Our Germination Method

There are many ways to succeed at 100% germination but this is our method.. The Water Surface Float Method

  1. Find a good space that has relatively clean air. We use a mini greenhouse (which is just a steel rack that is covered with clear pvc drapes) in a closet or pantry area that doesnt have a ton of air movement to avoid bacteria from the air falling onto surface of the water.

  2. Setup a seedling heat mat with a folded towel on top of it. This dampens the heat and distributes it evenly over your mat. We are shooting for 75-77 degrees F. Any hotter and we are risking promoting faster bacterial growth, and colder and we are risking not activating the seed with heat. They are activated with heat and water to initiate rooting. You can use a laser thermometer over a 24 hour day/night cycle to audition and confirm your conditions will remain relatively steady in the space you have chosen.

  3. For each 10 seed group use the 3oz shot glass size 80-90% filled with clean water and a few drops of UC roots to inhibit bacterial growth. Wash your hands before filling these cups and dont breathe all over the surface of the water or the cup. Dont hold your breath either just be mindful to be as clean as possible. Label your cup with a sharpie. Use a 3 oz cup fpr each 10 seed group. We find this is the optimal volume of water for each 10 seed group. For 100+ seed groups we like a pyrex dish which is shown in the image above.. 400 seeds 100% germination.

  4. This step is optional but we like to do this as due diligence when sprouting many high value seeds. Test your space and method with some freebies or bagseed and ensure you are achieving effective results. If you dont have bagseed or freebies, you can toss in one seed before going all in. We do this because our space has normal fluctuations depending on the temperature that season, cleanliness and sometimes unseen variables. Its a nice safeguard to ensure success, and we do it every time even though weve been sprouting seeds for almost 20 years.

  5. So now you have your cup or cups filled 80-90% with water and a few drops of UC roots, you tested your space and achieved success. You are now ready and confident to go all in with the seed group(s) you want to open. Wash your hands and take the seeds and place them one by one on the surface of the water with a scissor type tweezer or any gentle instrument to move the seeds delicately without squeezing them hard. You want them to stay afloat on the surface of the water until they are ready so they soak and still can breathe air. Close up the space, and check on them every 12 hours. You will start to see the root apical meristem (the sprouted root) as early as 24-36 hours on most seeds. Now during this period dont screw with them or shake the cups or breathe all over the surface of the water, just pop in and out with a flashlight and monitor their elongation. If they sink to the bottom of the cup use your clean instrument to grab them, let the water roll off the seed and place it gently back on the surface of the water. If it keeps sinking try placing it on a paper towel to wick the water off and place it back on the surface of the water. We plant the sprouts when the root is around 1 centimeter - 1 inch. So its taken up enough water to hold its own, started getting vigorous, and not so long to where its more complicated to place the delicate root into a hole in the soil.

  6. Plant directly into an organic soil under LED or t5 lights. Moisten the soil until its totally saturated. Now you will need a scissor type tweezer or some other instrument to make holes in the center of each pot wide enough to gently transfer the seed in without damaging the root. Leave the seed side half visible along the suface of the soil, meaning root down totally covered, with half the seed head inside the soil and half the seed head above to check on them as they come up. Directly after you place the seed here, have a liquid syringe full of water ready and wet down the planting hole and surface of the pot so it hugs the root and cements the sprout in place. Water the sprouts every 12 hours gently with this syringe so you dont disturb its placement and keep that turgor pressure up. Check them often (especially in the first 12 hours) and make sure the medium is moist; sometimes heat or your space being dry will cause the pots to dry out fast. Do this until they shed their shells, open up their leaves and you start to see that the leaves are growing. The idea is not to trample the young plant with a watering hose so it grows nice and straight. Once they are hardened enough you can run the hose on low flow until the roots are strong enough for high flow. Congratulations!