Does Soaking Seeds Speed Germination? || Black Gumbo
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- Опубликовано: 5 сен 2024
- You have always heard that soaking hard seeds before sowing and planting a vegetable crop speeds up sprouting. Is it true? Do you have to do it?
In this video, Sam and I set up a little experiment with our okra seeds and we're going to see if soaking seeds in water for 24 hours actually speeds up the germination process. We suspect it does, now we have definitive experience. While not 100% scientific, its a good enough test case to answer our questions.
We begin with three varieties of red okra, plant 4 sets of dry seed and 4 sets of soaked seed per variety. We then waited and I'll share with you the results.
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Black Gumbo shares our suburban, backyard, sustainable gardening efforts. We work a small-scale, typical Zone 9a garden and raised beds, the kind of gardening accessible to all. We tend to take the slice of life approach and hope you will enjoy our family, our dog, our cooking, our adventures, and occasionally some commentary and advice. We love family, joy and friendship, and we invite you to enjoy these things with us!
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For those looking for a quick answer:
Yes, it did accelerate the germination.
Will soaking the seed in a legum inoculate be faster?
I have been wondering about soaking seeds for the last 3 days and finally remembered to research it. Because of your toil in the soil & water, i now know that it does accelerate the process. And i agree it does make sense, some seed shell are fairly hard and that soaking does wonders to get it to grow quicker. I'm 59 years old and the saying "You're never to old to learn" still applies! Thank you!
Love it when I see fathers involve their children in such positive activities, especially gardening. We need to bring every child closer to nature and make them understand that the food that they get on their table is God's gift; not something produced by companies and made available in supermarkets
I wish I had gardened growing up. All of the things that I'm learning now from gardening of the cycles of the earth, and the lives of plants, could've helped reinforce a whole lot of other concepts when growing up. But I'm just glad it's happening at all! I love growing plants!
@@joshuagavaghan224 God Bless you , sorry you didn't learn sooner ,
I taught my children from the time they could walk ,
Also to fish & My dad taught them to hunt .
Good luck 👍 and have a great harvest this fall
Garlic, broccoli 🥦 so much , Bless you
Josette 🙏🏻🦋🌻🥕🥒🫑🍈🍑🍋🌽🥦🥬🍅🌶👍
Facts! It’s like Mana from Heaven each morning!! God has always provided for us even as we sin daily!! He says it we don’t work we don’t eat!! And that’s how it is! God gave the Israelites manna but they had to go get it!! He did not hand feed them…
Bring upcoming generations back to the basics of creation!! And share with them as they’re working beside you and they won’t have time to grumble!!
Getting the temperature right is more important than soaking the seed.
I was able to sprout red kidney beans that were about 2 years old in 2-3 days just by starting them in a plastic baggie with a paper towle and water. It works a charm:)
Yes Sir it works really well. Also when your soaking seeds in water you can get the dead seed out as they will be the floaters. Thanks for the awesome info here! Hope you two have a great day!
Love the way Samuel is out enjoying gardening with you. He is learning so much. I have soaked sunflower seeds and other flowers just because my sister said too and she was a great green thumb gardener.
Scott is also teaching the youngster some scientific method... running experiments with a control group and so on. That will serve him well.
Maybe trying this experiment with super hot pepper seeds would be better, since their germination time is particularly long. That could possibly show a better result. Good video!
I wish my dad would have done stuff with me when I was a kid. All my dad did was work drink beer and watch tv.
At least you had a dad!
Salvador Gil really having no dad would be better than having a father who didn’t care or love for you. Look I don’t know what happened with your father but think about it this way would you rather be reminded everyday that your father doesn’t love you or would you rather have someone who was never there to begin with depending on the situation of course would effect the discussion but just think about it like that
Forest Watcher agreed
You are so lucky,at least you knew your Dad, and he was home.Look at the positive.God bless
Some of us had it a lot worse. Abuse and abandonment. Not saying that being ignored is not abuse, but it can be far worse. At least your dad worked hard, and came home every day.
But I do get what you're saying. Many many people wish they had a father they could trust, and feel safe being around. Many times I wish I had such a father.
Then there are those that have no idea who their father is, because he never cared to be there.
At some measure you likely felt like that too, if the father just was not available, even though he was home after work.
I think it's great that you have your son helping you. He'll be learning valuable lessons.
I think it depends on the seed.
