spreading? I figured, what can it hurt? Its been roughly 5 days and the one popped n had a 1/2 in tap in 36 hrs. The other two popped but are just going slower. I don't want them use up their energy on something so dumb. Or something that I could easily help on.


Has anyone actually done this with success or failure?

MoReJew-ce said:

Does anyone have any advice for seeds that begin to pop, stick out a tiny bit(maybe a mm), and just seem like they are having a difficult time getting out of the shell. They've been through soaking, paper towel, etc. They are all fem seeds and popped in a day of going into germ.

Would it be terrible to softly assist the tap root out by using an exacto blade and slightly spreading? I figured, what can it hurt? Its been roughly 5 days and the one popped n had a 1/2 in tap in 36 hrs. The other two popped but are just going slower. I don't want them use up their energy on something so dumb. Or something that I could easily help on.


Has anyone actually done this with success or failure?

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Once the shell has split i put them into whatever medium i'm using then leave them to get on with it, i will assist if they've grown but can't get the shell off but be careful as they are very very easy to decapitate lol

3eyes said:

Once the shell has split i put them into whatever medium i'm using then leave them to get on with it, i will assist if they've grown but can't get the shell off but be careful as they are very very easy to decapitate lol

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Yeah I agree. I tried to carefully examine what was going on with it in the medium though, and there's just no growth. It popped, stayed too form a tap root, but ultimately just expended her energy b4 being able to grow it. Shitty. Especially when buying them at CKS. Yeah, so far 100% success getting them to pop, but that don't say they are gonna be able to get further than that stage. What a bummer. 1 came up from 3. And that was doing it their way, then placing into soil.


Anyone got any names for reputable banks from the Canadian area? I don't like over seas. And prefer giving the can's the money anyway.

Just asking bc I know I'm not a moron w this stuff. I've had zero problems w bag seeds for yrs. Just wanted to see what the hype is all about w some of these ordered genes. But it don't matter if they don't work out. I mean yeah, I can go mother and clones, but it's the point of spending all that money to get fn one or two that are actually strong specimens that can open their own shell. Idt I could've shook the container prior to soaking any harder, so they should've had it loosened at very least. Not shaking them first had a 40% germ rate tho.

jestermite said:

I had always used the paper towel method with great results. This last time I stuck all 5 of my new subcool seeds into peat plugs instead thinking 'what's the difference?'. Not one came up. I don't have a clue as to why they failed but here it is: I'll never go away from the paper towel method again. Don't eff with perfection. Especially with seeds of high value.

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That ridiculous. Something else went wrong. PH of plug or something. Cannabis growers are the only ones that take these extra steps. There are all kinds of myths and mis information in the cannabis world. This question gets asked a lot on here.

The only extra step that makes any sense is to presoak in a little water. There are quite a few vegetable seeds that it is recommended to presoak.

I grow a vegetable garden and plant multiple flower beds every year. That's hundreds maybe over a thousand seeds a year. All of them go straight into dirt and all of them sprout. Maybe an occasional dud.

I'm not knocking you. Do what works for you.


When a seed sprouts a tap root it develops very fine hair like roots. The more steps and handling cause damage.

Here is another misinformation. If you germ your seeds plant them tap root up. Or plant seed with the point up. The tap root makes a u turn and pulls seed shell off as it sprouts.



All that said, its a seed. Poke a hole in dirt, insert seed, cover, lightly tamp. That's it. Lol. Sorry to be long winded.

Yea guys paper towling is TOTALLY unnecessary like great white and uncle buck said soaking for 24hrs then planting In a jiffy is pretty idiot prove also when the seed is in the water the majority of the time you will actually see a crack in the shell and if you look hard enuff after 24hrs then you should be able to see a small bit of white flesh if not then I resort to uncle bucks .method of giving it a small tap to see if it sinks.....again like buck if it doesn't then I just plant it anyway but some people will leave it for a further few hours giving the stubborn shells a chance to soften up a bit more .....roughly I've had about 95% success rate using this simple but safe procedure......as for paper toweling.......if some growers New just how FRAGILE a taproot was ......they would think twice about touching it.....only my op .....but.....one I believe in.......

whitebb2727 said:

That ridiculous. Something else went wrong. PH of plug or something. Cannabis growers are the only ones that take these extra steps. There are all kinds of myths and mis information in the cannabis world. This question gets asked a lot on here.

The only extra step that makes any sense is to presoak in a little water. There are quite a few vegetable seeds that it is recommended to presoak.

I grow a vegetable garden and plant multiple flower beds every year. That's hundreds maybe over a thousand seeds a year. All of them go straight into dirt and all of them sprout. Maybe an occasional dud.

