Stolen Idea!

Jeff, Will you adopt me? Your a green thumb and I'm just a green horn! I just started another thread asking about starting seeds on compost and it looks like I really need to be "schooled" in the art of growing seeds. I never even realized I might need to soak them before I planted. Duh! I have thousands though. I just had visions of myself making hundreds of pensil holes for the babies. Does it depend on the seed as to whether a pre-soak is advisable? Is direct sowing asking for trouble? I am going to reread all your great product advise, but i am such a novice I am unsure if the products you are advising are for seed starting that will be in jars like Notmartha or planted in trays? Please excuse my ignorance. I will be a good student and make you proud.

I dream of flowers

Susan McCoy

Found it, lets give this a try.

http://davesgarden.com/t/9837/

COOL BEANS Big Red!!

I dream of flowers.

Susan McCoy

The only seeds I kept in jars of the fluid were the daylily seeds but I was in a hurry, so put the ones with roots sticking out in the propagator. I soaked the rest of the different species of seeds overnight (24 hours) in a small amount of the H202 fluid mix and then did not wash them off, but just planted them in the propagator. With any hard-shelled seed, I always nick a tiny hole in the seed-coat with my husband's toenail clippers (the ones that look like cutters) (he just LOVES that) and then soak them. Of course, I was doing that when I was soaking them in plain water, prior to this. Anyway, it's very interesting to hear of everybody's results in this experiment.

Susan, your making my head swell up big! I'm extremely flattered, but I think I'm too young to adopt anyone...well almostLOL. At 35, I'm the baby of the bunch IMO.
You can still sow seeds as directed on most all seed packs. I've just found by soaking 1st, they germinate much faster, your germination rates go way up, your giving seedlings a lil lift, plus you can get very old seeds that probably wouldn't germinate at all if it weren't for a good seed soak. I soak every seed I plant anymore, it's just turned into part of the plan now.
As you can see here, there are many many ways and solutions to soak in and you can see everyone raging over their results.
I love this place! let me know if I can help out in anyway, that's almost as fun as gardening(teaching).
Goodluck, Jeff

Had another of the 1996 lot of Uncle Walt's Vermont Cranberry pole beans sprout today, 2 out of ten so far.

I'm going to go and look for this superthrive and Maxicrop at Lowe's tomorrow...Thank you for all your advice JLD_II

Could some of you who have been experimenting please give me a short rundown (recipe) of what to use when soaking the seeds as far as mixes are concerned? By that I mean what product and how many spoonsfull to the cup, etc. I find that there is too much said above to fully comprehend the whole thing without using my brain. LOL! I have some old seeds that I would very much like to save. Thanks!

Elena...List of supplies:
Maxicrop
Superthrive
regular store bought hydrogen peroxide.
Superthrive or maxicrop are not "MUST HAVES" but they sure help.
I mix up 1 gallon at a time as it cannot be stored.
1capful of maxicrop
2-3 drops of Superthrive
1-2 tablespoons of hydrogen peroxide
Mix all ingredients into a 1 gallon jug of water(or you could scale it down if need be, I feed my plants any left over's)
Pour the solution into a few small cups that you will be soaking different seeds in. Let seeds sit 24 hours or more in the solution. Then sow seeds as directed. Some seeds will germinate/sprout while being soaked, don't worry. You could pluck them out and plant then or wait the full 24 hrs. With really hard shelled seeds(like passion flower or brugmansia's) I soaked mine for the whole weekend.
This will increase germ rates and the amount of time needed to sprout imo.
You can do this w/o those fancy ingredients but I like them and they will last you a long time. Both are great to have around for babying sickly plants or rootrot.
Have fun and good luck
Jeff

Maxicrop and Superthrive are both available at http://www.mellingers.com/. By the time you add shipping it might be a little pricey - but with the price of gas. . . . They ARE available at the tips of your keyboard fingers.

I can't find the stuff anywhere around here - Virginia. Lowes or Home Depot never heard of either.

Thank you so very much, Jeff. I am printing all that out for handy reference and want to get started with the soaking and sowing just as soon as I can obtain the products.

Thanks also, rosiesplace. I may have to order also. I will ck. my local stores first but my first thoughts are Lowes and Home Depot. Maybe one of the larger gardening places will have it. I will start checking on that.

