So with all these great seeds I'm getting from THP members I figured I better start learning how to germinate and nurture little seedlings, since all of my experience before this is just from buying 3"+ starts.
This thread will just be a log of things I've tried and notes / lessons learned things to experiment with next time.
The goal being that by the time December rolls around I should be good and ready for the official germination run.
Experiment 1) has already been completed. I went with the coffee filter in solo deli cup covered by a cap (the kind of things you get mini salsa servings in at your local burrito shop) germination method, and used my sacrificial bulk stockpile of Aji seeds. I made the mistake of tearing the worlds tiniest piece of coffee filter and laying a single strip of it at the bottom of the deli cup, and placed it on top of the hottest part of my cable box. It dried out several times a day and eventually I put more coffee filter material in there which helped a little with the drying out problem. Also my adding more water method was (stupidly) just trying to dart the cup under the tap while water slowly came out... that evolved in to putting the lid under the tap and carefully pouring from the lid into the cup. This resulted in several drownings that needed to be drained and resulted in overly soaked coffee filter. Despite all the abuse I had 100% 5/5 put out hooks in just over 2 weeks, unfortunately I drowned them one too many times the next week and left them sitting in it and they got stinky/moldy.
Experiment 2) Is starting tonight I am pre-soaking 10 Aji seeds for 30 minutes as I type this, and am going to put them on top of about 1/2 a coffee filter folded up to fit into a fresh covered deli cup. Cup will go on a more moderate temp area of my cable box. I also have a little dropper to add single small drops to the coffee filter rather than drown it. Will update with results
This thread will just be a log of things I've tried and notes / lessons learned things to experiment with next time.
The goal being that by the time December rolls around I should be good and ready for the official germination run.
Experiment 1) has already been completed. I went with the coffee filter in solo deli cup covered by a cap (the kind of things you get mini salsa servings in at your local burrito shop) germination method, and used my sacrificial bulk stockpile of Aji seeds. I made the mistake of tearing the worlds tiniest piece of coffee filter and laying a single strip of it at the bottom of the deli cup, and placed it on top of the hottest part of my cable box. It dried out several times a day and eventually I put more coffee filter material in there which helped a little with the drying out problem. Also my adding more water method was (stupidly) just trying to dart the cup under the tap while water slowly came out... that evolved in to putting the lid under the tap and carefully pouring from the lid into the cup. This resulted in several drownings that needed to be drained and resulted in overly soaked coffee filter. Despite all the abuse I had 100% 5/5 put out hooks in just over 2 weeks, unfortunately I drowned them one too many times the next week and left them sitting in it and they got stinky/moldy.
Experiment 2) Is starting tonight I am pre-soaking 10 Aji seeds for 30 minutes as I type this, and am going to put them on top of about 1/2 a coffee filter folded up to fit into a fresh covered deli cup. Cup will go on a more moderate temp area of my cable box. I also have a little dropper to add single small drops to the coffee filter rather than drown it. Will update with results