Tag Archives: germinating

Planting Cannabis Seeds. Germination Part 3 

Planting Cannabis Seeds
Germination- Part 3

Now that the seeds have had time to germinate further, it’s time to plant them in soil. This is just the next step to getting your seedlings the start they need to thrive in your garden. For this part, the supplies you will need are as follows:

  • Germinated Seeds
  • Soil (nice and loose, with lots of perlite)
  • Sharpie Marker
  • Small Pots or Trays
  • Masking Tape
  • Trays
  • Humidity Domes
  • Spray Bottle with Clean Water
  • Mycorrhizae Powder
  • Worm Castings

I like to get everything ready and in front of me, it makes things go much more smoothly.

Organization is key to not mislabeling the seedlings. It’s important you respect people’s genetics. It’s not something to throw around lightly. So proper labelling to be sure the proper strains are in their spot is so crucial.

I set out all my pots in the trays, or you can use seedling trays if you’d like as well. I find the small round or square pots are best to tape labels onto. Once your pots are set up, take your tape and put a piece on each pot for labelling.


Once you pots are ready, fill them about a quarter way up with soil. I like to stay deep in the pot to start, this way if any of the seedling are not that strong, you have room to add a bit of soil to help with support of the weaker stems while they are maturing,

Once your soil is in your pots, use the butt end of your sharpie(clean it first), or anything will work for this just to poke little holes in the center of the pot, where you will be planting the seedling.


Do this in every pot so you have it done. Go about half to three quarters of an inch down.


Once your holes are poked into the soil, you will take your spray bottle and give the little holes a spray so they are nice and damp with moisture. Carefully remove your seedlings, many use tweasers to pick up and handle the seedling so as they don’t come in contact with dirty hands.(always wash your f&@$&g hands!!!!, I should not have to mention this but I will).

Still, try not to touch the seedling too much.

Again, I do one strain at a time, as to not mix up any strains, which i have done before, so this is why I say this. You will do one strain at a time. Take the number of seeds, label the same number of pots with the appropriate names.

Take the seedlings and plant them in their individual slots. Cover them with just a little dirt. Enough to make sure they are covered but that is enough.

At this point I take my worm castings and sprinkle a little over the spot the seeds are planted, maybe a tablespoon. I sprinkle mycorrhizae powder on the castings and then use a spray bottle to water the pot directly in the center where the seed is planted. This brings the mycorrhizae, as well as a bit of casting down into the seedling that it will for sure appreciate.

Once the seedlings are planted, inoculated, and watered I like them to retain the moisture in the soil as long as possible. Being in such small pots, they don’t take long to dry out with the proper air flow in your garden. For this I prefer to use humidity domes. I open the little vents just a little to let fresh air in. But other than that they remain closed unless watering, and until the seedlings have come up, and have a decent start. At first you will water 2-3 times a day, just a little squirt on the seedling as it comes up.


Depending on the strain, and the conditions, the strains usually surface at different times. Some are faster than others and some may seem like they may never surface. Don’t give up right away, just keep it moist and keep diligent, and in most cases eventually the seed will come up.


I hope I increased your chances of success with these tips. As I always say, I’m not claiming this to be the best or only method, it’s just my preferred method from years of practice, research as well as trial and error in organics.

Please keep watch for more upcoming articles, I hope to keep up and have them out regularly. I hope you enjoyed, and that you are back to read the future articles.

Best regards and happy gardening!!!!

 

Saalome

Germinating Cannabis Seeds


Germinating Cannabis Seeds- Part One

With Saalome Dojah

 

In this article, I will be sharing my methods of germination. This seems to be pretty straight forward, but I have seen many have issues with this process. Being the first stage in your cannabis medical garden, it’s crucial that it is done properly, as this will set the scene for your plants journey.

This is by no means the only way, and to some it may not be the best way. For me, I have found this method to work better and more consistently than any other way.

