Planting seeds the right way in soil...

[DoobyDude]

I've been trying to find out the right way to plant seeds in soil to germinate them (not using paper towels etc) and everything I have read on here says that if you do use the paper towel method, then you plant the seeds tap root down in the soil.

However I found a link that says when you plant seeds in soil (not germed) you plant them pointy end up, so the tap root grows up and bends back round on itself.

Link is here (http://www.amsterdammarijuanaseeds.info/how-to-position-sow-cannabis-seeds-in-soil.html) with diagrams etc to explain.

Can anyone shed any light on the differing information, I'm a noob doing my first grow! :)

PS. What humidity should it be when your germing seeds in soil, my growDrobe is currently at around 30-33%, am I right in thinking it should be around 50% for the duration of the grow? (Autos)

Thanks.

[Grub]

Not sure why they say that in the link mate, i've always planted root-tip down as i'm sure most of the guys on here do. :)

[bud_alzir]

hi doobydude yes i always plant pointy end down but by nature/gravity will put the majority of seeds the opposite as that is the heavier part of the seed so yes most will do a u turn so to speak.all the best:)

[DoobyDude]

I guess it's the same with any subject, but cos I'm a 1st time grower and don't wanna mess it up right at the start, just as I get close enough to saying "OK I'm confident I'm doing it right", something else pops up and I'm back to square one LOL!

I have just popped one seed into some water, gonna try that with paper towels, but the other 2 I want to germ in the soil.
Maybe I will do one each way and see what happens...the more I read, the more confusing it gets! :)

[Grub]

I guess it's the same with any subject, but cos I'm a 1st time grower and don't wanna mess it up right at the start, just as I get close enough to saying "OK I'm confident I'm doing it right", something else pops up and I'm back to square one LOL!

I have just popped one seed into some water, gonna try that with paper towels, but the other 2 I want to germ in the soil.
Maybe I will do one each way and see what happens...the more I read, the more confusing it gets! :)

Yes mate, there's a lot of confusing, contradicting info out there.... Remember, Cannabis is a weed and like most weeds is difficult to kill. Do things as simply as you can and you will have good results. Over complicating things just causes problems.
You don't have to pre-germinate the seeds out of soil, if you feel happier just moisten a pot of soil, put a 1-2cm hole in the middle and drop your seed in. In a weeks time you will have seedlings. :)

[DoobyDude]

Cheers grub, your right mate lot of contradicting info, it's all about opinions as well I guess.
Just poppin em in soil was the oroginal plan til I read that link in the OP.

I've already popped one in water and will toilet paper that later on the boiler. The other 2 I havn't decided yet cos of OP, though I have my pots ready to go and just misted them down so they are nice and moist.

Should I try and get my humidity up to 50% before I plant the seeds, or is 30-33% alright?
Temps are 28-29c, both readings with lights / fans on.

[Grub]

Plant the seeds in the moist soil.... cover the pot with some cling film or a clear plastic cup of some sort, then sit back and relax. check it every few days and when you see the green of the seedling remove the cup/film.

[DoobyDude]

Ah clingfilm, good call!
They are going straight into the pots they will finish in so I'll pop 2 into the soil and try the other with the paper towel method.

Back to the reason for posting lol!
Do you think should I plant then pointy side down, pointy side up, or it doesn't matter?

[Grub]

Ah clingfilm, good call!
They are going straight into the pots they will finish in so I'll pop 2 into the soil and try the other with the paper towel method.

Back to the reason for posting lol!
Do you think should I plant then pointy side down, pointy side up, or it doesn't matter?

If you germinate them first, plant them with the tap root down,,. If not, just plonk em in the soil, they will sort themselves out. :)

[Anabolic]

Just plant them lol

It will grow whatever way you put it in there aslong as the seeds ok

Good luck with your grow :)

[DoobyDude]

Awesome thanks guys for the peace of mind.....it's just so nerve racking lol!
They shall be planted later and my diary updated with any info!

Thanks again!

[bud_alzir]

hi doobydude make sure you water the soil without the seeds first then plant them as the water can take them too deep so to speak as long as the seeds covered it's fine and put cling film over like a drum skin then secure with elastic band round pot then a few pin holes in top and somwere warm 3/5 days later you should have plants.all the best:)

[DoobyDude]

Yes bud, the soil is already watered / misted and I've run my fingers through so it doesn't get too compacted.
Just finished my tea so gonna go wash my hands and then get those babies planted, and the other one on top of the boiler in toilet roll, exciting stuff lol!