Have you tried any of the fancier/HI$ nurseries? Another place to look at is any hydroponic garden shop if you have 1 in your city. I know of a cheap mail order business but I forget the name. Try a websearch and I'll look for the catalog for the place I'm talking about.
If your just wanting to do some seed soaking or the like, there are other very similar products. For example, Maxicrop's main and only needed ingredient is "Ascophyllum Nodosum Seaweed". It has almost no fertilizer values, it's N-P-K is 0.1-0.0-1.0. The maker's name of maxi is "Ohrstrom's", that may help your searching and make sure its a green bottle and not the yellow if you do find Maxicrop. If you can't find it, ask somebody at your nursery if they carry liquid seaweed of any kind, maybe you could discover an equivilent and save us all money. Using Superthrive as a seed soaker is something I just started doing recently since I found some very important seeds that were very old. It did help w/ germination rates of the older seeds but I don't see it being a must have. Heck I've been using the hydrogen peroxide for everything except seed soaking until this year, I did just fine w/o it for many years. I think as far as using it on seeds, it's merely a means of speeding up germination IMO. These products we've combined haven't been around or used in this manor for more than 7 or so years tops. The world has been farming for centuries w/o this stuff, so don't let it dictate how or if you germinate seeds. You'll do fine going the older route if need be;) Just have fun with it.
JD

After two days, most of the morning glories have sprouted. Two more of the 1996 seed of Vermont Cranberry, none of the 1996 Prizewinner and none of the marigolds (last years seed).

I figured I would be fairly well ok with the newer seeds, but it is the older ones that I am most interested in saving. Why am I always tempted to get so many different kinds of seeds when I seldom ever plant them all????? That is just exactly the reason I have quit going into the seed swapping forum for the time being! LOL! If I get the ones planted that I now have, I will be lurking there again, that is for sure.

Because we need to have dreams, ambitions, and plans for the future. When we stop having these, we stop living.

Yes, indeed, Judith! You said it well!

Hello all. I've been lurking on this post and decided to rush out and buy some hydrogen peroxide to soak my seeds in. The trouble is that I don't want to do loads of the mixture as in gallons - just a pint would do. The hydrogen peroxide I have bought is 6%. My other half worked it out to be about half a teaspoon per pint. Please can you tell me if this is correct? I'm very excited about this!

Sue

I really am blonde today, I've already got Maxicrop here, I had never really paid any attention to the name, I just knew it was dried seaweed.

Now, to get the Superthrive.

FWIW I bought the seaweed at Gardens Alive using a 20 coupon I had, but Mellingers has the same thing for 16 if you can't find it locally.

Prudence sorry I didn't notice your post sooner. Your husbands calculations sound pretty good. The hydrogen peroxide I have been using is only 3.5% so I am curious about where you found the 6%?
I am hoping that JLD will notice this and respond, since I know he is a lot more of an expert on this than I am.
I was using a whole pint bottle to a gallon of h2o which I think was stronger than I needed to make it and I have cut that down according to the posts by JLD.
The ones I did with that mixture were so fine, so don't get too concerned about measurements with the peroxide.
Good luck and let us know how you do.
Alice

6% is an odd dilution, I've never heard of that before.
AKnapp Thanks for the compliment but I think your the 1 teaching me now. I never tried it nearly as strong as you have and your results sound incredible. I found a dilution that seemed to work fine w/ me and other friends so we stuck with it. Heck, you took the ball and ran w/ it;). Your the 1 who told me to use it on seeds and BAM! It seems to have worked out great. I do have 1 full tray of Datura and brugmansia hybrids that it isn't working well with but there are so many variables when growing unknown hybrids. On the ot6her hand...My wife brought a big clump of "Goldenrod" thursaday evening and hasn't gotten around to planting it yet. I mixed up the samesolution we've been soaking seeds in and stuck the dirty rootball in it and you can't even tell it's been pulled up! Not 1 wilty leaf or anything and its standing in the superthrive/maxicrop,peroxide mix. I'm learning so much from this expirament too.
So what has been the highest concentrate you've used to this point and how well is it going? I'm still using 2 large tablespoons per gallon and everybody is loving it.

I tested my soil this week and found my nitrogen and potash levels were almost unmeasurable! So I bought some bonemeal and muriate of potash and am mixing it in the soil accordingly. I've never ammended soil like this before planting. Man I sure hope I haven't created a mix that will burn everyone out of the ground! LOL I'll keep ya'll posted there too.
Thanks and keep it growin
JD

Hi Aknapp - Just to let you know that I bought the hydrogen peroxide 6% in the local pharmacy. I have soaked some seeds in it and 'denoed' them. These were seeds I wasn't having much luck with that had fairly hard seedcoats. I'll let you know how it goes.

