why do we germinate our seeds on paper first and then transplant to medium?

this seems to be the most common advice for germination. im new to growing things in general, but an experienced friend (gardener) tells me it's not normal to do this.

anyone know why germinating on paper is better than putting seeds straight into soil/medium?

Thanks

Reeferfiend said:

this seems to be the most common advice for germination. im new to growing things in general, but an experienced friend (gardener) tells me it's not normal to do this.

anyone know why germinating on paper is better than putting seeds straight into soil/medium?

Thanks

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Personally I don't use paper.

I just moisten my chosen medium and plant them straight in.


The main reason I can see for germinating in paper towels etc first is so that you can see the tap root and know that everything is ok.

When doing it straight into the medium you have to wait almost 14 days before you scrap it and replant a new seed.




J

In nature plants produce many seeds because many will die. Humans have just found a way to maximize the amount of seeds that will successfully germinate.

It is just a safer more controlled environment for germination. Then, the plant is allowed to grow somewhere else.

I think that ^^^ is the best reason really, also as said it saves you having say a tray of dirt and having to dig um up x days later to see.. There another thread like this which is exploding but i wont go on...
Yeah i find it not only more successful but also maybe a few days quicker,, i do the 12hr soak, then moist paper towel in a shot glass,seed against the side, then in a bag and on to the cable tv box. 24hrs later most have popped,,some exploded with growth,,
not to argue or that with anyone but orchid germinators dont do it in dirt,,they do it in mycorrhiza cultures and that..

anyhow,,ranting abit so i sign off..

Its not really the best thing to do.. germing seeds in a paper towel as when the taproot grows, tiny roots will grow into the paper towel and when you remove the seeds, you damage the new small hair like roots in the process, potentially stunting new growth..

racerboy71 said:

Its not really the best thing to do.. germing seeds in a paper towel as when the taproot grows, tiny roots will grow into the paper towel and when you remove the seeds, you damage the new small hair like roots in the process, potentially stunting new growth..

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Thats true if you wait too long,,
pro and cons to both imo,,also if done in just a papertowel the towel has to be kept just moist and not too wet. Other wise it seems to drown the seed..

We sometimes do things because we can physically see the results.. and we like that.

Other than that, I have found just planting the damn things in soil to be pretty well 100 percent effective.


No need to reinvent the wheel much here.. Plant seed in soil, 2nd oldest trick in the book.

I only grow once a year, so I end up storing some of my purchases. I just germinated eight seeds (2 x Nirvana Jock Horror fem., 2 x Peakseedsbc Northern Lights, 4 x Peakseedsbc Skunkberry) that have been in the fridge for three years. Eight out of eight popped nicely in paper towels sitting on the dvd player. In my seven-year grow career, I haven't had one not germinate. I don't let the little white shoot that breaks out get much longer than a quarter of an inch. If it ain't broke . . .

I do this because i dont have to wait for it to pop out of the dirt and that i know it wasn't a Dud, I hate when 5 days goes by and i have to dig through all the fuckin dirt and through all my pots that didnt pop looking for a little seed like a needle in a hay stack come to find out it never even opened delaying my shit. I do it with Every seed ever since i started it and It's never "grown into the paper towl" that sounds pretty ridiculous to me and anyone that does this method daily would probably agree, if that has happened to you, you obviously left it in there too long or had the paper towel soaked making it easy to go through or something idk. I do it with like 150 seeds and never seen that IMO. Do whatever works for you

I use 2 plates like () on top of eachother with two paper towels on the bottom, 1 paper towel folded for small plates.
As long as you don't Play with it and only touch the seed Nothings going to go wrong.
This always gives me Faster results than straight into dirt.
about 2-3 days there already this long { } and they're ready no damage done.

this {} didnt come out right no matter how much space i put between it but its really 3 4x that size

I only do the soak. I've never used the paper towel method, although I can understand its appeal in that you can see progress, or lack thereof . I just don't like to handle my plants any more than necessary. The younger they are, the less I like it. I transplant up, and that about it, other than the occasional stem stroke.

Bottom line is there is more than one way to skin a cat (lol?) and people get great results using all of the above methods. Just the more you handle it, the more careful you have to be.