Nasturtium seeds germinate way faster if you soak them. I didn't try other seeds, but the tale goes:
Tomatoes and peppers germinate faster if soaked too
For me I’m growing freshly harvested Pinto beans, I had some germinate the same day I started soaking them, like hours after I put them in. I’m using the paper towel method, put some paper towel in a Solo cup, put the bean on top, fill it 1/3 of the way with water, then let the magic happen. It’s cute in a way to see that first root peak out of the little bean.
@@loganiushere It was many and many a year ago,
In a kingdom by the sea, I believe I may have been in 1st or 2nd grade and my classmates and I put some water in a glass, a brown paper towel surrounded the inside of the glass jar and then we put a bean, or maybe two beans between the glass and wet paper towel. Then we saw the magic of the root appear in a day or two. So as Scott stated from his experiment, the wet seeds germinated faster.
*I love how he was worried about the dirt getting under his nails, im the same way*
with large seeds (like pumpkin), you can also scratch the seed coat to allow water quicker access to the actual seed.
Some seeds can be shucked for faster (and more reliable) germination. I have done that with sun flower seed and cherry pits so far.
I've always heard that okra is hard to sprout. I used to soak mine, but since mine are always up by day 3, I don't bother any more. I planted okra in my trays this past Friday, they are poking through the dirt today. I like the different varieties you have.
Thumbs up for using Baker's Creek Seeds. That's where we get ours from.
I soak mine in room temperature fresh tea, lipton's or whatever you have on hand
I love seeing how you and your son interact. He'll have some wonderful memories of your time together as an adult. Thank you so much for sharing. It was interesting. What are you going to do with all that okra? Blessings
The okra will be used as a test plant for my garden beds which were contaminated with an herbicide. I believe the okra will present evidence of the herbicide's presence if it persists to be in the soil. Leftover plants will either be planted in various places, or potted, though I think Okra gets too big for pots.
@@ScottHead Thank you for responding. I found it interesting that so much was started. I personally don't like to eat it and I didn't introduce it to my children as they were growing. I think it's a vegetable they have never tried and wouldn't recognize if it jumped up and bit them. Lol. Though we do eat other Mediterranean vegetables like eggplant and olives etc which they do like. It's my first year of planting a vegie garden and slugs and snails had a feast so I restarted and sprinkled crushed snail bait around. In the mornings I collect over a dozen snail shells from the two raised garden beds I have going. Not much in there but it's a start. I can't wait for spring to comedown under so I can plant peppers and pumpkin,eggplant and tomatoes etc. By then I'll have eight raised beds ready and a half dozen trellises. By the Grace of God. I'm praying hard. Blessings
I find it a good practice to start much more seed than I will actually use. This allows me to select a small number of very healthy and strong plants for a garden. The leftovers can serve are compost material so nothing goes to waste. :-) Hope you do well as you keep on gardening. Thanks for taking time to comment.
@@ScottHead A pleasure. Thank you for sharing.
@@helennelson3120 pick okra about 3inchs long. Cut into 1inch pieces. Put in bowl, cover with buttermilk, and some hot sauce if you like spicy stuff, stir well. Stick in fridge for at least 1 hour, over night is better. Drain okra completely in a strainer. Make a coating thats equal parts All purpose flour and corn meal. For every cup of coating add 1 teaspoon each of baking soda and baking powder, and half a teaspoon of salt. Add pepper to taste, usually a quarter teaspoon per cup of coating. Mix ingredients for coating well. Coat drained okra with coating in a covered bowl or sealed bag shaken well. Shake off extra coating. Fry in hot oil, 350-375, for 3+ minutes until a deep golden brown. Drain on a rack or on some paper towels, taking care to try to keep it somewhat separated while its cooling so it will stay crispy. Put a little sea salt on it as soon as you pull it out. It's amazing!!!! ;-)
Thank you Scott 👍🙂
That’s Very cool to know
the ones you soaked have a day head start. Should plant at the same time you start the soak.
I always thought the soak idea was a way to pick the strongest healthiest ones to plant.
I appreciate your real life experiments and taste testing. We are doing our own experimenting as to what will and will not grow in the shade. The broccoli is a success. We planted in mid-March. They mostly get morning sun. It has turned 90 degrees now and they are not wilting and hope to have heads to eat by the end of next week. They are not bolting.
