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Sprouting and Planting Tips

Sprouting for Success

I prefer sprouting seed using the wet paper towel method. Take six sheets of white paper towel and fold them to a roughly 5" × 6" square (approximately twenty-four layers thick). Soak this in water. Place the seeds in the centerfold with twelve layers above and twelve layers below them. Keep the pad wet and the seeds will sprout in one to ten days. On rare occasions I’ve had seeds take up to two weeks to sprout. The ideal temperature for sprouting seeds is around 70 degrees F. Higher temperatures hasten the sprouting time, but also increase the chance of infection and promote stem stretching.

The first sign of germination is when the seeds crack open along the seam and send out a white root. I wait for the root to grow about an inch before transplanting the sprout to soil (I keep the paper towel pad moist until this time). When I do set the sprouts to soil, I like to bury them right up to the head or cotyledon of the plant—so the head is right at the soil level. It is important to gently water and feed the sprouts from this point on so as not to disturb the new roots too much. I have found the common turkey baster to be of the greatest value for this purpose.

I set the seedlings in two- to four-inch containers. Sixteen to twenty-four ounce disposable plastic drink cups—such as the types found at parties—make excellent containers for planting. Drainage holes are all that is lacking. To make them, use an electric drill with a three-eights-inch drill bit. Each cup needs four holes drilled at the very bottom. Stacking ten cups at a time will help quicken the hole drilling process.

The container is filled with the soil mix and it is gently tapped and shaken down to fill all vacant spaces equally. The soil level should fill approximately three-quarters of the container. There should be an adequate space between the top of the soil and the top of the cup or pot. This is to allow for more soil to be added later as the stem grows. Once the soil is sufficiently tapped down to at least two-thirds full, it is time to moisten it.

I place up to two dozen cups or pots in a 10" × 20" grow flat (or tray). Next, I’ll fill the appropriate size bucket or container with the water/nutrient mix. The common turkey baster is the best tool available to evenly soak all of the containers thoroughly. Larger gardens may require some kind of pump and tubing device to aid in the watering. Excess solution may be re-used until the entire medium is fully saturated. Just prior to saturation, use a standard chopstick to poke a hole, as deep as the sprout roots are long, into the middle of the soil. I then add more nutrient solution.

I take a sprout from the paper towel gently, handling it by the stem below the sprout head and transfer it to the hole in the soil. I carefully guide the root tip all the way down the hole, using the chopstick if necessary. Be certain that the root tip is pointing down and not curved up in what is called a “J” root. A badly crimped J-root may be fatal to the sprout. Once the sprout is situated in its hole, the root is running down the hole and the sprout head is above and as near to the soil level as possible, the soil may be gently packed around the sprout stem to hold it firmly in place.

Next, the sprouts need to be watered. The soil is already saturated but this first watering enables the root and stem to make direct contact with the medium. I also do this with a turkey baster. The sprouts will not need watering again until after the soil dries a little in three to five days. Don’t leave any standing water in the grow flat. Use the turkey baster to soak up any water left in the tray.

In one to two weeks, the healthy sprouts will stretch and grow up over the top of the cup or pot. Then more soil is added to give the sprout more stability and root room. This lends support to spindly plants during their early development. This step also promotes and stimulates root growth. Roots will grow from the soil-covered stem in a week or two.

Repotting Sprouting Plants

Transplanting becomes necessary when the roots outgrow the medium. Check one or two of the average plants’ roots. Gently turn the whole thing upside down and carefully separate the root mass from its container. Gentle tapping may aid the process. When the white root wad is becoming entwined, growing into itself or turning brown, it is time to transplant. I transplant when the root system is semi-dry, a day or two before the plants need watering. The medium in the larger container should be saturated to its maximum density with nutrient-rich water. The semi-dry root wad is placed firmly into the saturated fresh medium and the rest of the space in the larger pot is filled with fresh, semi-moist medium. The fresh medium should cover the old soil level and the loose soil is gently packed into place throughout. I gently shake the soil fully into place and level the soil top by hand. As with the original planting, the fresh transplant is watered to its saturation point. New roots will quickly and eagerly find their way into the fresh new medium, and accompanying growth will develop above ground.

Hydroponic Sprouting

With hydroponic sprouting, a seed is placed in a rockwool cube or fiber pellet and kept moist. It will sprout and root in this porous and nutrient-rich medium. Hydro transplanting is also quite simple. The pellet is placed in a larger rockwool cube or gravel medium and the roots grow quickly into the new material.

Checking the Shell

In some varieties, including Kush, sometimes shells do not release. The seeds sprout and grow roots. The problem, however, is that the seed shell does not come off of the sprout on its own. The shell hardens on the head of the sprout over the cotyledon, eventually causing its death if not removed. There is a thin sheath that may also need to be removed. It is worth the effort to gently, often with a surgeon’s precision, remove the shell.