Hello!

So my first two germination attempts ended up with my little plants getting damping-off or root rot.

My first attempt, I germinated them in a test tube with room-temp water. They sprouted faster then I thought they would and were already completely out of the shell when I planted them in my grow plugs. Room temps were a little erratic because I did not have a heater yet. I also over-watered the little plants which didn't help. They broke the surface and spread their leaves but after day 3 both just died. After performing my autopsy it appears it was in fact damping-off, roots were covered with brown spots.

Second attempt I tried something completely different which didn't work out either. I decided to skip the grow plugs since they dry out so fast. I made a mix of perlite + manure and humus then dropped the germinated seeds (paper towel method this time, still waited too long they taproot were more then a cm long). Well this time the plants did not make it far at all, they just shriveled and died (day 2). It was either root rot, damping off or nutrient burn form the manure and humus.

The third attempt, I am on my last two seeds and decided to re-read everything again and do this right! I germinated in test tube again (warm water) for about 14 hours. I decided to move them to moist + warm grow plugs BEFORE the tap root came out. I turned on the heater and got the room temps in the 90's, I also covered the grow plugs with white paper to prevent light from getting to the roots and then turned on a florescent light (for additional warmth).

I checked on my plants about 10 hours later and they were already coming out! I left the white paper over them until they nearly broke the surface, then I removed it. Turned on desktop fan, moved light a little closer and dropped the temps down to the 75-80 range. Here's pics on day 3 after germinating the seeds!