I am looking forward to your videos on intercropping, especiallly if you use marigolds and basil.
Great video, good way getting the kids involved.
Best assistant ever!
cool... a couple days head start can be very helpful sometimes so I'm glad you showed me "the pudding" i.e. proof
Plant your non soaked seeds the same day you start soaking the other seeds. That way you get a realistic time frame to see if soaking helps. That way you can determine if the wet of the soil is better than just soaking in a jar of water for 24 hours prior. Also the temperature of the soaking seeds and the temp of the planted seed. Is it really the soak or the temp that helps. A good control is required for each type of test.
Great point. I would wonder this for squash seeds specifically since I know they like to germinate hot
Absolutely awesome video.
THANK YOU so much for your time doing this experiment, I'll use this practice in the future!
It seems to me that temperature and pH are bigger factors in germination than whether or not the seeds were soaked. If it's too cold or hot for whatever type of plant to sprout, it's not going to matter much what else you do.
Dystopia Gear For pinto beans near a window, it seems normal tap water through a paper towel does the job just fine. Side note: I know people will scream at me for using tap water on plants, but for me, they don’t seem to care. I had some really good Pinto bean plants grow off it.
Thank you , I'm gonna try both ways , I already have the spineless Clemens growing , but heard Star of David are not as slimy an taste so much better fried & to freeze.
God bless you & your family
Josette Tharp
Montgomery County, Texas 🙏🏻
I accidentally left some Arugula and Mesclun seeds outside overnight and it rained. The next morning I discovered that they sprouted. I threw them in a planter and they are doing great. So I tried to soak Red Bean and Lima Bean seeds and to see what method would grow faster, I planted the same seeds in good soil. Long story short, the soil planted seeds grew faster and stronger
1% H2O2 also helps speed up germination. I have run a lot of comparison tests with a plain water control. It really does work.
This is very helpful information.
Thank you for sharing😊👍
Very interesting!!-So it would be a Very Good Idea to Soak Pepper Seeds since they Take soo long to Come Up!!Thank You for the experiment&Hope your Dirt in your Garden is Straightened out&Have a Fantastic Weekend!!
I don't know about pepper seeds, they just are slow but they aren't super hard. Might do one soaked and on dry in each hole.
Yeah, I usually soak mine for 8 hours, then I leave them in a jar with the lid close with the water drained out, just to keep them in a humid environment till the next day. Then I plant them, they usually come up in 5 days.
Great video! Thanks for the side-by-side experiment.
Its way better than dropping them in the dirt and waiting around for sure
Very informative.
I always soak my bigger seeds over night. A way better germination rate. But not the smaller seeds, tomatoes, peppers, etc.
Even some small seeds can have a very hard seed coat. Even peas like split peas black beans lima beans cook quicker if they are presoaked in water mixed with a little baking powder. So i believe presoaking works in most cases
Thank you so much. ❤❤
This was not a fair test. By soaking the seeds for 24 hours, you gave the soak seeds a one-day lead. That gave them an unfair advantage. You should have planted the dry seeds at the same time that you started soaking the other seeds. Then you would have a fair comparison.
Really it depends on whether you can get them in the soil right then. I sometimes have soaked seeds just to give me a head start when I know I can't actually plant that day. The alternative would be to leave them in the seed packet dry.
Nice video 👍 and a good helper, thanks for sharing.
Yes it works. Cucumbers came up overnight.
Good job, Sam!
Sam, pro-tip for cleaning your garden fingernail dirt out. I almost accidentally clean my nails while I wash my hair in the shower
This is true indeed. :-)
good experiment.
Great video, thank you.
I'm thinking time is less of a concern, and the reason you should do this either like in a ziplock container on a wet paper towel or whatnot isn't so much time as you know you're planting known good germinators and you don't waste cells. You can also Orient them so that they know they're coming up and have a good path to sprout through.
The vid I was searching for
such a helpful experiment! thank you!
Depends on the husk of the seed the paper towel thing can damage the tiny root but each to there own nice vid
Johnnn Doeee In my experiance with Pinto beans, just let it grow out a bit, grow some leaves, then carefully pull of the paper towl and put it in a pot. By that point if you tear some tiny roots, the plant will survive it. If some tiny bits of paper towel get stuck to the plant, it’ll survive it.
U can soak any seed any means any and its defenatly help very much
Thanks for the video. I've been having trouble starting sweet pea flower seeds. I'm gonna give soaking a try.
