Paper towel Germination (PTG)

Red Dirt Farmer · March 10, 2011

I experimented with the PTG method this winter and it’s a winner. I had 100% germination with tomato and pepper seeds.

For those who have done this, a couple of questions.

1. How long do you let the sprout grow before you transfer it to the potting medium?
2. Do you place the root down or lay the whole sprout horizontally, or does it matter?

Ken

fortyonenorth · March 10, 2011

I generally transplant as soon as the root has sprouted. With tomatoes and peppers you can wait an extra day or so beyond that, but for some seeds, the roots immediately begin to grow into the paper towel and you end up with a mess.

I've never really worried about positioning the seed. It takes care of itself. One lesson I learned is that, while it's best to cover the seed with a bit of potting mix, don't "plant" it too deeply. Follow the standard procedure of "cover very lightly" and you should be fine.

Glad this is working for you - I've had similarly good results.

beeman · March 10, 2011

I don't wish to hijack this thread, but would like some clarification.
I have some tomato seeds on the go using the paper towel method. I wetted down a towel, spread the seeds, sealed the baggy and blew in air to suspend the baggy above the seed. Is this correct? All on a seed starter heater mat?
Should the plastic be in touch with the seed? One layer or more beneath the seeds? How about a second layer above, making a sandwich?
Information please.

fortyonenorth · March 10, 2011

I can only tell you what's worked for me.

I use paper towels which are 7 1/2" x 11" and snack size baggies which are about 6 1/2" x 4"

The PT gets folded in half length wise so I have 7 1/2" x 5 1/2". I place the seeds in the lower right quadrant, then I fold left-to-right and then top-to-bottom. I'm left with a sandwich that's about 2 1/2" x 4". With several layers between the seeds and the baggie.

I then place the PT sandwich in the baggie, compress to remove all the air, and seal. I make sure the PT is moist, but not soaking. After a day, I check to make sure it isn't dry. If it is, I spritz it a few times with the sprayer.

Overall, I think it's a pretty forgiving method. Make sure you clean your hands and your work surface prior to preparation and you should have no problems. I get sprouts within 3-7 days. I find that after about 10 days any seed that hasn't sprouted is unviable.

Hope this helps.

Farmette · March 11, 2011

Do you think the PTG method would work to germinate very small seeds. I have some snapdragon seeds that are very small, the size of a the period at the end of this sentence. The directions say to put them on top of moist vermiculite to germinate. I don't have vermiculite and wonder if either the PTG method or soiless mix would work. Any input is greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Chris

dice · March 10, 2011

I doubt that exact placement of the plastic vs the paper towel
matters all that much. The seeds are usually not in contact
with the plastic at all, they are inside a folded, moistened paper
towel or coffee filter, with the whole thing inside a plastic baggie.
(I do not put them on a heat mat, I simply set them in a warm
place close to a furnace register. That seems to work.)

I, too, transplant them into seed-starting mix as soon as I can
see any root at all protruding from the seed coat.

dice · March 11, 2011

[very fine seed]

You could take seed-starting mix and shake it in a strainer
(or a flour sifter), so that you get a mix with only the fine
particles of peat, etc in it. Then broadcast the snapdragon or
other fine seed on top of it.

(That should prevent it falling too deeply into the mix.)

fortyonenorth · March 11, 2011

I've used it to germinate very small seeds - like Nicotiana. It is more difficult handling them, though, once they germinate and its time to transplant. I use a very fine awl - but tweezers would work, too. Don't squeeze, just slip the tweezers under and lift.

Farmette · March 11, 2011

Thanks dice and fortyonenorth! I will try both things...I do not have a great number of the seeds, so I hope it works.

hill60 · March 11, 2011

Farmette
You can also use what ever starting medium that you are using it does not have to be vermiculite. The seeds are so tiny I think it would be hard to transplant off the paper towel without damaging them. I don't use the paper towel method so I can't say for sure.

I started mine on the pro-mix that I use for all my seeds.

Hill60

ireilly · March 11, 2011

For small seeds I usually just position them by pushing them around, fold the towel or filter over them, and when Itransplant them I either cut away the perimeter of the towel and plant the towel and all at once, or I cut the filter into however many pieces I want in different pots or locations and plant the pieces. I usually use just a wedge from the coffee filter anyway.

