Starting new plants in water or water beads

[MarkL057]

Hiya everyone,
I am very much a novice plant grower.
I live in a 2nd floor flat so can only grow a couple of potted plants on the balcony which I bought potted and have thankfully kept them alive and blooming!

I've decided I want to try and grow something else indoors, maybe lavender or mint, something nice smelling.
I don't really want to use soil as it's a pain indoors and not many places I can do this with even a remote chance of making a mess.
I want to attempt to grow something from seeds using water or water beads (don't really want to fork out on a hydroponic system just yet). I found plenty of videos showing transplanting plants from soil to water and water beads but nothing really showing you how to do it from seed. I was thinking of propagating (think that's the right word) with the paper towel/cotton wool/stone wool method then once there's a good inch of root, transferring into water beads.
Would this work or does this only really work using cuts off grown plants or transferal from soil?

Hope that's not too much of a paragraph! I tend to overthink and over plan before doing anything as I want to get it right first time.


Thanks in advance, Mark.

[rary]

Hello MarkL057 and welcome to the Vine, I honestly can't give you an answer to your question, though I think if you germinate seeds in some paper toweling you should be able to grow it n water or beads (I have never came across water beads though I think I would want to flush them clean quite regularly to avoid any build up of unwanted salts,) whatever you try to grow this way ensure that you keep its head above water, and if you don't try you will never know, the person who hasn't made a mistake has never tried anything Keep us informed of your progress and if possible provide photos. Now go for it