I would be interested to see you plant one in dirt and water and start soaking one on the same day because with this trial the soaked ones actually had a 24hr head start being in the liquid. Please consider that it being in water triggers germination as well as dirt and water as a starting point for both to be fair. I'm just curious myself, you pose a great question but I always wondered myself how that was determined 🤔 if the non soak was started the same day but still that one should be watered once it planted just as you would at planting
Great video! We are going to do our own experiment tomorrow ;)
I've never tried but have been told that putting them in the freezer overnight before planting will do the same thing. Might be worth a video for you.
dan johnson To me that sounds like it would kill the seeds, freeze them to death. However, I haven’t tried it either, since I’ve never heard of it. However, even if it doesn’t kill them, I’d guess it’d do something like what putting flies in the fridge does, slows their metabolism, which would slow their growth.
@@loganiushere I've not done it but a good friend of mine that farms does it with his pea and okra seeds. I'm going.to play with it and see.
@@loganiushere I did this they germinated quicker than soaking, supposedly scarifies the hard seed coat.
@@danjohnson7399 Mine did great just put some in the freezer tonight from plants I grew 2 years ago using the freeze method.
Thanks for sharing.
Another benefit is any seeds that float for 15 minutes are dead and you can toss them instead of wasting time and space planting. At least that is the wisdom from my area.
Sam is realizing some important stuff. "What would we do if we didn't have fingers?" I just wondered the other day what we would do without toes. It would be so hard to balance. I remember my professor had a friend who lost a big toe on a foot and had problems balancing. He lost the toe because they used it to replace a thumb that he lost.
So now when they eat dinner he says to him "hey get your feet off table" hahahaha
I been to;d okra is a difficult seed to germinate. As well as soaking the seeds in water read to soak in milk or put in ice cube holder and freeze the seeds. Not sure if these methods help.
Biggest advantage I noticed was far fewer helmet heads.
If you add the day soaking the seeds to their germination time it is about a draw
I think the seeds should be put in soil at the time the seeds were put in the water. That’s more accurate timing.
Thank you
Nice one :)
Should have sowed the direct to soil ones at the same time the water touched the soaked ones otherwise the experiment is not accurate. "Remember kids, the only difference in screwing around and science is writing it down." Adam Savage. Good video just some criticism of the experiments parameters
It doesn't cost extra, nor does it require more work, but in a seven month growing season for okra , what's a day or two ?
A day or two is a good experiment with my son to show him how to compare two methods. :-)
@@ScottHead Gotcha, but like a previous commenter said, you didn't plant the dry seeds at the same time as you started soaking the others. That would have been a fairer comparison.
@@meauxjeaux431 I get that, but that's not how most folks employ soaking. What they usually suggest is start soaking when you go to work or are gone for a day, you know - a day you can't work the garden - for a head start. So the experiment was to see how much time an overnight soak would gain when planting day is the same. Obviously, you would expect you are only going to get one day head start because - as you and others point out - soaking starts the germination process just the same as watering dry seeds into the soil. :-)
Soak old seeds in aloe vera solution
Just use the paper towel method and only plant the ones that pop anyway.
Always works best for me, too. We use bamboo kitchen roll, then it can be reused...if we don't let them grow into the darn stuff, so far got lots of tiny paper pieces in the ground, good job it's biodegradable!
That's always worth a try on a small scale. There comes a point though where you just have way too many seeds to mess around with paper-toweling them all.
Especially parsnips and carrots.
Corn does work wonderfully being soaked it comes up wonderfully I had some come up three days mattered a fact
When I do chilli tomatoes I use a weak tea solution for 24 hours then just pot them forgot what the process is called give a whirl
Do a vino vac in water test
I keep my seeds in freezer until used.i soaked all them &amazingly quick germination time.yippee.im soaking Fiji Apple seeds right now
I have more trouble sprouting okra than any other seed. I have heard that scarifying the seed helps.
I've hear that too. I haven't had trouble with it myself but some folks do.
Good Video.
Good to know
Adorable
The dried seeda should be sown at the time you put seeds for soaking in water to get fair result.
Are you using tap water to soak your seeds? Fluoride kills enzymes.
Filtered water.
well of course they came up a day early, you should have planted and started the soak on the same day. As is the soaked seeds were started a day early while the ones in the bag do nothing. A real test would be to compare planted and soaked to see if the actual soaking is better than putting directly into the soil.
