>> best seed germination besides pre soak or plant indoors
Here is my opinion:
I agree that some form of "starting indoors" or "in sterile mix" is probably much better than starting outdoors in soil. You can create optimum warmth and humidity indoors. Far fewer germinated embryos will die indoors before becoming seedlings, since they don't have to push their way through heavy soil loaded with plant pathogens and insects.
Try doing whatever-you-do (pre-soak, Deno-style coffee filters & baggies, or vermiculite-in-a-tub), but use
dilute hydrogen peroxide instead of just water.
Probably use it very weak, like 0.1%
Sometimes peroxide seems to "stimulate" seeds to germinate faster and more vigorously, especially older seeds.
And I think that watering with 0.1% or 0.2% peroxide might delay any rotting of the seeds and seedling stems. It helps prevent damping-off once weak seedlings are growing in mix or soil. Other people fight damping-off with strong, cold chamomile tea or powdered cinnamon.
http://www.using-hydrogen-pero...
Starting with typical "drugstore peroxide" (which is 3% H2O2):
1/2 cup peroxide + 1 gallon of water
1 ounce peroxide + 1 quart of water
1.5 teaspoons + 1 cup of water.
Once space-saving way to pre-soak many seed varieties is to use a very clean plastic ice-cube tray. Soak one seed
variety per ice-cube-cell.
- Cut some tiny squares of white plastic and write a number or letter on each.
- Drop one square into each cell of the ice cube tray.
- Assign one of those numbers or letters to each kind of seed you plan to soak. (Write it down!)
- drop the seeds you want to pre-soak into the pre-labelled ice cube cells
- (You could skip the little-white-plastic-squares, and just make a "map" of the ice cube tray on paper. But make sure you can tell which way the tray FACES (left-to-right or vice-versa). And don't LOSE your map, the way I would!)
- make up the 0.1% peroxide "encouraging solution"
- gently pour or spoon some of the solution into into each cell
- store the tray where the cat can't get at it! Cover it to keep dust out.
- if you soak them for more than 24 hours, check daily and plant anything that might have a radicle emerging.
- I found it easiest to remove one seed at a time with a tiny measuring spoon, like 1/16th tsp. To sow, tip the spoon over the seedling cell or planting hole. If capillary action holds the water and seed in the spoon, use a medicine dropper or tiny spray bottle to add water to the spoon until it flushes out into the planting hole.
- If you plant before the radicle emerges, remember that the "floaters" are more likely to be non-viable. Plant several per cell if you have enough seeds.
Since old seeds may have used up most of their stored food, and will be weak at the cotyledon stage, make life as easy as possible for the embryo. Don't plant it deep or make it push aside heavy, deep seedling mix or bark chips. Pre-germinating in a near-sterile environment, then surface-planting so the baby leaves are already in the light, may help a feeble embryo survive to become a seedling.
Look up the fastest temperature for germination, or the temperature that produces the highest eventual germination RATE for fresh seeds. Try to keep the seeds at that temperature, then cooler once they have any leaves at all.
These are just my opinions. They are how I've done it a few times and seemed to have better luck.
