How to Germinate Cannabis seeds
With Spring and Summer right around the corner you’re probably starting to plan your outdoor grow. There’s nothing quite like outdoor growing. It presents its own set of unique challenges mainly related to the fact you can’t control the environment. However, if you’re up to the challenge and want to gain the experience, you will be rewarded with large yields and ample space to harvest more plants than you could have ever imagined.
With all that said, the one thing you can control is the germination process. Of course, you can sow seeds directly into your medium and they will germinate but why would you want to do that when you can ensure higher success rates by starting indoors. Depending on where you live, you’ll want to have some seedlings ready to go for late April or early May. To get started, you will need some high quality seeds and we suggest you check out our blog post on where you can find them.
Beginning the Germination Process
Once you have your seeds, you’ll want to begin the germination process. Let me preface this by saying you should have your spot already picked out and have a plan in place for growing medium and nutrients. That’s a whole other blog post in itself so we won’t dig deeper on that right now (pun intended). Ok, so most folks will put the seeds on a warm, moist paper towel and cover it up and hope for the best. You can do that, and it works but if you’re going to be spending cash on high quality seeds and you’re in it for the long haul think about getting a heat mat and some seedling trays. And if you’re planning a large outdoor grow in a higher latitude think about getting some peat pots as well. They save a lot of time and improve soil composition.
Taproots
So, once you get those seeds into a dark, moist, warm place, in about 12-24 hours you should start seeing taproots.
Taproots are little white roots and will be the main root from which the plant will grow. They’re very fragile so be extra gentle. We recommend using tweezers to move them and by no means ever touch the taproot. Once the taproot is 1-2 cm long it’s ready to go in media. Using tweezers, make sure you grab the seed and place the tap root down in whatever you’re putting it into whether it’s rockwool, starter cubes or soil. If you want to watch a bunch of grower’s fight, ask them if taproots should go up or down. Common sense insists they go down, but everyone has their own methods and they often do work. Check out this hilarious forum post from 420 Magazine to see what we mean.
The seed should be placed just below the surface of the media with the taproot DOWN and make sure it’s approximately “knuckle deep”. Once you have your seeds in the media you should keep an LED light on them at a spectrum and timing consistent with your location’s Springtime averages. Temperature should be consistent with Spring average as well but going slightly above 10-20 degrees can only help. In about 2-6 days you should notice some seedlings sticking through your grow medium. Remember to be patient and good things will happen.
So, we hope this post helps you get started with your 2020 outdoor grow.
We’d love to hear your feedback in the comments or drop us a line support@growsupplyshop.com.