Clarify what you mean by "compare planted and soaked to see if the actual soaking is better than putting directly into the soil." Not sure I see what you are saying. Do you mean begin soaking at the same time I sow the dry seeds? Sure that will yield relatively similar results, but you may have need to begin the process of germination before your pots/site is prepped. Its a minor time savor for sure.
@@ScottHead I think they mean that when you put the seeds to soak in water, that is when you should've put the other batch into the soil, rather than putting all in the soil at the same time. They might have a point but depends on how you like at I guess. I soaked them all in weak fish emulsion. On a wet paper towel is for sure days quicker and more successful for me when it comes to parsnips.
EXACTLY....it wasn't an equal or fair experiment. I want a do over !
@@meauxjeaux431 LOL, well maybe we will.
@@ScottHead Thanks, I think that would be interesting.
Never tried Okra.
I add 3% Peroxide to the water, the extra Oxygen even do better on germination. The harder the seeds the longer you need to soak them. But learn not to drown them . Wet cloth help with that.
With Okra anyway.
Hi I'm new to your channel. Was wondering..Do u really have to use sterilized potting mix for seeds ?
I never do. In fact I started seeds in some seed starter mix combined with compost, which is definitely not sterile. Sterile seed starting mix can help avoid fungus gnats which can munch on the roots, but if you start more plants than you will need, you can afford to lose some. :-)
@@ScottHead Tku for response !
I've been soaking UNTIL they germinate, I'll have to try just soaking overnight & see if there's any difference.
Fun wid ya son is da way it's dun!!
Logical
I've soaked quite a number of dried okra seeds fresh from the plant but most of them floats and a few stayed at the bottom. Which buch are the good ones?
Not sure if it matters with okra. Plant each and see which works best. I wish I had more info to tell you.
Some of your no-show seeds, have drier soil in the pots.
Yeah it has that appearance but they are all about the same moisture under the crust. I took care to rotate them twice a day but surely in such small post outdoors that could be a factor.
What happens in u let the seeds in water, will there grow a plant in the water!?
Not, they will sprout but then most plants will drown in the water. They need air and nutrients from soil as well as moisture.
sir, when you said overnight soaking, how many hours did you soak it before planting? thanks!
10 hours or so. :-)
@@ScottHead thank you!
👍
Did you keep the soil moist in all of them? I never soak but do keep the soil moist....
Yes, evenly watered each morning and rotated.
Do you really gain a day if that day was spent soaking the seed? Have you tried it with peppers? Do you know anything about soaking peppers ? Thanks
Well you get to jump start the germination, but the actual germination speed remains constant. You can get the seeds going a day or two before you sow them if you can't mess with soil and trays or dirt, but have time indoors.
This technique really helps with even germination and also in cases when you plant in a field with low moisture level near the surface. You could also seed into cooler soil and have the seeds germinate faster and evenly than if you had direct seeded into that same cooler soil.
Is it bad I'm already getting tomatoes an my plant is only 2 ft tall
No not really. Especially if you have a dwarf variety or indeterminate plant.
It's a early girl
Not sure about that one you would have to google it. Never grown it myself.
This early in the year, I let a couple small tomato plants go ahead and set fruit for early maters, and pinch the flowers off the other plants to let them get bigger and stronger before setting fruit for the main harvests. That also works with peppers and many other things that make an actual fruit.
If someone only has one or two tomato plants, I would let them get a little bigger before letting them set fruit. Overall you will get more tomatoes that way.
dead seeds float, viable seeds sink.
it looks like you are planting vegetables I am planting flowers and some of the seeds are so small they're like the tip of a lead pencil how do you get them in the ground after they're soaked
I usually don't soak really small seeds, hard to handle when wet. You could use a small tool; of some sort, a stick, a pencil, dip in water, pick up a cluster of seeds, and place in the soil. Much easier if the tiny seeds are dry.
You can let them surface dry before you plant them. Don't let them dry longer than a day. Just spread then on a towel or paper towel for an hour and then you can plant them. They'll be dry to the touch, but still full with moisture.
Dirt under the finger nails is the mark of a real Man!
Give that boy some gloves,you don't Have to get dirt under your nails.
I dont even need to watch this of course it speeds up germination!
Thanks for taking time to let us all know. :-)