Out of interest, does germing in soil take longer than doing it the paper towel way, shorter, or are they pretty similar?

[an-sic]

look what happens, when you plant seed, with the pointed end downwards!

https://www.thctalk.com/cannabis-forum/showthread.php?41644-got-lost...-upside-down!

Just germed few seeds :D

[DoobyDude]

LOL! Here we go again :)

OK, so I need to plant them with the pointy end upwards as per the info on the link in my OP....hmmmm.
One of them doesn't have an obvious pointy end.....ARGGHHH!!! hahahah!

[DoobyDude]

OK, little update...

I decided not to plant my seeds in soil after so much conflicting info about which way, taking lnger to germ and a higher risk of not germing at all.
I ended up soaking one for 24hrs, and the other 2 for 4-5hrs before they all sunk, then I put em in between moist tissue into a tupperware box on top of the boiler.

This morning when I had a look at them this is what I saw...

43711

Wahoo! My babies are alive :)

I'm gonna plant the 2 with the longest tails in a few minutes, but the smaller one on the left I am gonna leave in the tub til this evening to see if it grows a little more.
Maybe it's long enough already...what do you think?

Overall I'm well chuffed it's worked, can't beleive how nervous I was lol.

Thanks for the help so far guys, my green ball is officially rolling! :barmy:

[DoobyDude]

Jeez, the edit post rule is harsh on this forum!

Anyway, decided to plant all 3 of em, now have them under my light, temp is 21c / RH is 61% but once lights are on for a while I reckon it'll settle to about 28c / 50% RH.
As before thanks for the help given this far, and I'll update my grow diary (in my sig) from here on out.

Cheers.

[bud_alzir]

hi doobydude glad to hear that ^ and looking forward to your updates.all the best:)

[Bubbla]

DoobyDude

Planting the seed upside down is indeed a technique some people use. There is a school of thought that say a seed planted upside down will germinate quicker. I'm not sure how true that is but planting it that way does indeed help the seed to push through the soil, as the tap root goes up slightly & then down. Most people here probably don'tr know about it but a lot of old growers do it that way

[GreenThumbRob]

"Marijuana seeds should be placed with the POINTED END UP into a prepared cannabis seeds germination bed or just good soil at a depth of 1/2 to 3/4 inch. The embryo tap root emerges from the pointed (stylar) end and the natural method of growth is for this root to make a turn and grow downward (see the illustration) This bend formed by the downward curve of the taproot is what emerges from the soil and the friction of dragging the cannabis seeds upward helps the new plant to loosen and cast off the seed case when it breaks through the surface. If the cannabis seeds are placed with the pointed end down, the embryo will be required to expend a great deal of its stored energy for twisting and turning to position the tap root when it realizes that it is heading the wrong way (see illustration of germinating marijuana seeds) The seedling will need this energy to exert the forces required to later lift its head (now enclosed by the two halves of the seed case) above the soil, cast off the seed case and then spread its two embryo leaves and begin the life-giving photosynthetic process. This is a critical stage in growth and carelessness in placing the marijuana seeds will exhaust even the most hearty seedling and result in a slow start and a feeble plant in later life. Cannabis seeds should be placed in a small hole at a depth of 1/2 to 3/4 inch. An excellent medium for germination is a mixture of rich humus and fine sand, such as the type used for aquariums. The soil needs a ph of 7.5 to 8.0 and should not be so moist that it sticks to your fingers. If the medium is too moist, the seeds will rot and ferment before they can sprout. A simple test for moisture is to stick a pencil into the soil and if soil adheres to it when removed, then it is too moist. Sort of like when you test a cake by sticking a straw into it to see if it is baked through to the middle. The ideal is not too moist, and not too dry - and be sure that the soil is well-drained. Research has shown that a soil temperature that is at, or slightly above, the air temperature promotes the best survival rates and growth," (Amsterdam Marijuana Seeds, 2011).

[DoobyDude]

All you have done is copy and paste the text from the link in my OP...it's this text that I was questioning - I already know what it says!

Anyway, I planted taproot down and all went well with the sprouting stage.

[teutonic]

hmmmf all i've ever done is pop them in the soil after a 24hr soak in a shot glass. Now I know why one planted direct in the centre of the pot popped out 2 inches from the centre a coupla days later !

[Neph]

I think it makes some what a bit of since actually. From every seed I've seen germ the tap root seems to curl back down the seed. If this is the natural way the root wants to go then it would have to exert itself more as it flipped again to start going down. Where as if it didn't that energy would go to popping up and actually sprouting.

