Beginner’s Guide to Sprouting Cannabis Seeds

For the cannabis plant, life begins with germination. Understandably, the germination process is one of the most important in the life of your cannabis plant. There are several schools of thought in the pursuit of germinating cannabis seeds. The best and most foolproof way to germinate seeds is by using peat pellets. Using a wet paper towel is a popular method, but paper towel provides virtually no protection for the seedlings. It’s not very beginner friendly either. Enter peat pellets.

Peat pellets are essentially disc-shaped, biodegradable nutrient media for germinating seeds. Consists of (as the name suggests) peat moss held together with mesh and other seed-specific nutrients. Peat pellets like Jiffy are an ideal medium as they prevent damage and root stress on the seedling during transplantation.

How to germinate cannabis seeds with peat pellets

You can pick up 12 and 36 packs of Jiffy pellets online or at your local home and gardening store. In addition, all you need to germinate cannabis seeds is water, a pencil, tweezers, a room with a stable temperature, and of course cannabis seeds. Once you have everything you need, let’s go through the three steps to germination, starting with preparing your peat pellets.

Step 1: add water

It is really that easy. However, decide how many plants you want to harvest and try to roughly double that amount. This way you will have backup seeds if something goes wrong – especially if this is your first time growing.

When you are done, add some water (within 40ml) to the peat pellet, let it absorb the water and expand. The peat pellets should be wet and firm throughout, but not too soaked. Now pull off the mesh at the top and use a pencil or other tool to drill a hole in the middle. The hole shouldn’t be more than an inch deep. Use your pinky finger as a guide; If the hole extends well past your first ankle, it’s too deep. Cover the hole and try again.

Step 2: plants

Next, you’ll want to put the seeds in the hole you just made in the pellet. Be careful with this – cannabis seeds are actually quite fragile and the best way to make sure you don’t damage the seeds while planting is to use tweezers or a similar tool. After planting the seed, (gently) cover the hole with the surrounding dirt in the pellet.

After planting, make sure your germinating cannabis seeds are at a constant room temperature of no more than 24 ° C. Now the hardest part is waiting! Germination should occur three to eight days after planting. Check your pellets daily; they should be moist throughout. When they dry out, add a little more water. Be patient – even if this is your first grow, peat pellets have a high success rate. If you’ve followed the precautions outlined in this guide, expect a 90 to 100 percent success rate.

Step 3: transplant

After all of your sprouted seedlings are ready to begin transplanting them into their final pots. As mentioned earlier, using peat pellets makes this process easier as it naturally protects the fragile germinating cannabis seeds from root damage.

Your final pot should be a 1 gallon (or larger) growbag, which is also easily available online or at any home and garden store. For soil, you can either choose a premix or build your own from scratch. First-time growers should opt for a premix until they are ready to broaden their horizons. Not all cannabis requires the same soil, but a good place to start is with a coconut and coconut pot mix like Coco Loco.

When you’ve finished your pots of soil, it’s time to transplant the seedlings. Completely removing the mesh coverage of the peat pellets is optional at this point and it may be better for first time growers to leave them on. One advantage of losing weight is that the roots can multiply more easily. Plant the seedling deep enough in the soil to cover almost the entire trunk. Then pour generously. At this stage, you need to make sure that you have the correct grow lighting or sufficient light in your outdoor grow location. You should start seeing new foliage in about a week!

Now the real growth process begins. Check out our guide to sexing cannabis and learn how to beat the most common culprits behind curling fan leaves.

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