I'm not knocking you. Do what works for you.


When a seed sprouts a tap root it develops very fine hair like roots. The more steps and handling cause damage.

Here is another misinformation. If you germ your seeds plant them tap root up. Or plant seed with the point up. The tap root makes a u turn and pulls seed shell off as it sprouts.

View attachment 3424084 View attachment 3424085

All that said, its a seed. Poke a hole in dirt, insert seed, cover, lightly tamp. That's it. Lol. Sorry to be long winded.

Click to expand...

I'm not sure what doesn't make sense, but I've done it under lab conditions. There are no PH issues, as I take a sample of each mix I create (lab has multiple soil types from FFOF to the nutrients Lacking seed starters soil). I take my sample of a Dixie party cup, and put drainage holes, then use PH neutral tap water (checked and recorded for ppm and PH) to water and collect the runoff for each sample. So I can assure you it was not PH.

The paper towel method is what CKS seed bank says they want you to do or else they do not guarantee their germination. Typically I just plop them in PH neutral water to soak until the tap grows enough to go into the dirt. But I followed their method with 3 seeds. One had NO problems. other two popped n never grew. even the one I put in the soil earlier (after it popped),became a gelatinous blob inside the shell. never cracked more. nothing. I appreciate the lack of confidence in my skills, but I know that no problems were on my end. The mix worked fine for the other... so how could it be something besides the seeds? EVERYTHING else is the same. That's why I considered helping the shell along. They used their energy and then had nothing left to actually grow the root. It's very simple to deduce.

I mix one large application of soil, mix my dolomite @ 1 tsp/gal of soil and my only other additive is Hydroguard, which is mixed in the PH neutral water I mist on to wet the soil.

I'm sorry to say, but was not any other issues. Your info on bottom is regarding if it even CREATES a tap root. So it was really off-topic. But still, it can help someone in the future. I'm trying to figure out how to eliminate this issue for myself though.

I agree that the paper towel method blows. Its simply Mir variables that introduce problems (dyes, stuff on your fingers like tobacco resin, etc.) So this next time I plan to use the method I've always had luck with... PH water... pouring seeds in a medicine bottle and shaking to help loosen, add to the water, and let germ. Sometimes I've added a small air stone too But they don't end up soaking as much water in that way. Shaking them absolutely helps though. Personal preference I suppose though. It's just a bummer, paying extra shipping, waiting weeks, then prepping your work area and having to go through the whole process again. I prefer multiple generations, or clones. With seeds you have to worry about so much. Plus with a perpetual grow, keeping multiple generations allows you to avoid dealing with an area specifically for smaller plants. Not gonna get into that tho... too many ppl believe that they lose genetics or break down and produce less. Now that's something that's ridiculous.

I can assure you though, these had no "other problems", as there's not much that can be said when one (2 inches away) germed PERFECTLY. It's actually going strong still, and just went through a transplant To OF sOil. Maybe other newbs mess things up like that, but not here.


Any other suggestions? Or responses to the actually question about experiences with removing the shell when the seed pops but doesn't grow any further? As mentioned, runoff is 6.8 range (digital pen, tested with two different, freshly calibrated pens). Ppm was the 68 from tap plus 290ppm of the 25% OF mixed in. When it was straight seed starter, the first leaves came out pure white from nute def' s. So I always mix a little nute soil in and works fine. These are white widow from CKS though.

I guess it's simply easier to say I messed up or am crazy though. Not that a seed bank's seeds could have had a problem. Unless you're saying my prior bag seed was stronger than the ordered, fem seeds?

Greenhouse;save said:

Yea guys paper towling is TOTALLY unnecessary like great white and uncle buck said soaking for 24hrs then planting In a jiffy is pretty idiot prove also when the seed is in the water the majority of the time you will actually see a crack in the shell and if you look hard enuff after 24hrs then you should be able to see a small bit of white flesh if not then I resort to uncle bucks .method of giving it a small tap to see if it sinks.....again like buck if it doesn't then I just plant it anyway but some people will leave it for a further few hours giving the stubborn shells a chance to soften up a bit more .....roughly I've had about 95% success rate using this simple but safe procedure......as for paper toweling.......if some growers New just how FRAGILE a taproot was ......they would think twice about touching it.....only my op .....but.....one I believe in.......

Click to expand...

I agree completely. But when a seed bank Seuss they will guarantee something if you follow their method, it's difficult to resist. I figured, they'd know their product best. Why not try their way? Worst case I document and get replacement seeds to do my own way.

