How to Successfully Germinate Seeds

Germinating seeds can often be one of the most frustrating things when starting your grow. Here we will discuss what you need to do to have a successful germination. Water is a vital component when it comes to germinating seeds. Water activates the seed and from their first interaction, the seed will begin developing its root system, breaking out o its outer layer and awakens from its dormancy. There are a couple of ways to germinate your seedlings but in todays discussion we will talk about the wet paper towel method.

STEP 1:

Stack two pieces of paper towel sheets (un- bleached) on top of each other. Once you have done this, dampen the paper towel, if possible use a spray bottle to achieve this step but if not, lightly drip water onto the paper towels. Its important to note that too much water will effectively drown the seeds so keep a keen eye on how much water is in the paper towels. Place your seeds onto the paper towels, leaving a centimetre or two between each seed to avoid overcrowding the space.

STEP 2:

Dampen another two paper towels and place them over the original paper towels that are holding your seedlings. Once you have done this, place your seedlings in a zip lock back. Do not seal the bag off as that will cut off all oxygen to the seedlings themselves.  Place the zip lock bag between two plates; one as the base and the other should be flipped upside down and placed on top of the base plate, this creates a dome in which the seeds can sit in. At this stage, Light is not important, in fact light will actually stunt or even stop your seedling from hatching out as root exposure to light is detrimental to plant growth. Place your seedlings in a warm and dark place. Anywhere from 21 – 24 degrees celcius is ideal. If you happen to live in places where temperatures are very low, buying a heat mat will help you out tremendously with this problem.

STEP 3:

Once we have found a nice spot for our seeds all we need to do is maintain their environment. Check back every 6 hours to ensure the paper towels haven’t dried out, if you feel that they are, light spray the paper towels and place them back in the zip lock bag. It is also important to monitor temperatures within the germination environment. Temperatures getting to low or high will kill or stunt your seedling.  Keep a close eye on your seedlings until they show their first roots.

Benefits of Hydroponic Cultivation

Benefits of Hydroponic Cultivation

Hydroponic is a soilless cultivation using water mixed with completely soluble nutrients, and various types of substrates [1].  There are a wide variety of soilless growing systems available to individuals and for commercial stage [1]. 

Here are some benefits of growing plants hydroponically:

a.                Water use is more efficient, recirculating [2][3][5]

b.               Environmental contamination limited - the lack of herbicides and pesticides [2][3][5]

c.                Intensive production in cultivation space [2][3][5]
d.               Taste is superior, quality, appearance, uniformity, and shelf life of hydroponic vegetables  is longer [5]

e.                Increase in production [2][4], decrease in production costs such as labour and materials [4]

f.                Crops can be produced all year round [5]

References:

1.  Raviv, M., and Lieth, J. H. (2008). Significance of Soilless Culture in Agriculture. Amsterdam: Elsevier Science. doi: 10.1016/b978-044452975-6.50003-4

2.  Schnitzler, W.H. (2013). Urban hydroponics for green and clean cities and for food security. Acta Hortic. 1004, 13-26
DOI: 10.17660/ActaHortic.2013.1004.1
https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2013.1004.1

3.  Treftz, C. and Omaye, S. (2016), "Hydroponics: potential for augmenting sustainable food production in non-arable regions", Nutrition & Food Science, Vol. 46 No. 5, pp. 672-684. https://doi.org/10.1108/NFS-10-2015-0118

4.  Hansen, R. (1999). Chrysanthemums grown in hydroponics; toward development of a cost effective, automated production system. Acta Hortic. 481, 297–304. doi: 10.17660/ActaHortic.1999.481.32

5.  Pak. J. Agri., Agril. Engg., Vet. Sc. 22 (2) 2006.  http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.514.4323&rep=rep1&type=pdf

Nutrient Film Hydroponic Set - Up:

Nutrient Film Hydroponic Set - Up:

The system we will be looking at today is what we call a nutrient film set up. This set up is classified as a recirculating system, as the pants root system is constantly in contact with a flow of nutrient water and recycles runoff water back into its reservoir. The set up pictured above is great for those living in tight living spaces such as small town houses or apartments. This particular set up can be hung up against a wall, there for minimising the space in which it takes up. 

The system is made up of a few different components. The first is a set of four PVC pipes that are stacked on top of each other, much like shelvings for books. These PVC pipes are connected together through metal plates and pillars that have been drilled and screwed into a metal frame. Each PVC pipe (in the pictured set up) holds up too 20 small pots (80 in the whole system). These slots are cut out before hand. A lot of growers view this system as one of the most efficient and low maintenance systems in hydroponics. Once you've set up your preferred frame size, its now time to add in the other components. One of the most important things with this system is selecting a water pump that will cover all your needs. The purpose of the water pump itself is to pump water, which is stored in the systems reservoir tank, to the PVC pipes. The water pumped from the reservoir will trickle in at a steady pace into the PVC piping. Its also important to note that the direct tubing from the water pump in the reservoir should be connected to the top PVC pipe in the system. We do this because the system utilizes gravity, in the sense that the water will reach the end of the top PVC piping and flow down to the next one. The PVC pipes all have an additional length of tubing connecting it to the PVC pipe below it. When the nutrient solution reaches the bottom (last) PVC pipe it will then lead back into the reservoir itself, therefore giving you a recycling system, which can be very cost efficient. Depending on the size of your grow, you should aim to change your nutrient solution every one - two weeks, ensuring the solution is not getting diluted or contaminated.