5 Tips To Improve Your Germination Rates
Over the years, I’ve helped dozens of growers with their germination issues, and one thing I’ve noticed is that there are no universal answers. Sure, there are best practices, but in the end, there are just too many variables at play to easily diagnose any one case of non-germination. So instead of giving you a step-by-step guide, this article will cover 5 tips that I wish other growers had told me about when I was starting out.
1. Store Your Genetics In A Fridge
Improving your germination rate starts long before you pop your beans. Tackle boxes, totes – they all only provide some protection to seeds, and over time, your germination rate will start to decline. Even following best practices, germination rates start to decline after about 2 years, and after 5 years, most seeds will simply fail to germinate, even if you do everything right.
Whenever I chat to other genetics collectors, almost everyone has the same story about starting their collection before investing in a fridge. A small fridge will run you about R2500, less than a pack of some seeds – just do it. The electricity usage on them is also surprisingly low.
2. Pick The Method You’ve Had The Most Success With
We growers all have preferences for how we do things. No two gardeners have the exact same approach when it comes to their craft. Don’t chase ‘the best germination method’ advice, because you’re going to end up adopting someone else’s preference that they’re comfortable with, but you aren’t.
I know it’s easy to see others’ success and assume it must just be the method they’re using that is getting them the results, but that’s rarely the case. Fresh, healthy beans are surprisingly strong. But seeds that have been stored longer or in less-than-ideal conditions can leave you feeling like you’re going mad.
If you’ve been popping in paper towels and now find that your success rates are lower than what you remember, you’re not the only person saying this. Paper towels can work well, but the number of variables is high, and it doesn’t take a lot for things to go south, especially when it comes to pathogenic growth.
3. Balance Airflow and Humidity
One of the biggest threats to young seedlings is damping off, often a symptom of stale air, saturated medium, and humidity. It’s one of the biggest killers in this stage of life and shows up as a collapsed stem. Look closer and you’ll notice a thinning at the base of the plant’s stem (sometimes just under the soil line), with some thickening also present on some examples.
This happens most often because, as new growers learn about the ideal theoretical conditions for each plant stage, they try to increase humidity in the germination and early seedling stage. This is a great practice if one is also pairing it with a regular exchange of air, but in a sealed environment such as a clone dome, too much moisture can quickly cause damping off to occur, even on strong, healthy genetics.
Finding the balance between humidity and airflow can be tough, especially in dry summer months. But the reality is, seedlings can germinate under relatively low humidity too, as long as their medium remains at the right level of moisture. Growth may be a bit slower than if you achieve a perfect VPD curve, but a few extra days is better than a lost plant.
Most of the time I’ve seen domes or cups used over the plants it resulted in more harm than good. But again, work within what you feel comfortable with.
4. Know When The Seed Is Actually Dead
One of the hardest things for new growers to learn is that not every seed that doesn’t germinate is necessarily a problem with the germination method. Sometimes the seed is simply no longer viable, and there isn’t much you can do about it.
There is a big difference between a seed that is taking its time and one that has genuinely failed. A healthy seed can take a little while to get moving, especially if it has been stored for some time, and constantly changing your approach because it hasn’t cracked after a day or two can often do more harm than good.
On the other hand, if a seed has been given reasonable conditions for a reasonable amount of time and there is absolutely no sign of life, you have to accept that it may simply be dead. There’s no magic trick that can bring an old or damaged seed back to life.
This is also why I’m always hesitant to judge a batch based on one or two seeds. If you pop ten seeds and eight germinate normally, you have a very different situation to popping ten seeds and getting absolutely nothing. Germination is biological, and even with good genetics and good storage, you can get the occasional dud.
Learning to recognise the difference between a seed that needs more time and one that has genuinely failed will save you a lot of unnecessary messing around.
5. Be Patient And Let The Seed Do Its Thing
This is probably one of the biggest mistakes I see from new growers. They get a seed into a medium or paper towel and then spend the next few days checking it every couple of hours.
Open it up. Check the moisture. Move it around. Add some water. Put it somewhere warmer. Then somewhere cooler. Cover it with something. Take the cover off. Check it again.
At that point, the seed has probably experienced more environmental changes in 48 hours than it would have experienced naturally in weeks.
Once you’ve given the seed a suitable environment, leave it alone. Germination isn’t something you need to actively manage every few hours. The seed already knows what it needs to do.
This is especially important when it comes to humidity. Constantly opening containers, removing domes or moving things around can cause humidity and moisture levels to fluctuate far more than they need to. You can end up creating the very problem you’re trying to prevent.
There’s nothing wrong with checking on your seeds, obviously. But give them some time between checks. If you’re constantly interfering with the process because you’re worried something is wrong, you’re often going to make things worse rather than better.
Sometimes the best thing you can do for a seed is put it somewhere suitable, leave it alone, and give it the time it needs.
Conclusion
Germinating cannabis seeds comes with all kinds of risks for failure, and it’s not always the grower’s fault. By keeping these 5 simple tips in mind, you can avoid a lot of what causes failure in the germination process.