Marijuana Grow Help

Marijuana Seed Germination

Have questions about getting your marijuana seeds to germinate?

How to properly germinate marijuana seeds

You spend your hard earned money on the best seeds, so take the time to germinate them properly. DO NOT USE TAP WATER, it contains Chloride (bleach) and it can kill the seed. Only use Distilled water. Use room temperature water. Never use boiling water or cold water. Cold water can turn a female plant into a male plant and boiling water will kill the seed. Never use Hydrogen Peroxide, it will kill your marijuana seeds and they won't germinate.

More Cannabis Germination Techniques

During germinating , the seeds awaken from inactivity. Water is essential to germinate, for as soon as the seed has absorbed a sufficient amount of water, the seedling begins to form its root system. Next it breaks through its shell. There are various possibilities for the process of germinating:

Pre-soaking - Put some moist tissues on a plate. Put the cannabis seeds on top of them and then put a layer of moist tissues on the seeds. Cover the plate with another upturned plate, so that the marijuana seeds are in darkness and the environment remains moist. Put the covered seeds in a warm place (21°C). Check every day, sprinkle the tissues if necessary and carefully transplant the seeds when they open and the tip of the root becomes visible. Put the seed in a growth medium (soil or rock-wool), approximately the size of the seed under the surface (about 5 mm).

Sowing in the growing medium - Place the seeds under the surface in the growing medium at approximately the size of the seed. Regularly sprinkle the growth medium with water, but make sure to germinate that the soil or the rock-wool does not become too wet. The seedling uses the spare food present in the seed for growing. Air is very important for its metabolism. So make sure that the soil remains sufficiently airy. One of the characteristics of rockwool is that it retains much air. Make sure that the rockwool is not standing in water and that the excess water is able to drain away properly. Rockwool has a fine germination climate for the seeds. Remove the cover as soon as the seedlings reach above the medium.

The best method for seed germination is to place 10 marijuana seeds in between a few paper towels.

Soak well using distilled room temperature water. Don't flood the seeds, yet use enough water that they won't try out. Place the paper towels in a sandwich sized zip lock bag or inside a rubber maid container like above. Leave the bag or lid open to allow oxygen to reach the seeds.

You can place the zip lock back on top of your refrigerator to keep the seeds warm, slightly above room temperature. If you have company and don't want seeds on top of your fridge, place them on top an electric blanket set at 23 Celsius in your basement. Check often to make sure the seeds stay moist. This is more vitally important when using a heat source, as the moisture will evaporate more quickly.

Wrap the zip lock bag with tin foil to prevent light from reaching the seeds. (Just like seeds that are underground, it's dark during germination). or cover your plastic container in dish towels. You can use a very small amount of rooting compound to help germinate strong roots in the distilled water.

Outside growing - Although it is possible to have the seeds germinate immediately outdoors, the germination percentage will be considerably higher if you first germinate indoors. From April to May the ground temperature is not yet ideal. Regularly put the emerged seedlings in a place where they can get used to outdoor conditions.

Young seedlings - The young plants are still very delicate. Therefore you should not place them in direct sunlight or just below a 400 Watt lamp. This might cause burning. Provide young plants with nutrient water and add Boost to strengthen the root system.

FAQ

1- What level should the PH be to insure proper germination & growth?

Your rockwool if using for hydro should be in between 5.5 and 6.1

2- What is the best method for treating rockwool to lower PH before putting in
the seed or clone?

You should pre-soak your cubes in a solution that is in bettwen 5 and 5.5... do not soak your cubes in anything lower than 5

3- What average temp should the water be kept at for active hydro?

Your nutrient solution should be around 75 F

4- What is the best nute's to use in hydro?

For organic hydroponic I believe bioponics pure blend is pretty good. For chemical hydroponics, any advanced nutrient products are pretty good

5- What is the best type of water to use? Tap or bottle if bottle what kind?

