Absolutely thankful for you sharing your expertise! I am 47 years old and have been death to plants my entire life. Now my daughter has bought a house and will be moving in June. She said that eventually she wants to grow all of her food. I wanted to make a special gift for her and am planting an entire batch of kitchen herbs, red onions, and garlic. I have been saving seeds from every bit of fruit I eat and I have realized that when I'm planting and growing for someone I love I am able to be more dedicated to the process. I am a novice gardner and I'm grateful to learn from someone who has been doing this for years. Thank you so much for helping a newbie. You now have a new subscriber and thumbs up and will most definitely be watching all of your mastery. Thank you so much for helping my daughter get started on the life that she desires. When she moves in I've already got her started.
Same here, brown thumb!😬 58 and was gifted Orchids omg 🤯. Started growing vegetables from scraps I used to throw away. 👍🏼😍This method works great. Put in those paper egg carton containers w/holes or eggs shells and can pl plant straight into bigger pots or ground.❤🤘🌻🦋🥳
One germination method I have adjusted successfully is the paper towel and baggie. I add a coffee filter between the paper towel (roots don’t grow through) also allows for air so that once a tap root emerges it doesn’t “drown” (too much water, no air) H2O2, 3% Hydrogen Peroxide, diluted with water can help some stubborn seeds get that seed to POP it’s basically super water, but again, when diluted. Lots of information laid out here, very well done 👍💚🌱 love “sharpening” up that Green Thumb of mine 😁
I am 60 years old and have been gardening in one form or another for many years. In 24 hours I have learned more about gardening than my entire 60 years combined. I really enjoy Robert's presentation style ... direct and to the point. Also all of his content is relevent. I have finally been able to answer the countlesss number of questions that I have had regarding conflicting information about gardening that is out there. Thank you Robert!
@@francoisdebruyn4424 When the warm cycle starts the seed will grow, if not, it goes back into the fridge for another cold cycle, then back out to try another warm cycle. So they need to be damp. If grey mould grows then the seed wasn't viable in the first place.
Nice to see validation of what I've been doing to germinate seeds. I especially liked the part where you sprayed the tiny seeds into the grow medium; I've only been scraping from the paper towel. Very likely fewer damaged radicles with your method. I use Coco Loco as a grow medium and like it much better than the old peat moss, vermeculite, perlite mixture I used to make; easier to determine the moisture and control it, especially watering from the bottom. This year I've tried a Kangaroots solution (1/4 tsp per cup of rain water) to germinate my tomato seeds. 90% germination in four days (some of that in two days). I believe it's advantageous to provide mycorrhizal fungi from the beginning rather than to strictly rely on what your garden or potting soil organically has to offer after transplanting. This solution seems to work better than using a10:1 H2O2 solution to accelerate germination and the seedlings seem to be stronger. Thank you for the great video. Wish I had had access to your info 40 years ago.
I started to become interested about planting. I bought some seeds and the instruction says , that it needs to be stratified. I'm glad I found your video. Looks so easy to do , very clear and informative. Thanks so much!
This might help my spruce and pine seeds for the cold stage. Four years later and your information plants idea in the mind of gardeners everywhere....have fun with yours.
Sombath Korng this is to get them to grow faster and this yields a better chance of your seeds successful sprouting, seeds can take along a long time and may never germinate. The bag helps you monitor them, keep them from drying out and etc.
Besides speeding germination, this works great for things like alpine strawberries where the seeds are placed on top of the soil and you have to continually keep the top of the soil wet. That can be a real pain. The baggies make this so much easier.
in novice too. I just took seeds out of my green and red peppers, put them on a soaked napkin and placed the napkin in the baggie and closed the baggie. Question: do I put the baggie upside down on direct sunlight outside or okay on my table?
Great lesson for starting seeds. I bought seed packets and put them on soil in a plastic container for mini muffins. Problem with that is the tiny plants that look too delicate to move to larger pot. Hope the little guys will tolerate the move. I was thinking to let them grow until root bound, then lift them out.
