soaking seeds...positive results
 

From reading posts here and rec.gardens.edible I took the
recommendation of soaking seeds for 12 hours before planting them. I
also covered the gardens since I have a lot of birds living around the
house.

While those that sprouted (with the exception of bachelor buttons) are
showing a high germinaton success rate, Quite a few displayed better
than average germination times.


After four days I already saw green sprouting from radishes,
marigolds, sweet allysum, bachelor buttons, cosmos, morning glories,
poppies, silene, caladrina, lettuces & purslane. Some of these are
quick to sprout, but they all are at the fewest days said to
germinate, some below what their seed packets indicate.


After seven days, spinach, snap peas, basil are definitely out.

At nine days Calendula has just one breaking ground today. I think the
first tiny nasturtium are coming up. Some carrots sprouted (most are
slow to show though).

The no-shows germinators at ten days: petunias, violas, flamenco,
snapdragon, lavender, borage and most of the nasturtium & calendulas.
Sanvitalia, blue lace, convolvulus are not out yet after 6 days.

The violas & petunias concern me; packets say 4-7 days/6-10 days and
its been past that for both. The petunias need light and we have had
more than a week of dreary weather daily. Sun was out this morning
agiain but completely clouded over after 1 o'clock. I'll try start
more indoors and see if I have better luck.

I planted some marigolds WITHOUT soaking and unlike their soaked
cousins, they haven't sprouted after 6 days. I planted petunia both
soaked and not. It will be interesting to see which, if any show up
first.



DiGiTAL_ViNYL (no email)

soaking seeds...positive results
 

How long did you soak? I will be trying it soon, myself, and would
appreciate knowing.

Thanks!

--
-- pelirojaroja
"dangerous redhead"
"DigitalVinyl" wrote in message
...
From reading posts here and rec.gardens.edible I took the
recommendation of soaking seeds for 12 hours before planting them. I
also covered the gardens since I have a lot of birds living around the
house.

While those that sprouted (with the exception of bachelor buttons) are
showing a high germinaton success rate, Quite a few displayed better
than average germination times.


After four days I already saw green sprouting from radishes,
marigolds, sweet allysum, bachelor buttons, cosmos, morning glories,
poppies, silene, caladrina, lettuces & purslane. Some of these are
quick to sprout, but they all are at the fewest days said to
germinate, some below what their seed packets indicate.


After seven days, spinach, snap peas, basil are definitely out.

At nine days Calendula has just one breaking ground today. I think the
first tiny nasturtium are coming up. Some carrots sprouted (most are
slow to show though).

The no-shows germinators at ten days: petunias, violas, flamenco,
snapdragon, lavender, borage and most of the nasturtium & calendulas.
Sanvitalia, blue lace, convolvulus are not out yet after 6 days.

The violas & petunias concern me; packets say 4-7 days/6-10 days and
its been past that for both. The petunias need light and we have had
more than a week of dreary weather daily. Sun was out this morning
agiain but completely clouded over after 1 o'clock. I'll try start
more indoors and see if I have better luck.

I planted some marigolds WITHOUT soaking and unlike their soaked
cousins, they haven't sprouted after 6 days. I planted petunia both
soaked and not. It will be interesting to see which, if any show up
first.



DiGiTAL_ViNYL (no email)

soaking seeds...positive results
 

"pelirojaroja" wrote:

How long did you soak? I will be trying it soon, myself, and would
appreciate knowing.

Thanks!

Most of them 16+ hours, a few longer, a few as little as 12 hours.
Basically I popualted the tray during the evening and planted them the
next afternoon. I had some leftover lettuce seed in one cube that sat
for two+ days and they all sprouted roots...so you don't want them to
sit that long. I did keep them room temperature while soaking. I
used two ice cube trays, with a legend keeping track of what was in
each cube. After a few hours I stirred the seeds gently and many
stopped floating... a good thing, absorbing water, getting heavier. By
the next days almost everyone had stopped floating. Since some seeds
were so tiny I used an eyedropper to suck up a few seeds with some
water and squirt them to their planting spot. I was seeding very few
and not doing large rows of seeding. Once wet they stick to fingers as
does the dirt at planting so the eyedropper is a good way to go.


I read a thread somewhere on using a weak chamomille or other tea
solution. You make a cup of tea, throw it out, them reuse the same tea
bag to make a second weaker cup. You then add that to 2qt of water. I
don't really know if tea made any difference, but I think soaking did
for most.


Tuesday afternoon will be the 14-day mark for the first plantings. I'm
hoping to see a few more sprouts from the slower germinators. Soaking
may not benefit all seeds equally or speed germination dramatically.
Of my bachelor buttons only 1 of 5 seeds seem to have grown (unless
that one seedling is actually a stray from something else!). I would
make a list of what you soak and try to track when they break ground.
I'm wondering if it hurt the violas or petunias. Niether germinated.
Sunday or monday I will probably start a new set of each indoors or
jsut give in and get ordinary varieties from the nursery. The lack of
sun for the last week+ is probably a cause as well.

DiGiTAL_ViNYL (no email)

soaking seeds...positive results
 

"pelirojaroja" wrote:

How long did you soak? I will be trying it soon, myself, and would
appreciate knowing.

"DigitalVinyl" wrote:
From reading posts here and rec.gardens.edible I took the
recommendation of soaking seeds for 12 hours before planting them.

You only soak the seeds, soaking yourself is optional.

--
Pardon my spam deterrent; send email to
Cheers, Steve Henning in Reading, PA USA
http://www.users.fast.net/~shenning

soaking seeds...positive results
 

"pelirojaroja" wrote:

How long did you soak? I will be trying it soon, myself, and would
appreciate knowing.

Thanks!

I'm thinking the larger and harder the seed the longer they should be
soaked. Anyone disagree--I know it is a generalization and their would
be exceptions.

My snappeas (one of the largest seeds i worked with) only soaked a
hour or so. I've had 100% germination on them in average time. The
interesting thing is several of them crested the dirt as seed, the
seed were three times what I planted, bloated like macadamia nuts
instead of the pea-sized seed I planted. Their size surprised but it
is apparently normal. Now I'm trying some snow peas, and I soaked the
seeds (which are a bit smaller than a pea) since last night, about 18
hours so far. They have doubled in size. I wonder if I had soaked my
Nasturtium and pumpkin seeds longer if I would have seen greater
absorbtion and kick started the seeds better.

My petunias may be finally showing up--either that or some other stray
seed.
Vanilla Marigolds aren't up at all--which is surprising. All other
types of marigold have been easy and quick to sprout. Unless I got
very confused and didn't plant any seed!?

DiGiTAL_ViNYL (no email)