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Comment by tomp | Hacker News Reader

Is there any simple way to speed up / increase chances of germination (of tomatoes, beans, peas, lentils, pumpkins)? E.g. by covering the soil (where the seeds are) with paper / plastic / cloth (as a makeshift greenhouse, to increase temperature and/or humidity), or something similar?

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Heat and consistent moisture. I keep some of my seedlings under grow lights in my furnace room beside my servers. Plastic seed trays with clear tops are excellent to reduce evaporation.

Electric heat mats are awesome to stick under seed trays in the sprouting stage.

In my experience, heat is the most significant accelerator for germination. You also want very loose and light soil to help the seeds poke out as easily as possible. "Seed starter" mix is ideal, see my other comment in this subthread for more on that.

Try the paper towel trick: wrap the seeds in a moist paper towel (not too wet, or it will encourage fungus growth). Then, keep them inside a ziplock bag in a warm place for a couple of days, checking on them every day. I keep them on top of the refridgerator where it's nice and warm.

Beans sprout super fast! For very dry seeds (lentils, beans, peas, edamamme) you could soak them in water overnight and just use the seeds that settle down after they've absorbed some moisture.

Ditto. The only downside to this method is having to transplant twice: once to soil pots after sprouting, then to the ground.

If the seeds are in paper towel, wouldn't you just plant it as is and let it decompose?

You want the roots finding real food as soon as possible before exhausting the seed reserves.

Oh yes. You'll destroy the roots if you try to separate it. What I meant is that you will typically only sprout seeds that way. Then you put them in a small starter pot or similar with soil to get them to continue growing inside. Then transplanting them into the ground once ready. This is opposed to just sprouting in the starter pot.

> Ditto. The only downside to this method is having to transplant twice: once to soil pots after sprouting, then to the ground.

Consider getting a soil block maker, it makes propagation and transplanting so much easier:

https://growagoodlife.com/soil-blocks-for-growing-seedlings-...

I'm one of today's lucky 10,000! Thanks for sharing I will definitely look into getting one of those.

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