This will be a lengthy post so don’t feel compelled to read the whole thing if you don’t find it useful.
This post is primarily intended for any newer growers (or anyone else struggling to get seeds started). The photo is of my little seedlings exactly one week since I put the seeds to soak and one day since emerging from the soil. You will note how puny they are at this point. These tiny seedlings will each produce about a pound of dried and cured buds in about four months time. Patience and attention to detail (temperature, rH, nutes) are your friends from start to finish, just don’t mess with them too much.
The first week or two seem to be the most difficult for newer growers as things appear to happen very slowly leading folks to mess with their seeds and/or seedlings too much causing many problems up to and including death of the seedlings.
My process works well for me but many others have very successful processes that differ from what I do. Below is a description of my germination and seedling process which has not failed me.
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Soak seeds in water for 24 hours (sometimes I add a couple of drops of hydrogen peroxide)
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Place seeds in a zip-loc bag between a moist, folded paper towel checking daily for seed tails. This usually takes a couple of days. Temperature: 75 F. Any seeds that have not cracked in five days get replaced and we go back to step 1 for the replacement seeds.
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When the seeds have cracked (germinated and little tail showing) they are planted about 1/2" deep in clear solo cups filled with moist seedling/starter soil. The clear solo cups have drainage holes and are placed in red solo cups (also with drainage holes) to keep light from hitting the roots when they form. An inverted clear solo cup placed over each seed functions as a humidity dome. Many folks keep the newly planted seeds in the dark but I start lighting (6/2 schedule) from the start with an intensity of about 300 ppfd under the domes. Temperature: 77 - 80 F
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The next milestone takes place when the seedlings emerge from the soil. This usually takes two or three days but has taken as long as a week. Longer than that the slow seeds are replaced (the process starts over for the replacement seeds). I keep the new seedlings under the domes, to keep relative humidity up, for about one week. Temperature: 77 - 80 F
When I remove the humidity domes the light intensity is about 450 ppfd and I keep it there until the first transplant (one gallon pots) when I start ramping the light intensity up to 800+ ppfd for the vegetative growth period.
Be patient during this first two weeks and resist the urge to mess with them too much. What LITTLE water they get after going into the solo cups is applied VERY sparingly in a ring around the outside edge of each solo cup. Too much water, especially near to the seedling’s stalk, may result in “damping off” and death of the affected seedling.
I must repeat myself now…This process is the one that works well for me but many, many others use different processes that are equally effective. You may need to do some research (read posts on this forum) and experiment to find what works best for you.