Tuesday, March 21, 2006
The Hot Way to Germinate Seeds
The Hot Way to Germinate Seeds
By: Russell Johnston, March 21, 2006 – revised Sept 20, 2006
-- exclusive to Handales.com – may not be reproduced --
When I was a younger man I had the good luck to see some mimosa seeds for sale in a small town grocery store, of all things. I had heard of the famous mimosa, that rapidly folds its leaves at the slightest touch, and I really wanted to grow one myself.
When I got them home I faithfully carried out the instructions to get the plants started and... nothing came up. Germination rate zero. I tried a couple of over methods to germinate them, soaking, soaking in paper towels, and still didn't get even one seed started. About the time I had only a few of twenty seeds left, I gave up.
Some years later I came across the few old seeds that were left over and had a flash of inspiration. A bit of an unusual idea, but I just figured, hey, I've got nothing to lose here, theses seeds are probably dead anyway, I might as well make the experiment. I'll tell you what I did in just a second, but here's the result: every single seed sprouted! Since then, if I have any problems getting seeds to start growing, I use the same trick to germinate them, and it's always worked well.
Here's what you do:
Get two cups. Put half a cup of room temperature water in one. Put the seeds in the empty cup. Boil water and then pour a half cup of the boiling water into the empty cup with the seeds in it. Wait thirty seconds or a minute and then pour the cooler water into the hot cup with the seeds to cool fill the cup and cool the water somewhat. Now leave the seeds to soak overnight, then plant them.
There's more than one reason that might explain why this works so very well. Boiling water penetrates seeds quickly. Fire is actually necessary for some seeds to germinate, and warm temperatures can help with germination too.
A recent BBC news story tells of two hundred year old seeds being tempted into life, helped perhaps by mimicking other effects of fire: “The Cape region is regularly visited by fire, which is a signal to germinate. So scientists mimicked the effects of fire by chipping off the hard coats of some seeds, and bubbling smoke over others. ...Even with this detailed preparation, 29 of the 32 species represented declined to germinate.” http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/5361396.stm
I'm tempted to suggest that they should have tried heat or very warm water, as well on some of those species. I don't know precisely this quick-parboiling technique works, but I sure know it does work. I've always had very high rates of germination with this technique, so if you have some seeds that are very reluctant to sprout, try this unusual technique to force them to start. You might be surprised at just how effective it is.
-- exclusive to Handales.com – may not be reproduced --
About the author:
Article copyright © Russell Johnston
Russell Johnston writes for Handales.com, which offers a large variety of articles on gardening. His web sites are photoperiodeffect.com, funnypoetry.com and BestPaperAirplanes.com
By: Russell Johnston, March 21, 2006 – revised Sept 20, 2006
-- exclusive to Handales.com – may not be reproduced --
When I was a younger man I had the good luck to see some mimosa seeds for sale in a small town grocery store, of all things. I had heard of the famous mimosa, that rapidly folds its leaves at the slightest touch, and I really wanted to grow one myself.
When I got them home I faithfully carried out the instructions to get the plants started and... nothing came up. Germination rate zero. I tried a couple of over methods to germinate them, soaking, soaking in paper towels, and still didn't get even one seed started. About the time I had only a few of twenty seeds left, I gave up.
Some years later I came across the few old seeds that were left over and had a flash of inspiration. A bit of an unusual idea, but I just figured, hey, I've got nothing to lose here, theses seeds are probably dead anyway, I might as well make the experiment. I'll tell you what I did in just a second, but here's the result: every single seed sprouted! Since then, if I have any problems getting seeds to start growing, I use the same trick to germinate them, and it's always worked well.
Here's what you do:
Get two cups. Put half a cup of room temperature water in one. Put the seeds in the empty cup. Boil water and then pour a half cup of the boiling water into the empty cup with the seeds in it. Wait thirty seconds or a minute and then pour the cooler water into the hot cup with the seeds to cool fill the cup and cool the water somewhat. Now leave the seeds to soak overnight, then plant them.
There's more than one reason that might explain why this works so very well. Boiling water penetrates seeds quickly. Fire is actually necessary for some seeds to germinate, and warm temperatures can help with germination too.
A recent BBC news story tells of two hundred year old seeds being tempted into life, helped perhaps by mimicking other effects of fire: “The Cape region is regularly visited by fire, which is a signal to germinate. So scientists mimicked the effects of fire by chipping off the hard coats of some seeds, and bubbling smoke over others. ...Even with this detailed preparation, 29 of the 32 species represented declined to germinate.” http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/5361396.stm
I'm tempted to suggest that they should have tried heat or very warm water, as well on some of those species. I don't know precisely this quick-parboiling technique works, but I sure know it does work. I've always had very high rates of germination with this technique, so if you have some seeds that are very reluctant to sprout, try this unusual technique to force them to start. You might be surprised at just how effective it is.
-- exclusive to Handales.com – may not be reproduced --
About the author:
Article copyright © Russell Johnston
Russell Johnston writes for Handales.com, which offers a large variety of articles on gardening. His web sites are photoperiodeffect.com, funnypoetry.com and BestPaperAirplanes.com
Labels: gardening germination planting biology