So that's why I went with paper towels. I prefer the dropping in water method until they get a small tap root growing. That way I can put it in soil and not far from the top.. with light soil sprinkled over so it can break through within a day or two max. That's really the easiest method since there's the least amount of variables added.

I think I'm going to be trying that method with the last of these seeds, and then decide if I will order more once I see the first yield(s). So far it's looking like 1:3 ratio of 1 growing perfectly normal from seed and two getting to the popped phase before turning to mush (as I waited like the instructions said).


Thank you for addressing my question though. I felt that was the safe bet to not touch them. If I was going to, I would wear my rubberized glloves and basically just try to pull the already open shell, apart a little more. I don't think it'd work, but thought I'd ask for ppls' experiences. Thank you for the advice. That's what I was looking for.


** I apologize for all the errors, my key board is a pain in the @$$.

MoReJew-ce said:

I'm not sure what doesn't make sense, but I've done it under lab conditions. There are no PH issues, as I take a sample of each mix I create (lab has multiple soil types from FFOF to the nutrients Lacking seed starters soil). I take my sample of a Dixie party cup, and put drainage holes, then use PH neutral tap water (checked and recorded for ppm and PH) to water and collect the runoff for each sample. So I can assure you it was not PH.

The paper towel method is what CKS seed bank says they want you to do or else they do not guarantee their germination. Typically I just plop them in PH neutral water to soak until the tap grows enough to go into the dirt. But I followed their method with 3 seeds. One had NO problems. other two popped n never grew. even the one I put in the soil earlier (after it popped),became a gelatinous blob inside the shell. never cracked more. nothing. I appreciate the lack of confidence in my skills, but I know that no problems were on my end. The mix worked fine for the other... so how could it be something besides the seeds? EVERYTHING else is the same. That's why I considered helping the shell along. They used their energy and then had nothing left to actually grow the root. It's very simple to deduce.

I mix one large application of soil, mix my dolomite @ 1 tsp/gal of soil and my only other additive is Hydroguard, which is mixed in the PH neutral water I mist on to wet the soil.

I'm sorry to say, but was not any other issues. Your info on bottom is regarding if it even CREATES a tap root. So it was really off-topic. But still, it can help someone in the future. I'm trying to figure out how to eliminate this issue for myself though.

I agree that the paper towel method blows. Its simply Mir variables that introduce problems (dyes, stuff on your fingers like tobacco resin, etc.) So this next time I plan to use the method I've always had luck with... PH water... pouring seeds in a medicine bottle and shaking to help loosen, add to the water, and let germ. Sometimes I've added a small air stone too But they don't end up soaking as much water in that way. Shaking them absolutely helps though. Personal preference I suppose though. It's just a bummer, paying extra shipping, waiting weeks, then prepping your work area and having to go through the whole process again. I prefer multiple generations, or clones. With seeds you have to worry about so much. Plus with a perpetual grow, keeping multiple generations allows you to avoid dealing with an area specifically for smaller plants. Not gonna get into that tho... too many ppl believe that they lose genetics or break down and produce less. Now that's something that's ridiculous.

I can assure you though, these had no "other problems", as there's not much that can be said when one (2 inches away) germed PERFECTLY. It's actually going strong still, and just went through a transplant To OF sOil. Maybe other newbs mess things up like that, but not here.


Any other suggestions? Or responses to the actually question about experiences with removing the shell when the seed pops but doesn't grow any further? As mentioned, runoff is 6.8 range (digital pen, tested with two different, freshly calibrated pens). Ppm was the 68 from tap plus 290ppm of the 25% OF mixed in. When it was straight seed starter, the first leaves came out pure white from nute def' s. So I always mix a little nute soil in and works fine. These are white widow from CKS though.

I guess it's simply easier to say I messed up or am crazy though. Not that a seed bank's seeds could have had a problem. Unless you're saying my prior bag seed was stronger than the ordered, fem seeds?

Click to expand...

I refuse to believe that a seed will pop in a paper towel but not soil. People over complicate things. Idk, like I said, I poke a hole half inch of throw in seed and cover. Never had a problem. Its a seed, seeds grow in dirt. Hell I seen flicked bag seeds grow in the worst conditions and still make it.

I usally do the paper towel method for a couple days soaked in distilled water and plant and have never had any issues. However this go round I had to go out of town today for the week so I threw the seeds that had been sitting in a paper towel overnight into some starter plugs and then stuck the plugs into a Pete pot with some ffof soil and gave it a bit more water and threw plunder the T5 in the humidity dome. We shall see when I get home what happens. As far as no light etc. I’ve done it both ways and don’t see any difference. To each their own. I’ll let y’all know how it goes when I get back home.