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seeds Germinating experiment: cups vs bags

PepperJam

PepperJam

After seeing Mill's great idea of using cups, i went to party city and bought a 40 pack of 2.5oz gelatin cups with lids. I wanted to see if using wet paper towel with cups is better than the sandwich bag method. I'll be using super chilli seed that i saved from 2010. When i germinated it a few weeks back using sandwich bag method, i pretty much got 90%+ germination rate on 10 seeds. So i'll use those seeds with this experiment. There are three setups:

  1. wet paper towel with sandwich bag
  2. seeds on top of wet paper towel in a cup
  3. seeds in between two wet paper towels in a cup

I started them at 9:00am on 1/29/2011. So let's see who wins the race. The temperature is around 80-85 degrees. Here are some starter pics:

The contenders (from left to right, seeds on top cup, seeds in between cup, sandwich bag)
P1010256.jpg


Close up of seeds on top of paper towel cup
P1010258.jpg


Close up of seeds in between paper towel cup
P1010257.jpg


Close up of sandwich bag
P1010259.jpg
 
I tried the paper towel and sandwich bag this year and didn't have any luck with it. I must've did something wrong. That or my seeds weren't viable anymore. Good luck
 
Good luck with the cups. I do not sandwich the seeds when in cups because it prevents them from growing up after they sprout. I am uploading new pictures right now but I will show you a picture of what I mean in just a bit.



Ok, here we are. This is a Giant Jolokia and after it sprouts you can see it is pulling its seed cap off and growing up in the tiny cup. There is plenty of humidity in there to keep the seed casing wet so it slips off real easy. Then, I tear a little of the paper off with the seed so as not to damage the roots and put it in some dirt.

SDC11235.jpg
 
Cool. A race!

In my limited experimentation, i've only used the baggies, but I puff some some air in there to create a little mini greenhouse. Wouldn't be fair to leave yours flat would it?

I also used coffee filters instead of paper towels. Tighter weave of paper, so less root entanglement, but I do roll mine up so there is paper coverage all around the seed.

I like the idea of the cups. Very efficient. If you put the seed on top of the paper like Mills, you can peer in and see the action going on without disturbing the seed rolled up in paper. Hmmmmmmmm. :idea: Very cool indeed!

(Hey, the 'lightbulb' emoticon looks like a little ass! Not what I intended. Really!)
 
Just an update, no germination yet. I did notice after some time the water would leave the paper towel and become dew on the sides of the cup and cap. So i added a little more water so the paper towel would not become dry, just moist.
 
Just an update, each cup germinated one seed! Two other seeds in the cup with no paper towel covering them has a little green fuzz. Very slightly. I think its mold? The sandwich bag has not sprouted anythings. Lets see how things progress.

daily score

02/03/11
cup A - 1
cup B - 1
bag - 0
 
Just checked this morning:

Cup A (seeds without paper towel on top) - 3
Cup B (seeds with paper towel on top) - 1
Bag - 0

Amazing! 2 seeds germinated in less than a day (since my last stats post).
 
Status (i never though seeds would germinate so fast one after another). Cup A's 4th seed has a tiny white leg sticking out now!

Cup A - 4
Cup B - 2
Bag - 0

On a side note, i removed all my seeds that were in bags and move them into cups (of course CUP A mode)!!!! :)
 
We have a winner! :dance: :dance: :dance: Cup A has crossed the finishing line with 5 of 5 seeds germinated! The stats:

Cup A - 5 :woohoo:
Cup B - 2 :tear:
Bag - 1 :tear:

Bag just started germinating one seed.

Thanks everyone for following! I hope this experiment will help everyone germinate their seeds faster. Special thanks to Mil for the great idea! I think for even added success, soak the seed in warm water overnight so the seeds are soft and ready for the cups. I'm going to try that when my new seeds come in.
 
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