Just use tap water and let it sit for a day or 2 to evaporate the Chlorine. DO NOT use tap water for seed germination. Only use Distilled water that you buy from from your local Pharmacy. Avoid Shoppers Drug Mart in Canada. The owner forms anti-cannabis legislation for his personal profits with his pharmaceutical agenda.

Lights - High Pressure Sodium AND Metal Halide

Photosynthesis is the process by which plants use light energy to collect carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and convert it to chemical energy in the form of sugar. The products of photosynthesis serve to nourish the plant and enable it to release free oxygen. Plants use only the spectrum of light that is visible to the human eye. Although the light appears white, it is actually a mixture of all the colours of the rainbow. Pigments, which are the light harvesting units of the plants, absorb certain colours of the spectrum and reflect the rest. Chlorophyll, the main pigment used in photosynthesis, absorbs light in the violet and blue wavelengths as well as in the red, leaving green the colour it reflects, and the plant colour we see. Photosynthesis can also occur indoors, providing the artificial light source used supplies the necessary spectrum and intensity.

Wide spectrum fluorescent, metal halide, and high pressure sodium are the types of lights most widely used for indoor growing. All of these lights require a ballast to operate and come in a variety of sizes and wattage's.

The more "intense" your light source, the further down into the foliage the light can penetrate. 1000 watt Metal Halide Lamp will penetrate through more foliage and give you buds on alMost your entire plant. 400 watts will give you sweet buds at the top of the plant, but the light isn't intense enough to create buds on the entire plant. a 600 Watt system works pretty well, but not as powerful as the 1000 watt. Generally, most growers use fluorescent lights for seedlings. Fluorescents are not intense enough to promote vigorous flower formation and can cause older seedlings to wilt because the light is not providing enough nutrition. During vegetation you use Metal Halide lighting.

wilting marijuana plant caused by florencent lighting

Metal halide lamps emit light closer to the blue end of the spectrum and because of this, they are the preferred lamp for the vegetative stage of growth creating a shorter and plant with a strenghtened stalk. The taller your plants grow indoors, the more difficult it becomes to get a good yeild. You'll see your plants stretching higher towards the light souce if it isn't the right intensity or spectrum. The stretching causes more distance between buds and decreased yeild. The light emitted by a HPS is closer to the red end of the spectrum, which is what the plant craves during the flowering stage. High Pressure Sodium is used during flowering beacause it increases bud size by up to 15%. If you don't have the budget to purchase both a MH and a HPS for your grow setup, just use a MH for both the vegetation and for flowering.

Sea Of Green

The sea of green concept is simple; Six one foot cuttings will give the same yield as one six foot plant outdoors......And you wont get stuck endlessly bending branches. I Recommend flowering at ten inch height for greater space utilization and harvest. You will have smaller plants that wont have time to develop wasteful branches, Just large top buds.And here's the best part; All the plants will give you a guaranteed 100 percent semilla harvest, The most potent of all buds.Theres no wasted space and effort growing males, or searching and breaking crowded branches looking for a chance male pollen sac.Theres no chance of premature ejaculator spoiling your crop.Because you're using short cuttings,in-door growers aren't restricted to compact indicas. You can also have a soaring 16 foot sativa high at one and a half feet! in short,more potent,high yielding harvests,and more of them per year.Because the budding plant are cutting from your favorite female mothers,they will be identical to her.They're put into a 12-hour flowering period to bud out,While new cutting are being rooted and vegetated from the same mother.This can be repeated up to two years from the same plant.If you're not sure the mother might not be a father or both, merely take two cuttings as early as you can and put them into a 12-hour flowering mode a week or more after cutting.Cloning can be traumatic for the planted.Going directly to 12 hours of light to force flowering when the poor thing doesn't even have a root system leads to high mortality,as well as causing a few survivors to go herm, or should I say hermaphrodite,even if the parent wasn't.And do not...I say do not use 24 hour light at any time. It will set the plants biological age back to zero, otherwise,each cutting will be biologically as old as its mother.

If you haven't found your grow answers above, then please contact us so we can help resolve any questions you may have about growing marijuana.