I find they just grow into the filter and that is OK with me anyway. And it makes it easier to plant them at a constant depth rather than hoping the really small seeds don't fall into crevices. Plus it evens out the water, although it will wick the water away as well as deliver it so you have to sort of watch at first to make sure you don't over/underwater them.

Sometimes the hardest thing is to see the plant has even germinated. I use the brown filters for contrast as suggested here.

If you knew how long it would take to germinate anyway you could just do the transplanting without even looking at the medium. The soil will take over anyway at that point.

Red Dirt Farmer · March 14, 2011

For what it’s worth, the method I settled on this winter that worked the best is as follows.
1. I used re-cycled plastic containers that had tight-fitting tops. I cut two layers of paper towels to fit the bottom and saturated the towels with water that contained about 20% hydrogen-peroxide.
2. I placed the seeds (only tried this with tomatoes and peppers) on the wet towel and sprayed them with the same mixture.
3. I placed the container in a dark warm place and I had seed sprouts within three days for the tomatoes and 4-6 days for the peppers.
4. I transplanted the tomato sprouts into jiffy peat pellets by placing them on top then covering with a some fine seedling mixture, and then sprayed a little of the water-peroxide mixture to wet.
5. Since this was an experiment and the middle of winter I put the individual peat pellets into small plastic cups and placed them on a sunny window sill.

6. I repeated this method again for peppers but substituted some of peat pellets with ground coconut shell pellets. I fired up my grow-lights and placed them there with a 12-hour on and 12-hour off cycle. The seedlings in the coconut shell pots were just terrible, yellow and stunted. The plants in the peat pellet pots were excellent. This despite using a weak mixture of the blue fertilizer on both. My guess is the coconut shell pots are devoid of available nutrients.

I had 100% germination but not all the sprouts grew once transplanted. That’s why I asked the original questions about size and depth. Looking back, I see that the sprouts that were lightly covered with fine potting soil in the peat pellets did the best.

Ken

ARgardener · March 5, 2017

Okay, so I took the leap and am trying the coffee filter method with all of my eggplant, peppers, and tomatoes!

Is it possible to get the coffee filters too wet? They don't seem to hold water like a paper towel, so I'm wondering if it's even possible. How to know if it's too wet?

Will the coffee filters every dry to the point that they nee to be sprayed again? I've got the baggies closed except for about 1" to allow ventilation

Lastly, what's the time frame I should be looking at for germination?
When to be concerned? How to know something is going wrong?

Thanks!

March 10, 2011	#1
Red Dirt Farmer Tomatovillian™ Join Date: May 2010 Location: Oklahoma City, OK Posts: 42	Paper towel Germination (PTG) I experimented with the PTG method this winter and it’s a winner. I had 100% germination with tomato and pepper seeds. For those who have done this, a couple of questions. 1. How long do you let the sprout grow before you transfer it to the potting medium? 2. Do you place the root down or lay the whole sprout horizontally, or does it matter? Ken

March 10, 2011	#6
dice Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: PNW Posts: 4,743	I doubt that exact placement of the plastic vs the paper towel matters all that much. The seeds are usually not in contact with the plastic at all, they are inside a folded, moistened paper towel or coffee filter, with the whole thing inside a plastic baggie. (I do not put them on a heat mat, I simply set them in a warm place close to a furnace register. That seems to work.) I, too, transplant them into seed-starting mix as soon as I can see any root at all protruding from the seed coat. __________________ -- alias

March 11, 2011	#7
dice Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: PNW Posts: 4,743	[very fine seed] You could take seed-starting mix and shake it in a strainer (or a flour sifter), so that you get a mix with only the fine particles of peat, etc in it. Then broadcast the snapdragon or other fine seed on top of it. (That should prevent it falling too deeply into the mix.) __________________ -- alias Last edited by dice; March 16, 2011 at 10:34 AM. Reason: clarity

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March 10, 2011	#2
fortyonenorth Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: NW Indiana Posts: 1,150	I generally transplant as soon as the root has sprouted. With tomatoes and peppers you can wait an extra day or so beyond that, but for some seeds, the roots immediately begin to grow into the paper towel and you end up with a mess. I've never really worried about positioning the seed. It takes care of itself. One lesson I learned is that, while it's best to cover the seed with a bit of potting mix, don't "plant" it too deeply. Follow the standard procedure of "cover very lightly" and you should be fine. Glad this is working for you - I've had similarly good results.

