Seed won't germinate

Being that I’ve not had good luck this go around I’m getting nervous and probably overthinking and screwing up. On my 4th SD photo seed now with not a single one alive.

Germination method: soak in water till tap root, drop in soil. First seed after a few days no sprout I dug around and found the seed with tap root just as I planted it no growth. Second seed same thing. Third time is a charm we got a sprout…but wait. Only one cotyledon? Yeah it didn’t survive 2days. Just dropped my 4th seed in water today. I did not have this problem with my autos…am I doing something wrong?

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Doesn’t sound like it.

Only thing I do differently, is soaking in a paper towel to verify sprouting before placing in soil.
Make sure the soil isn’t too wet.

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This time I am also going to put in paper towel after the 24hr water soak. I wet the 2inch pots the day before I put the seeds in the soil and usually just mist the tops of the soil once or twice a day. Under two a19 100watt bulbs is that too much?

I am by no means an expert of any kind, I am as noob as you. However, I have found this technique to be more promising.

-soak in water in dark warm place for 18 hours.
-place the seeds onto a damp paper towel, fold towel over seeds. Drain plate/bowl of excess water.
Check every 4 or so hrs and re dampen if necessary. Dont let it dry out but dont soak it either.
After about 24-36 hours you should have a nice tap root.

Also, do not open the paper towel until atleast 24 hours to check. I usually just wait 30 hours and havent been let down yet on the first look.

Then place into your grow media.

Hope this helps

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I will be adding the paper towel in to my method this time as @Covertgrower mentioned as well. Just wondering about the lights too. I have a 75watt blurple bar light I could use but my thoughts was the led bulbs would be better

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You should have better results with the papertowel step added. As for lights, i know next to nothing about. Im using a 18 watt cfl for now while they are seedlings. It seems to be working.

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@dbrn32 you got a second to look at this thread and tell me the best option of lights as far as what I have? I could get another fixture for this stage if needed but I’m not trying to spend anything more at the moment

I’ve germinated 24 seeds doing it like you mentioned. 24 hour soak. Put in potting mix. I’d focus on your medium, water amount, environment…something else at play your method was solid. Could just be bad seeds? 23 out of 24 lived.

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Going in to Foxfarm ocean forest just as all my other seedlings. Which has been two bagseed and 4 white widow autos from ilgm

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That’s a highly talked about medium. I have only used some cheap stuff from Walmart so I can’t comment beyond that. I like to pour a bit of water in my soil then get in there real good with my hands. Make sure it’s all nice and moist/even and not too wet. Has worked like a charm.

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I do same thing but don’t wait for the tap root to sprout in the water, I put in glass of water over night until it’s sunk, if it hasn’t sunk I nudge it so it does, and once it’s at the bottom I leave it for 4-6 hours then transfer to the wet paper towel until the tap root has sprouted then plant it half inch in the soil and cover it very lightly with dusty soil

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How about the one I dropped earlier sunk to bottom as soon as it hit the water

I always wet it thoroughly the day before planting. Then just mist the top once or twice a day

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Your idea of thoroughly could be my idea of soaked. Hard to describe these things online with subjectivity involved. My take away from my early reading is less is more with the water…but being you said your autos were successful maybe your doing everything right and these are seeds were/are just bunk.

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Definitely agree there could be different perspectives

A19 bulbs should be fine for short term use. But seeds will germinate and sprout without any light at all, so even if they wouldn’t, that’s not your problem.

Are you handling seeds with your fingers? You should use sterile tweezers or similar. I also use paper towel method, but water should work. And make sure you’re not over watering them.

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Ok I figured the light wasn’t the problem…I use a spoon or tweezers to remove them from water and put in soil. I’ve really been cautious about watering may be letting them get too dry was my next thought. Will try to add the paper towel in the mix this time around. Thanks for the guidance

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