Choosing a Grow Area, or Preparing a Germination Station

These seeds need the following things to germinate:

- Moisture. Not waterlogged, not dry, but somewhere in the middle that we call “field capacity”.

- The right temperature. For best germination results temps should remain between 68-86F constantly during germination and for about a month afterward.

- Light. Nothing too powerful at this stage - direct sun will cook them in no time flat. Direct sun means you can draw a straight line from the sun to the seedlings container. Indirect sun or a direct light from a controlled low power artificial light source is required.

It is possible to germinate by placing these containers on a windowsill that does not receive any direct sun and indoor temperatures set to 68-86F, or if the weather is just right, outdoors somewhere with bright indirect light only, again, with NO DIRECT SUN. Using these methods a wifi hygrometer with alarms set for high temp is a great tool to prevent the seedlings from overheating if the sun accidentally peaks through. However, for the most consistent, repeatable, highest germination rates, a controlled environment is required - a germination box.

The space should have ambient temperatures in the 68-86F range. It's OK if it gets a little cooler at night, a heat mat can be used to bump up soil temperatures by 10F. Wire rack shelving is a top notch choice of build method due to the customizable shelf heights that allow fine adjustment of light distance and vertical airflow freedom, but there are many other creative ways to set up the germination station, from boxes to indoor shelves.

Smart hygrometers nowadays that record a graph of various values over time you can access from an app. Extremely useful for optimizing the conditions in your grow space.

The temperature during germination and for a month after should stay between 68-86F. If you can provide these conditions without a heat mat, you don’t need one. If you are going to use one, get a soil probe controlled thermostat. I recommend setting up an extra identical container to the one you sow into with the same substrate, moisture, sealed with plastic wrap, then punch a hole in the side, stick the thermostat probe in and seal it with something watertight like silicone. If you put the soil probe into a container with seedlings it will move over time and uproot some seedlings. Do not rely on heat mats to increase soil temperatures more than 10F. Turn off or remove heat mats when you uncover seedlings, they are no longer helpful past this point and will result in the substrate drying too quickly.

To place the heat mat on. Improves efficiency and safety.

Germinating under an artificial light is the most repeatable and consistent method. Choosing a light: If you just want to use the light for germination and plan on moving to sunlight after a few months, I have used a 2 tube T5HO or a couple Barrina T5 LEDs. These will be good enough and the cheapest option. The light fixture would be best hung in a way that allows height adjustment, as the distance between the light and the container greatly impacts the intensity the seedlings receive and we will need to increase the light intensity in small increments often. A major upgrade that is capable of growing longer than 3 months would be an LED panel grow light with a dimmer knob like those sold by Spiderfarmer, Mars hydro, or Viparspectra. Make sure the light has a published ppfd map,which all quality, serious grow lights have. It is possible to put layers of paper towel over the germination container under a non dimmable light, but this is significantly more difficult to fine tune while slowly increasing their light exposure later. Plan ahead - if they are staying inside you should have a light capable 750 ppfd across the grow area by month 6 to 8, and 1000-1250 ppfd across the grow area by one year. The lights should be on a timer - I like a 12 hour on, 12 hour off schedule to start.

Hang reflective textured mylar, matte white butcher paper, or cardboard painted with matte white spray paint vertically around the light and container or plants. This bounces light back on to the plants that would otherwise be lost out into the room. A surround like this can increase light exposure by double. Do not use untextured reflective material like foil or glossy white material which can reflect the light unevenly and can create hot spots. Using a grow tent is an easy way to provide a light surround.

When setting up artificial lighting for the first time you want to make sure you aren't going to scorch your seedlings the moment they pop out of the seed casing. A light meter can allow you to rest easy. A member of the community tested a cheap $30 light meter side by side with a high end light meter and the apps that use your phone's camera. The cheap meter did perfectly fine, but the phone apps were off by as much as half to double the correct reading so I do not recommend using the apps. A good amount of light for germination and the first month is 62 ppfd/2700 lux. Try turning the light all the way up and/or moving it as close as you can without worrying about burning and get a reading there too - the seedlings will want 500 ppfd by the time they are a couple inches tall, when you could move them out to direct sun under layers of shade cloth if you wanted to.

If you are growing indoors, especially if you are using a light surround, air movement via a fan and humidity control via a dehumidifier are strongly recommended. This will be required around the 1.5 month mark once the seedlings are uncovered. Optimal humidity would be around 0.8 VPD at night and low humidity during the day, but you have some wiggle room on these values as long as you don't have humid stagnant air during the day or bone dry air at night.

Lights need a timer, heat mats need a soil probe thermostat. Bonus points if you can control the relative humidity/VPD. Even better if you can automate separate day and night settings. I've used a reptile tank controller that had separate day and night settings and monitored and controlled the light, dehumidifier, fan, and heat mat, all in one.

Before sowing your seeds, test out your germination station by running it for a couple days with a wifi hygrometer in it to make sure the conditions are ready and optimized.