March 10, 2011	#3
beeman Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: Ontario, Canada Posts: 692	I don't wish to hijack this thread, but would like some clarification. I have some tomato seeds on the go using the paper towel method. I wetted down a towel, spread the seeds, sealed the baggy and blew in air to suspend the baggy above the seed. Is this correct? All on a seed starter heater mat? Should the plastic be in touch with the seed? One layer or more beneath the seeds? How about a second layer above, making a sandwich? Information please.

March 11, 2011	#5
Farmette Tomatovillian™ Join Date: May 2009 Location: Wisconsin Posts: 985	Do you think the PTG method would work to germinate very small seeds. I have some snapdragon seeds that are very small, the size of a the period at the end of this sentence. The directions say to put them on top of moist vermiculite to germinate. I don't have vermiculite and wonder if either the PTG method or soiless mix would work. Any input is greatly appreciated. Thanks Chris

March 11, 2011	#10
hill60 Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Vancouver Island BC Posts: 122	Farmette You can also use what ever starting medium that you are using it does not have to be vermiculite. The seeds are so tiny I think it would be hard to transplant off the paper towel without damaging them. I don't use the paper towel method so I can't say for sure. I started mine on the pro-mix that I use for all my seeds. Hill60

March 11, 2011	#11
ireilly Tomatovillian™ Join Date: May 2010 Location: Dallas Posts: 344	For small seeds I usually just position them by pushing them around, fold the towel or filter over them, and when Itransplant them I either cut away the perimeter of the towel and plant the towel and all at once, or I cut the filter into however many pieces I want in different pots or locations and plant the pieces. I usually use just a wedge from the coffee filter anyway. I find they just grow into the filter and that is OK with me anyway. And it makes it easier to plant them at a constant depth rather than hoping the really small seeds don't fall into crevices. Plus it evens out the water, although it will wick the water away as well as deliver it so you have to sort of watch at first to make sure you don't over/underwater them. Sometimes the hardest thing is to see the plant has even germinated. I use the brown filters for contrast as suggested here. If you knew how long it would take to germinate anyway you could just do the transplanting without even looking at the medium. The soil will take over anyway at that point.

March 14, 2011	#12
Red Dirt Farmer Tomatovillian™ Join Date: May 2010 Location: Oklahoma City, OK Posts: 42	For what it’s worth, the method I settled on this winter that worked the best is as follows. 1. I used re-cycled plastic containers that had tight-fitting tops. I cut two layers of paper towels to fit the bottom and saturated the towels with water that contained about 20% hydrogen-peroxide. 2. I placed the seeds (only tried this with tomatoes and peppers) on the wet towel and sprayed them with the same mixture. 3. I placed the container in a dark warm place and I had seed sprouts within three days for the tomatoes and 4-6 days for the peppers. 4. I transplanted the tomato sprouts into jiffy peat pellets by placing them on top then covering with a some fine seedling mixture, and then sprayed a little of the water-peroxide mixture to wet. 5. Since this was an experiment and the middle of winter I put the individual peat pellets into small plastic cups and placed them on a sunny window sill. 6. I repeated this method again for peppers but substituted some of peat pellets with ground coconut shell pellets. I fired up my grow-lights and placed them there with a 12-hour on and 12-hour off cycle. The seedlings in the coconut shell pots were just terrible, yellow and stunted. The plants in the peat pellet pots were excellent. This despite using a weak mixture of the blue fertilizer on both. My guess is the coconut shell pots are devoid of available nutrients. I had 100% germination but not all the sprouts grew once transplanted. That’s why I asked the original questions about size and depth. Looking back, I see that the sprouts that were lightly covered with fine potting soil in the peat pellets did the best. Ken

March 5, 2017	#13
ARgardener Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Dec 2016 Location: steamy southern Arkansas Posts: 155	Okay, so I took the leap and am trying the coffee filter method with all of my eggplant, peppers, and tomatoes! Is it possible to get the coffee filters too wet? They don't seem to hold water like a paper towel, so I'm wondering if it's even possible. How to know if it's too wet? Will the coffee filters every dry to the point that they nee to be sprayed again? I've got the baggies closed except for about 1" to allow ventilation Lastly, what's the time frame I should be looking at for germination? When to be concerned? How to know something is going wrong? Thanks!