I've just found you my dear.. after having been gardening & growing food for decades, throughout the whole year! Have only known of this method for germinating liquorice root seeds and grape seeds.. but all the others I could've been doing this with too?! My time is precious & the yield is valued highly here. I have put pots on every windowsill in my home (insulated via bubble wrap & cardboard underneath); can become a sad attempt when only half the seeds planted come up/germinate, and the space has been wasted when something else could be thriving in that place.. y'know? 🤔 I even have had some germinate on the porch; had put them pots inside several empty fish tanks covered in plastic sheeting with bubble wrap & layers of cardboard underneath, again trying anything inexpensive & with less carbon footprint just trying to create a bit of warmth for the seedling.. and every year it seem to be that I have less & less space because I grow a lot all year in an attempt to feed/provide organic food foc to anyone in my 'hood that needs help to feed their families or themselves. Gratitude for your amazingly informative yet simplified methods. I have a question though please. I suffer cptsd & sometimes can get confuddled lol.. from this video please can I surmise that if am going to save some time & minimise my effort in seed starting, can you kindly advise that my seeds don't need to be refrigerated after they are put in the bag & I can leave them in a warm room; is that what you mean? I know I've grown grapes & liquorice root in this way & those had to remain refrigerated to germinate, as some seeds do. Your advice would be valued beyond measure. Thank you! 😊
The pre-treatment of seeds depends on the type of seed you are germinating - some need to be given a cold treatment, many do not need it. You will find more here. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Tcj2ejlZUx4.html
Very clear !! Thank you ... I am going to germinate the rest of my seeds this way. Only drawback is I don't think they make the very small snack plastic bags here but I am sure I will manage. Tomorrow is the day I am going to sow my Tamarillo (cyphomandra betacea) seeds! First time trying these for here in Portugal. Will keep you updated on my success!
labelling your seeds is great my first time i wanted to grow everything and didnt label anything and i forgot when i came back it was a mystery and surprise seeing what came up lol
This is so easy. I have a bunch of seeds that got stuck on the paper, so appreciate the tips you shared for big and small seeds. I am going to try the baggy method.
very nice video . i have seen many videos for seeds germination but I must say no one has explained the way you did. please keep posting new videos. thank you very much.
I'm so impressed with your video that I'm going to subscribe. I also love the fact primarily because you get straight to the point and there are no background distractions. I have learnt much from this video,so a big thank you from 💃💃💃Spain.
Marigolds do well doing this. I use a coffee filter so their delicate roots don’t get stuck in the paper towel fibers. It’s also thin enough so you can see what’s germinating.
Thanks. My corn seeds have now roots and green shoots.Less than a week ago I put them in a plastic box with water, covered with tissue paper and put the box in a ziplock bag. Then i put it on the radiator as long as it was on and on the windowsill in the sunshine later when it was sunny.
I do almost same thing with my peppers, but I use sharpie and write on the bag. I also use a heat mat, because peppers like warm temps to sprout. Some years I just put the seeds in dirt if I want to skip a step, which usually turns out okay too. Although there is always a few that never sprout.
Very informative video. Thanks for making this one. Imma try red bell pepper seeds with paper towel. I don't have a small baggy so I just placed the paper towel in a bowl on top of a ginger with root and cover it.
I am so happy to learn this trick, Today I see some seeds are having roots others not, finally I feel I am successful where I failed most of the time! I saw many videos but this one is in a very detailed. However, I wish you show it next time, after you put seeds in soils where one should keep those pots? In a warm area out side indoor?
That depends on when they germinate, and where you live. If it is still cold outside, keep them inside. If it is warm outside, it is better to just move them outside before they show any green.
Wow! This is an amazing and very helpful video! Thank you so much for posting it! This last spring I started hundreds of seeds using the paper towel/baggie method, but 70% or so of them rooted into the paper towel, so I ended up losing most of those trying to pry them out of the paper towels. With your method, I'll be able to start my seeds next year with out that issue. Thank you again, you're brilliant! :)
Try using coffee filters instead of paper towels, the roots don't grow into them or cut around the roots in the paper towel and plant the piece of towel with the root. Works for my tomato and pepper seeds. My germination rate is over 90 percent, much higher than in soil and pots.
I discovered your channel about a week ago and I've been devouring your gardening videos. I love the red hat and you are so chill and cool and confident in your delivery. NOT in this one. This must be an early video. You've come so far. Congratulations. I've learned alot from you. Thanks. PS your little circle channel picture should have the red hat. :)
Thank you for informative video. It will work great for medicinal plant seeds, which can take months and years to germinate. Then I won't get mad and start new plants int he same pots and then old ones come out and at that point I am not ven sure, what is growing there..
Thanks, great video. I considered leaving the seeds visible and adding more air but didn't want to go through the trial and error. It was a big help that you explained your testing.
I have watched several videos just to get discouraged until I came across yours! Thank you so very much!!!! I may be able to actually germinate and grow my seeds into beautiful plants properly. Bless you!!! 👏💯🌺💐🤗
Tip: if u live where its cold and u are having trouble germinating seeds because ur grow is too cold try this; find a desk lamp that has a dome on it or reflector. Put a led or cfl into thr socket and let it heat up fully. The metal on the lamp dome will be about 90-100 degrees farenheit and makes a perfect heater/ seed starter
I tried the paper towel method but I had issues with the roots growing into the paper towel. I'll definitely try the baggie method. Thank you for all the information.
