This is my first grow and I have read of differing ways to germinate seeds. One of them is just placing it in soil with lights and making sure it stays moist, is this a feasible way? I am nervous about the other methods of using paper towel and soaking them in water until you see the taproot as I am afraid I will eff it up…does simply placing a seed in soil work?
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Welcome. There’s no reason why that method wouldn’t work. I mean mother nature has been doing her thing for quite some time now. As a first time grower this year I stuck to the basics. Soaked them in a shot glass for 24 hrs. Room temperature water. Then straight into some seed starter soil, quarter inch deep. solo cups with at least half a dozen holes. Keep moist, do not over water Had 100% germ rate.
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Soak them first, got it! Thanks
4 seeds in 6.5 pH’d water for 24 hours. All 4 had tap roots. Into Fox Farms Happy Frog soil and kept moist and warm.
What seeds are you using?
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I always use the paper towel method and have had %100 success with it.
You can certainly go right to soil and keep moist but be sure not to get it too wet they only need to be moist. Planting them directly into soil will take longer for them to sprout also so you will need to be patient.
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I use this method… 100% success!
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If you follow the directions from ilgm you will have no issues there are many ways that work it’s just what your most comfortable with but for your first shot glass of tap water will do it 
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I’m with @Hogmaster on this one if following Iglm guide lines for germination you’ll be fine
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Agree with @Countryboyjvd1971 and @Hogmaster and can’t go wrong. I like the paper towel method have had 100% germination
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Yes sir that is the germination guide @dmykins
Do that and you should be fine just follow 
You can try othet methods when you get more comfortable my friend
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You should pick one up if you can a cfl that or a t-5 florescence I’ve done it with my LEDs but it’s a pain for me you might have better luck I do a 14 on 10 off light schedule after they’ve broke the dirt I’ll do 24 hours until they get out of the dirt
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@Hogmaster I’ll look into a cfl, why does the type of light make a difference? This is the LED I have
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00RWQ4B50/ref=mp_s_a_1_14?tag=greenrel-20
The intensity of the light you should be perfectly fine using that I would just turn it on until your seeds germinate out of the soil after a day to being out of the soil I would put it on a timer and do 18 on 6 off but I personally prefer 14 on 10 off and it definitely save you on your light bill some
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Wonderful. I appreciate all of your help. This site is awesome.
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@dmykins, Yes that’s how I start my grows…first soak the seeds in a glass of water (just a bit of water) until I see that white taproot…then I know for sure the seeds are good and I then put them into the soil…not far down at all…more or less just on top of the soil and covered ever so lightly. Now this method for me has saved me waiting for seedlings to grow as I just soaked 2 seeds which did not come to fruition so if I had planted them I would have waited forever for plants to come up from the soil!
Trying the paper towel method now had two inside a brown paper bag and just put 3 in a wet paper towel in between two plates seeing how it goes with random bag seeds
I dropped 4 WWA’s in 6.5 pH’d water. Kept the water at about 80 degrees. They all popped in 1 day. Into FFHF soil and off we went.