Germination: The Paper Towel Method

Step 1 

Gather up the following:

• Your cannabis seeds

• Clean water

• Clean glass for a little pre-soak

• A Ziploc bag or a Tupperware container - anything that can be sealed to keep moisture in.

• Paper towels or coffee filters

Step 2 Pre-soak your seeds - it's optional but do it!

The pre-soak will certainly help germinate seeds. By pre-soaking before placing them in paper towels, you make sure the seeds do not have to absorb all of their water from the paper towel.

All you need to do is put some clean water in a glass - I like to use a shot glass but any glass will do. Drop your seeds into it, and if any resist sinking, poke 'em around a bit with a clean utensil.

Give your cannabis seeds 6-12 hours of pre-soaking time before moving on to Step 3. I usually do an overnight soak. 

Step 3

Grab your paper towel and get it wet. Squeeze out some of the water to the point of it being wet but not soaking, dripping wet. Otherwise you might as well left it in the glass of water. You want it wet/moist but not a puddle.

Step 4

Fold you paper towel in half. Put your seeds on the damp, folded in half paper towel and then fold the paper towel again, covering the seeds. Lightly press the paper towel together so there is good contact between the seeds and the paper towel.

Step 5

Put the paper towels into your plastic bag or other container and close it most of the way.

Step 6

Place the contained seeds out of direct light, and shoot for a temperature range of 70-85°F to get these babies poppin'. I've often heard the "put them in a warm spot, like on top of your refridgerator". I don't know about you but the top of my refidgerator is NOT warm. I'd opt for a seedling mat designed to assist in seed germination. They heat to the desired range and help wake up those seeds a bit quicker. But if you're going no frills, find that spot in your house that stays reasonably warm and you should be fine.

Step 8

Check on your seeds after 12-24 hours by carefully opening the container and the paper. Avoid touching the seeds and disturb them as little as possible.

If your seeds have “tailed”, meaning you see a little white root tip emerging from the seed... Hell Yeah! You can drop them into a seed starting mix.

If you don’t see any signs of action, check how dry the paper towels have become, and re-moisten if necessary. Fold back up the paper towel and put the whole set-up back in its germination-friendly environment. Some seeds can take a few days to pop open. Patience is key here.

Step 9

Give them another 12 to 24 hours to pop. If you’re still not seeing any progress at that time, consider trying a stratification or scarification technique (lightly sanding or scraping the outer shell of the seed) to help stubborn seeds germinate. Essentially you're trying to allow water to enter the seed to spark germination.

Finally, remember to Stay Clean!

It's best practice to be as clean as possible with this process. I mean, you don't have to get weird about it, but using a clean glass and a new ziploc instead of that one you had that old ham sandwich in from lunch 3 days ago. You're goal is to get these little living organisms their best shot at growing up into a big, beautiful, productive, mature cannabis plant.