How to pop cannabis seeds the Nick Hardy &Co Way

(Yup I really got free weed with my seeds! Smells lush, probably another Exotic Genetix, wasn’t labelled, but I’ve asked the vendor)

Its my first seed popping day since, well the last, must be the best part of 3 months. This is just a small sampler for the much bigger one in a week or so, a mere amuse bouche of 12.

I used to be terrified, all that money I spent, all that time spent waiting for them to arrive and then the grow could be over before I even started…

Me and most when they start out

This is what works for us and we have quite a bit of experience, I see some riff on this from most commercial growers, not many doing it volume will go straight in the soil, if anyone, its labour intensive, some just won’t ever pop, why waste the time having to fish in the dirt for them? Having them in bags allows you to try and tease them out if they need a helping hand because you can see them. We also have favourable environment here, no need to find a warm place, everywhere is a temperature conducive to germinating seeds and a secret weapon, but one that can be recreated.

To address the above quotes and how to mitigate them; Don’t be terrified, if you’re starting out, hopefully you either bought from a reputable dealer/breeder and you chose a solid well known strain, something cookies or something kush. A strain that’s been around the block, maybe a guarantee off the seed bank. Waiting I can’t do anything about but I can tell you that repeatability is key. Once you find a method that works I really wouldn’t think about trying to riff on it. The seeds need moisture, warmth and darkness in that order, pretty much. Here’s how we do it.

So whatyagot! Give me everything you got…

Normally I’d say Sharpie but that isn’t one, someone nicked my sharpie. Anyway, marker pen, one per strain of zip lock bag, ditto solo cup, a bulldog clip, two bits of cardboard, and some kitchen roll. Obviously, some water. We use the water from our swimming pool which is cleaned with Ozone – AKA H2o2 AKA Hydrogen Peroxide. There is about 100ppm of H2o2 in the pool at any one time. Its basically very clean water, at just below Ph 7 or I’m not paying the bill this month. You probably don’t mind a little extra acidic but not below Ph 6, 6.5 would be golden I reckon, but I’m not Ph’ing for just two or even 10 solos as is sometimes needed to 6.5 from 6.9. Bugger. Now I’ll have to do it next week, I hate myself, talked myself into it 😂 Any way we open the packet and pour them into the labelled solo cups and leave for about an hour. Alexa, set timer…

And then we put them out on to a sheet of kitchen roll and sprinkle liberally with water from the solos before folding in half and then folding the edges over, like the world’s worst present wrapping. Some more water on those folded edges to seal, you want it wet through, slightly translucent but still structurally sound and then into the bag and zip it up.

We then bulldog clip the cardboard front and back of the bags and put it somewhere warm, hung vertically as in the picture. For us this means downstairs, it seems to get a bit hotter near my seat. The reason we put it vertically is once or twice a day I’ll swing it up 90 degrees, this ensures that the water doesn’t all just pool at the bottom of the bag. I generally won’t look until about 18 hours later. Say bag them up early evening and look first at lunch time the next day. More often than not you see something, sometimes nothing, but there have been times we’ve had a full cm already by then. All depends on the strain and the seed itself. I thought I might be nervous, those 12 seeds cost me $250 – only $50 was Thai markup. But we have a system that runs at 90%, better if I don’t count free seeds. So yeah, what ever will be, will be.

More on the strains themselves, when they have proved viable!

Nick & Co

PS – Yep, I really got free weed with my seeds! Smells lush, probably another Exotic Genetix, wasn’t labelled, but I’ve asked the vendor.