One thing i might add is use a coffee filter on top of the paper towel in the baggies as the roots will not go into those like they do into the papertowel meaning you could also store them seed side up
Your content was on point. Thank you. Would you recommend storing tropical fruit tree seeds using this baggy method in the fridge or in a warm place till they sprout?
I've been germinating seeds in paper towels, but when I plant them in little transplant pots they don't sprout and thrive. I just did a post-mortem on several little pots and couldn't find the seeds (big ones, chard, beet). How wet is your soil underneath ?
Well presented video and info on the paper tower method. In the past I have used the wet paper towel method where I fold over and place in the fridge and usually have germination 2-3 days. But I like some of the ideas you presented here to actually see without having to unfold the paper towel, very nice job.
QUESTIONS : I hired a fella to use his very large device to cut down phragmites in my back yard several years ago. The phragmites still exist for several acres - I just cannot cut all that. But, I try to keep the back yard under control. About 90% of the back yard is under control. I was able to eventually get rid of all the chopped up phragmites and put dirt over it instead. After several year, most of the back yard in that section is now decent-looking grass. But, there are still some sections where the phragmites keep coming back. Do you know of a "natural" form of "inexpensive" way to kill off phragmites? Also, grass just won't remain alive in a couple large sections where the land curves in a way that causes the land to stay wait after it rains or storms. Do you know if there is any type of tougher grass that might survive in that type of after? Finally, I bought some grass seed that claimed it could thicken grass. Wowzers, they weren't lying! That section of my yard started growing ten inches in just four days, while the other part of the yard would only grow a couple inches. I didn't mind at first; however, that type of fast-growing grass that is very thick has suddenly gone crazy this year and spread about forty or fifty feet across that entire section of the back yard! Now, I cannot even turn the "mulch" part of mower on. Have no choice but to shoot it out the side, and then rake. Is there any way to "think" this "thick" grass that thinks it is on steroids?
Robert, I used this system for mango seeds. But the difference was I left the ziploc back by the window seal (around 25-30C degrees outside). It worked in a couple of weeks - 1 stem + 1 root. Of course I am a newbie so I accounted for the fact that Mango is tropical and this kind of temperature might emulate good conditions for it to sprout... was I wrong?
Ii grow a lot of seeds that require light to germinate and are small as dust, (coral bells), etc., do you just leave the bag under the lights? I leave plug trays under lights and they come up fast, but I do have trouble with green mold at times, and they dry out fast.
No. cold warm cycles are just, putting them in a warm spot for a couple of months, then a cold spot for a couple of months, then a warm spot, etc. I use a fridge and my desk.
I used the paper towel method in a zip lock bag for Bael (Aegle marmelos) and Esperanza seeds. They failed to germinate even after 4 weeks at 70-76 degrees Fahrenheit. Used a pinch of Indole-3-butyric acid as a root growth hormone to hasten germination. That failed too for these seeds.. Diluted hydrogen peroxide to make these seeds germinate did not work out either. Any suggestion. There is no white mold, though there is some black mold. The absence of white mold suggests, per your video, that seeds are viable.
paper towels may be a bad idea considering the possibility of chemicals and dyes used in their manufacture. sprouts have tiny "hairs" that will attach to the paper towel and absorb any chemicals and dyes that might be there.
Do you need to pre soak seeds or can you just put them in the bag from the packet and then moisten? I am trying to grow scleranthus. The seeds are so tiny I'm terrified to breathe while I'm doing it! Thank you.
I'm new to germinating seeds and this method seems easier to monitor. Should i place the baggy at the window for light or in a dark area? I'm trying eggplant!
Always check to see what seeds need. Most seeds want light, or don't care. Very few need dark. But don't set them in sun where they might get too warm.
Thank you for an informative video! I am wondering if you would be kind enough to tell me if this method would work for growing ginseng? I understand that in the wild they can take up to two years to germinate. I am looking for a faster method.
If the improved Garden Fundamentls way it to have the ziplock upside down so the wet paper towel is on top and the seeds are on the bottom, is it even necessary to have the paper towel at all? Why wouldn't the seeds still germinate in a closed ziploc bag with just water sprayed in there to have enough moisture?
This method did not work for me at all i put many seeds in a bag and tried this a few times with no success at all..what i find that works and works fast is either the jiffy starting kit or the burpee starting kit works perfect had germination in 3 days for peppers
I have read that some seeds produce microscopic root hairs as soon as they produce a visible root at germination, and when you pull them away from the paper towel, you can rip these hairs off causing trauma to the seedling as well as developmental issues later on. Would it be better to just soak seeds in water overnight then place directly in soil?
If you leave them in the baggy too long this can be a problem, but you should take them out before this happens. Root hairs are quickly re-grown, provided you do not damage the main root.
