How to germinate seeds quickly [Easy Guide]

Learn how to germinate your seeds quickly at home! Even if you are a beginner gardener, you can quickly start your seeds indoors with this easy paper towel seed germination method!

By using this paper towel method to germinate seeds, you may improve germination rates and shorten the time it takes for seeds to sprout. In order to increase the percentage of seeds that sprout, learn how to nurture seeds in tissue paper. As long as you supply heat and a dark environment, your seeds will germinate like crazy because the ziplock bag traps the humid atmosphere within, providing a greenhouse effect. The greatest method for seed germination, in my opinion, is this.

Supplies for paper towel method to germinate your seeds quickly

To germinate our seeds with the paper towel method we’ll need:

1. Ziploc bags. The more seeds we want to germinate the larger the bag.
2. A row of paper towels.
3. Scissors are optional, we need them to cut our paper towels but we can always tear them by hand if you want to.
4. Some tape.
5. A spray with water, regular tap water it’s okay.
6. A large plate.
7. Seed labels and something to write on them.
8. Last but not least we, of course, need all the seeds that we want to germinate, and because I’m about seven weeks before our last first date I’m starting my tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants.

How to germinate seeds in a paper towel

We’ll start by cutting the paper towel sheets to be twice as wide as the Ziploc bag is, you’ll see in a minute why. Here we don’t need to be exact a close match is good enough.

Next let’s take the plate, place a paper towel we just cut on it, and wet the paper by spraying it with two or three sprays of water. We don’t need to exaggerate here.

The next step is very important and many beginner gardeners are doing the mistake of not following it, so pay attention. After grabbing the seeds you want to germinate and the seed text with the pencil we need to immediately write on the seed tag what seeds will be in the bag and the date we started the germination process.

Last year I forgot to tag my seeds and it was a nightmare to keep tracking where all the pots were and what was in them.

So listen to me, write down what seeds you’re germinating and now we need to open our first seed bag. Just a little bit. No need to destroy the packaging here.

Because in most cases we’ll save some seeds for future growing seasons. Because yes in the seed packet usually there are quite a few more seeds that you will need.

And now with the seed bag open, we need to spread the seeds evenly on the surface of the wet paper towel. Here we can spread just a few more seeds than we actually use because of the high success rate of this method. No more wasted seeds.

Once the seeds are laying evenly on the paper towel we need to fold them to the size of our Ziploc bag. Grab the bag, spray once or twice in the bag and place the paper towel with seeds in it.

How to germinate seeds quickly

The addition of water and the fact that the Ziploc bag is tightly sealed will assure fast germination of your seed and a greater success rate. And we mustn’t forget to tape the seed tag on our ziplock bag, so you won’t forget what’s in it. And then we need to place it in a warm and dark place.

The warmth is a major factor in how fast our seeds will germinate. But how do you know how warm it needs? To be luckily for us there is a neat table with all the temperatures. And if you don’t have the table you can always place it at room temperature and look up the germination time on your seed packet.

Usually, there’s something written on the back of it.

Before I show you if the seeds have sprouted or not I have quite a few more seeds that need to be germinated.

Seed germination reveal

With the help of some editing magic like in the cooking shows, I have a few seeds that have been germinating in the paper towel bags for a few days now. So let’s see how they did.

If the paper towel won’t go out of the Ziploc bag, tear it. It it’s better to destroy the plastic bag than to lose your sprouts, what do you think?

Here’s another trick if the paper towel is a little bit dry and is sticking to the sprouts spray it with some water to soak it up and loosen the paper fibers. In that way, you will easily get your sprouts out of the paper and there you have it nice healthy sprouts that you can plant in your pots.

I hope you found this article informative and if you did please share it with others. Happy gardening!