If you want to get your garden seeds off to a good start and grow more vegetables faster, make sure they germinate quickly! Here are several new organic gardening tips. We can all explore them - in our kitchens.
It makes sense to pre-germinate our seeds before sowing them. Why? That way, we'll know that 100% of the seeds will grow. Gardeners need that confidence if they're using seed that's a few years old or precious seed they can't risk. It also saves a lot of wasted time in the garden planting seeds that will never come up.
And the faster we germinate our seed, all else being equal, the faster we'll get crops to eat.
A lady in Switzerland - which has a very short growing season - wanted to grow organic tomatoes very early. She had the i women's coats dea of soaking the tomato seeds for 24 hours in a strong infusion of valerian. Simply, she took some valerian blossoms, soaked them and strained off the juice.
She found that the seed drenched in valerian extract sprouted a full week before her other seeds. Of course, she couldn't tell if the soaking or the valerian was responsible. Any pre-soaked seed is likely to sprout faster - in damp conditions - than dry seed. That said, growth stimulators can have a very significant effect on seed germination.
Here are some easy tips we can try, to grow more food in our gardens - more quickly.
Quick and easy experiments in plant propagation
? You can start lettuce seed faster if you steep it for 24 hours at around 50?F in a weak solution of household bleach (10%). This weakens the seed coat. Would it also work with other slow germinators like parsley?
Kelp infusion is also proven fungicide. For example, it helps to deter damping off disease in seedlings. So it's a good idea to feed and spray seedlings with a dilute kelp solution until they turn into sturdy plants.
? Strangely enough, cool tea is said to help seeds germinate faster, perhaps because of the tannin content. In that case, an infusion of oak leaves might be worth experimenting with too.
Another idea is to soak garden seeds for two days in water in which wheat or oat berries have previously fermented. That ferment water is called Rejuvelac and is vastly rich in vitamins. Do vitamins provoke seed germination?
Pharmacies might provide solutions for faster seed germination
Some folk swear that shop-bought vitamin C or B complex, in solution, does boost seed growth. (But we couldn't call that organic gardening.)
Canadian researchers have found that carrot seed soaked for 24 hours in a solution of aspirin - at 100mg of powdered aspirin per 1 litre of water - greatly accelerated germination. They added a few drops of grain alcohol to help the aspirin dissolve. Doubtless, supermarket vodka or whisky could be substituted.
It would be interesting to test if willow bark, infused in water, would have the same effect. Willow contains aspirin. That might appeal to the organic gardener!
Try dilute solutions (1%) of essential oils like marjoram, lavender, mint or rosemary. They can be obtained in health food and aromatherapy stores.
These essential oils can be an investment in other ways. They are a boon to natural pest control and repel many flying insect pests. A clever tip is to steep kitchen paper in essential oils, strap the paper to sticks and post them about your vegetable beds.
So... should we put our soaked seeds in our pocket, when jogging?
Old-time gardeners used to keep big seeds like squash in their pockets, along with their coins. The abrasion weakened the seed coat.
What other gardening delights might we enjoy, even over winter? Simply take a trip around the shelves of pharmacy and health food stores. Who knows? You could chance upon a genuinely new idea that will make your seeds grow faster and more reliably - and bring you food from your home garden more quickly.
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