Sue

JLD (I will get a swelled head! You are too kind)

The 10% mix I was using came from the daylily post by "notmartha" which is where I had originally gotten the idea that the peroxide was such a "good thing".

I was so impressed with the results from that thread that I decided it must be good for more than just daylilies, and gave it a try for a few seeds.

You and your friends are much more technical and better at keeping track of your results!!!!! (I have about 100 sheets of odds and ends of unorganized notes that I keep thinking I will put into some kind of order)

The last seeds I soaked I used only a few drops in the h2o and had just as good as results as when I was making it stronger, so I don't think it makes a great deal of difference in the seed soaking area. (I just won't have to buy as much peroxide now)

I still have not been out of town to get the other two items and am hoping maybe to venture out this week. I have been so busy just being "outside" since the weather got decent here, that I have managed to avoid leaving the house except for a trip to the grocery store.

I have been working digging out a bed that is about 25' by 30' in preparation for changing it into an above ground bed, so I have pots from one end of the house to the other. (I was amazed how much stuff was in there) The new are will be slightly larger (still working on the plans) and will provide a home for the new rose bushes that I ordered from the Wayside sale that will be here shortly. (I discovered last year that for some reason that area is "perfect" for roses and that every bush I put in there bloomed twice as much as as the ones that were located in other beds) So have decided to make it a rose garden and am really excited about how incredible I think it will look.

I have rambled on a lot more than intended hope I have not bored you!

Thank you again for the very nice compliments! You are too kind!
Alice

I finally took some time to sort out about 50 babies that I had killed by moving outside too soon it was too depressing looking at the empty cells and I had just been putting off doing it. Decided it was time to quit kicking myself in the other end for the mistake and get on with some other things!

I am curious if you soak all of your seeds including the ones that are really small and if so how do you get them out after soaking? I have some really really tiny stuff that I am having a lot of trouble germinating and have been tempted to try soaking and haven't been bright enough to figure out how I was going to get them into the soil after soaking? (Maybe just dump them in water mixture and all and let the water run through) just came up with that idea as I was typing the question)

Hi Aknapp and all, I've been reading these threads on propagation with peroxide with interest- you can now find some reference in many forums! Generally, I also don't soak tiny seeds cause it is a hassle to get them out - what about planting them and soaking the soil with the solution?

What has made it just a bit easier for me is spreading the seeds out on double thickness paper towel (on a dish, platter, etc), cover seeds with more paper towel, saturate/dampen the towels, put in a plastic bag or just cover with plastic wrap. When ready to plant, I uncover and plant very gently with tweezers ... as I said, just a bit easier then soaking in a jar.

This thread has been tremendously educational for me and saved my Hoya which was wilting - I think I overwatered it and it had root rot :( So, you folks gave me the idea to flush it with H2O2, the soil heaved up and in a few hours the leaves perked up and the next day regained its shine!!!

Question: Where do you get your H2O2? My Rx has 3% but I've been told it may contain impurities or addivites and I should use a 'food' quality solution??? Also, 3% won't go too far in the garden ... I'm gonna try this everywhere!

One of my Uncle Walt's Vermont Cranberry pole beans which I thought I had lost.

None of the marigold seed I soaked have sprouted as yet. Has anyone else tried this method with them? The seed is only one year old.

This method has proven invaluble this year. I have used the H2O2/H2O solution to soak the seeds, placed them in zip lock baggies wrapped in layers of paper towels soaked with more of the sloution.
I have had incredible high germination percetages.
Here's a sample:
Hibiscus sprouts 66 of 72 seeds sprouted

riker - how long did it take for the hisbiscus to sprout? I am impatiently watching mine. I think it's the watched kettle syndrome here..... :)

We have several hardy hibiscus and my favorite red never seeded. My wife bought a TINY seedling 2 yrs ago of the same color and these seeded bigtime! I think our germ rate is 99%. I'm not sure how many seeds she has in each site but each site is full. I wished I knew why our 1st 1 never seeded or why the small 1's seeded.
Rikerbear, what color are your seedlings? Is it normal for those to seed? My wife thinks the red 1 that did seed was a fluke and she thinks they aren't supposed to seed and probably won't again. I'm optimistic. We have white, pink, amd white 1's w/ a pink throat. The pink 1's have never seeded either.All the others seed like made. You'd think the oldest and most established plants would seed, that sure wasn't the case here sadly.
I inherited a bunch of different datura's to go w/ mt white moon flower. The seeds from mine are 99% germinated but the others are more like 25% sadly. I'm going to try soaking the last of them now and see what happens. Time to double up on the H202 and see what happens;)

Kooger: mine germinated in about 5 days.

