Seeds are an amazing thing of nature. Plants produce an abundance of them every year. Much knowledge has been acquired about how to plant, grow, and harvest from seed planting and all sorts of methods have been experimented with how to plants seeds and nurture them to a food harvest. This post will explain how to ensure 100% plant growth from germinated seed sprouts.
One of the most difficult seeds to sprout is the famous pepper seed. Under good conditions, the seed might germinate in potting mix in three weeks. Many times only a few seeds will germinate and then another three weeks of waiting must be done for more pepper plants. Spouting the seed first will guarantee 100% plant growth in 10 days.
Steps for How to Germinate Seeds Indoors
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- Acquire the seeeds. There are many good seed companies to get seeds or local nurseries will have them as well. Fresh seed will always give better results for sprouting and planting.
Fold a section of paper towel into a square that will fit into a pint-size Ziploc bag. Place the towel square on a counter-top and moisten the towel with a wet sponge. Don’t wet the towel too much but just moist.
Place the seeds on the paper towel with a generous amount of space between them. Make sure the seeds are in good contact with the paper towel.
Place the seeds in the zippered plastic bag. Take a pint-size Ziploc bag and open it up as wide as can be. Pick up the paper towel with the seeds by placing it on the open palm facing up. Carefully place the towel with the seeds inside the Ziploc by sliding your hand and towel together into the open Ziploc. Pinch the bag on the end of the towel to keep the towel in the bag and slide your hand slowly and carefully out of the bag. Press down on the bag to remove air and give the seeds good contact with the moist towel.
Close up and mark your bags. Close up the bag and place it seed side down on a soft surface such as a bath towel. Set the seed pack on top of the bag as a marker of what plants the seeds will grow. Put a lightweight on top of the seed pack and the Ziploc bag to keep the seed contact. A magazine would be perfect. The temperature for good seed sprouting is a range between 70 and 80 degrees Fahrenheit. Too hot or too cold will slow the sprouting time.
How long to germinate seeds in a paper towel: In five days the seeds will be sprouted and ready to plant. The seeds that haven’t sprouted will not be planted. This is how 100% plant growth can be produced.
Plant the germinated seeds in soil. It’s time to carefully remove the towel by opening the Ziploc wide and carefully sliding out the towel. Take a seed cell planting tray and fill it with a quality potting mix. Use a pencil to poke a hole about an inch deep in to middle of one of the cells. Carefully, take one of the sprouted seeds between your thumb and fore finger and direct the seed root that has been sprouted into the pencil hole. The pencil eraser side can be used to move the sprout root down the hole until the actual seed is just below the surface the the cell. Gently cover the sprout and seed with potting mix to a depth of the width of the seed. Very little mix needs to be over the sprout. Use a spray bottle to lightly wet down the surface of the seed cell. Continue to spray and keep the potting mix moist but not wet.
The plants will normally break the surface in about three to four days. At that time top watering is stopped and bottom watering is started. From seed to plant takes about 7 to 10 days and it’s on the way to becoming study healthy plant for the garden.
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These pepper plants are just a couple days under eight weeks from beginning to sprout the seeds. Just about any seed can be sprouted this way to get a jump on the planting process. Spouts can even be planted directly in the garden if soil and air temperature are favorable.
With just a little effort seed sprout planting can be a more efficient and faster way to get from seeds to plants.