I don't think it matters a ton though to be honest.

[Hillbilly]

I always planted my seeds on it's side, thinking about it I can see how planing it pointed end up could help get the cover off.

[Stanky Dank]

look what happens, when you plant seed, with the pointed end downwards!

https://www.thctalk.com/cannabis-forum/showthread.php?41644-got-lost...-upside-down!

Just germed few seeds :D

dude thats because u didnt put enough topsoil on it. NOT because it was pointed in one direction or another.

[GreenThumbRob]

All you have done is copy and paste the text from the link in my OP...it's this text that I was questioning - I already know what it says!

Anyway, I planted taproot down and all went well with the sprouting stage.

Dude, you could get 100 different answers for questions like this from 100 different people. My best advice is for you to try it out and see what works best for you. Glad to see it worked out for ya. Any type of seed I plant, usually always goes into soil tip up and I have been able to note that majority of the time the sprouts pop much more quickly than if they had been placed downward. Practice different techniques with cheaper seeds and see what works best for you. Push comes to shove the only person we can point fingers at and blame when things don't go as planned is ourselves. Good luck with your grow!

[midwestmachine]

If you think about how a seeds would land if being dropped thats how it should be,the pointy end is lighter so that end would stay up as the heavy end would hit the ground.When you Germ check out how the root comes out of the pointy end and curls down towards the other end.This way the root goes down and then pushes the seed up once established.What I do is if the seeds are only a lil germed i put the pointy end up so it can naturally curl and push.If the seeds are really germed and have a large tail and are past the curl stage i plant the root down in the soil and it pushes the seed case up and off.You can just toss em in there and they'll correct automatically.The idea is to put less stress on the plant to break the soil surface easier.Thats the logic but I was just thinking maybe the more stress might make them stronger but IDK

[medMUser]

Not trying to argue, but seeds should ideally ALWAYS be 'pointed end up'. Take a look at the picture on the right. I have been growing for over 10 years. Not that I know it all, not even close. But seed positioning I DO know about after wondering over the years why a significant % of sprouts didn't come up. 2 top pics & the 2 bottom pics of your link are self explanatory. Big end up, root has to do a correction, as per the bottom 2 pics. You can get by putting the seed any way you want, but not recommended.

But for the best shot at success, it's always 'pointed end up'. The root in the bottom pic of your link has to do a correction because the seed is upside down. So then the root has to use energy & time to get correctly oriented. And on occasion, the seed won't come up at all.

Like I said, you can get away with placing the seed any way you want, sideways is 2nd best, but the seed has it's own way of doing things. It's part of cannabis' nature. I have dug up a few 'upside down' beans & got some of them to recover. But time & plant energy is always lost.

When a pot seed cracks the tip always goes straight up the direction the point is in, but only for a very short distance. After that it turns down toward the fat end & thinks it's headed to deeper earth. If 'pointed end up', it does head for deeper soil. If fat end up, it has to reroute as the bottom 2 pics in yer link show.

Any one who disagrees, I don't mind. Do it how ya want. I'm easy. But what the link says, I learned before I got on da net. Da hard way! :rock:

Edit to add: It wasn't the amount of soil on your seed. The seed was upside down.

medMUser

PS: Mods, I don't have any links in my post. Only icons & italics. And I removed them.
Thanks.



I've been trying to find out the right way to plant seeds in soil to germinate them (not using paper towels etc) and everything I have read on here says that if you do use the paper towel method, then you plant the seeds tap root down in the soil.

However I found a link that says when you plant seeds in soil (not germed) you plant them pointy end up, so the tap root grows up and bends back round on itself.

[Ah, there's that sneaky link. It was in the quote...gone now. :spliffter: ]

Can anyone shed any light on the differing information, I'm a noob doing my first grow! :)

Thanks.

[the jakal]

i think the OP will know how to do it by now, he asked this in 2011

[2generations]

hi doobydude make sure you water the soil without the seeds first then plant them as the water can take them too deep so to speak as long as the seeds covered it's fine and put cling film over like a drum skin then secure with elastic band round pot then a few pin holes in top and somwere warm 3/5 days later you should have plants.all the best:)

Newbie here: this is interesting and useful. Thanks. I started White Diesel off 2 days ago - 24 hours in water; then transferred to paper towel, but was having problems with it almost drying out overnight. Have now put a dense sponge, loaded with distilled water on top of towel to try to solve that. I have them on a window sill. Is that right? Do they need light? Or could it be that it isn't warm enough? I think, but am not sure, that they are just about to crack. Thanks for any advice.