JD: these seeds were sent me in a round robin....the tag said single white/single pink.
Is your pink one that won't seed a single or a double flower?
I have read that most doubles are sterile. Have no clue on your red, other tha to suggest that mabye it's a more tropical variety and needs a longer growing season to seed.
Just a guess mind you.

Aknapp: Sorry for the high jack :-)

That's about where mine are at right now, so maybe soon... thanks!

My red's are the single flowers that are dinner plate sized. I'm just happy 1 of them is seeding. these darn hybrids are such a trip. I feel like Forest Gump and my flowers are his box of chocolates!LMAO Hopefully I'll find a few hybrid seeds in this bunch. I'll keep ya'll posted;)
JD

I am wondering if the 6% peroxide is actually 6 'volume'?

Also, this is very exciting news for me as I have trouble getting morning glory seeds to sprout- what is the thought on whether it is necessary to nick them if one is going to do the peroxide soak?

rikerbear- I think doubles are sterile to the extent that some will have had their reproductive parts changed to petals or petaloids, and there may be little or no pollen. Some Japanese morning glories, doubles, have this problem, and the only way to grow these "demono" forms is by saving seeds from the single parents or siblings.

Thanks for the info Pardancanda. And yes % equals volume.

John - I'm new at this - I put all my morning glory seed in a 2/5 solution and I've been planting quite a few already. Some sprouted in 2 days. So far, sprouted are Pres. Tyler, purple, magenta and Japanese. The only one that none has sprouted is Mini Sky Blue. They have been in the sol. 9 days. The MiniSB is still very hard so I think I'll nick them in the am and see if that gets them started. :) P.S.all these seeds came from DG members!!

I would like to know if this method works for seeds requiring stratification or other specialized techniques for germination. Examples: Trillium from seed, Gas Plant etc. 2 types of which I am having very low success rates. Any information would be helpful.

You know the whole stratification thing has baffled me for years. I've read that many of my seeds needed it in order to be viable and yet they still germed w/o it. I'm glad you brought this up as I too am having troubles with a few species seeds. My answer to that Q is yes and no. I've skiped that step so many times, i had totally forgotten about it until you brought it back up. I wonder how we've been able to skip that step w/ some and not others? I used to freeze almost all annuals that tended to reseed themselves. This spring I noticed tons of Datura's popping up outdoors where the parents were last year, those seeds were exposed to some serious freezing over winter. I brought several of the same seeds in last fall and they are thriving in seed flats aswell. So I don't know what to tell you and I don't know what to think now that you mentioned it. I'll research it if you will too and let's share results. I'm going to compare germination rates with several other plants that I'm growing in flats and arte also self seeded outdoor's. I have cleome's, cosmos, clematis, pigmy impatients, datura's and others I'm sure that I can test.
We will soon see.
I too have a few seeds I think I'll nick too. Since they don't seem to be doing worth a darn anyhow, what have I got to loose? I know my Passion flowers have rock hard seed coats, I even took a file and emory cloth to them and never did dent them. They have germ times from 1 week to 1 year. I'll try nicking a few of these stubborn datura's and maybe a few Brugs.
This will be interesting.

Interesting information!

It would be worthwhile learning if a peroxide soak could take the place of a cold treatment for seeds requiring stratification. Perhaps it works to break down the same germination barriers.

I now start almost everything using the winter-sowing technique- it all goes into pots on the cold porch around January, and germination usually commences around April. This is very successful with daylilies and pardancanda in particular. It save so much room in the house under lights, and the plants are already hardened off!

The nicked morning glory 'mini sky blue' sproute overnight! Wow!

I just soaked some un-nicked moonflower seeds... for 2 days. Over half had sprouts in the peroxide water!

Just to let you know that the 6% hydrogen peroxide that I bought from the pharmacy says on the label 6% (20 vol). This is all new to me.

Sue