It’s important to keep your equipment, pots, and such clean. I like to be clean, but not absolutely sterile. I have found in organic growing, that sometimes starting out in a perfectly disinfected environment can create more problems than anything. It’s crucial the seedling be able to create it’s own immunity to disease. It cannot do this without having introduced some bacteria and fungi into the mix. If you have good medium, the good bacteria will take care of any bad trying to mess with the program. If you prefer to sterilize everything, you do you. Once the seeds are in dirt, any sterilization goes out the window anyway, so I figure just let them be.

Now let’s get started. The items and equipment used for this are as follows:

● Scissors

● Small containers (I use old script bottles I save up)

● Choose genetics(seeds)

● Masking Tape or small labels

● Measuring Cup with clean, chlorine free water. (No specific amount, just fill it up)

● Paper Towels (preferably unbleached)

● Ziplock Baggies

● Black Sharpie(marker)

 

We will be using the small containers to separate and properly label the different strains. I save my pill bottles, from big pharma. They work great for this purpose, but any small containers with lids will do. I use the labels on the pill bottles and just write over the type with a sharpie. Or use masking tape and write on that. Label each container with the appropriate labelling. Be sure to do only one strain at a time, to ensure there is no mix up.

Once labelled, take your containers and add the seeds you choose to germinate into your labelled container. Add water to cover the seeds, doesn’t matter how much. Close lid, and put the container into a drawer, or a cupboard, out of any direct light. You will leave these in their containers for up to 48 hours, depending how fast they germinate. I like them to crack good and have a nice tail sticking out.

As you can see in the photo, the tails are nice and thick and the shells are cracked well. This is what I want to see.

Part Two

Supplies needed:

● Paper towels

● Ziplock Baggies

● Chlorine Free Water

After the soak, and the seeds are cracked, they will be carefully put into damp paper towels, then into appropriately labelled ziplock baggies. This ensures the paper towels retain the moisture required for the seed to thrive.

Have you paper towels cut into appropriately sized squares or if you prefer rectangles, more power to you.

After you have your baggies labelled, and all you stuff in front of you, you are going to take your cracked seeds and put them in a damp paper towel. Fold the paper towel up, so that the seeds are nice and secure. Be sure the paper towel has sufficient moisture, and set it inside the labelled ziplock, closing the baggies zipper, trying to remove as much air from the baggies as possible as you seal it.

These will now be set in a dark place, to further germinate, and this allows the seedling to get used to being in a medium of sorts before it goes into the dirt. I find this step has increased my percentage of positive results. I set the ziplocks upright as to allow gravity to get the plant moving in the proper direction(which would be down) rather than sitting on a flat surface, getting rather confused because the tap root cannot naturally head south.


In the picture above, I have the seeds situated in crease of the folded over paper towel. When I flip the baggies upside down, the seeds are now at the top, and will try and have the tap roots go down, since they are able to move freely this way.  
Once the seedlings are all in there secure baggies, labelled, and sealed, they will sit in the cupboard for anywhere from 24-48 hours. I check them at 24, and if most have moved along I will proceed to the next step. Generally, I have noticed most take an extra day to get where I like them to be for planting in the soil. I like to have nice long tap roots, and a good start before I put them in dirt.


Most of these seeds are ready for soil, but you can see one is taking its time. In this case I will take the four that are ready and plant them, and seal the other in the bag a bit longer. Occasionally, I will just plant the lagging seed in with one of the others and hope for the best. Depends on how I feel that day.

From here, the next step will be planting in soil, and I will be doing that very soon. I hope you can get some good use of this info, and perhaps it helps you in some way. That is my goal, to share the methods I have found to work for me.

These are just one method of many, and you need to find what works best for you. Everyone lives in different environments, latitudes, longitudes, and the variables will never be the same from one to another. There is no best way to do it, only the best way for you. I hope I can help you find your way just a little easier.

I hope you enjoyed the instructional write up and if you did, keep watch for many more as I share my organic grow methods for growing this most sacred plant for medicine.

 

Best regards and happy gardening!!!

Saalome