osmopriming?

[snugglekitten]

Anyone try this before and willing to share results?

[Worth1]

Originally Posted by snugglekitten

Anyone try this before and willing to share results?

What a big word we used for soaking seeds.
Yes I have on 10 year old seeds I have soaked them in a solution of water and a pinch of Miracle Grow until they fell to the bottom.

I did not use polyethylene glycol which would be used as an anti surfactant.
No scientific data no control group just seeds that germinated in about 8 to 10 days that were around 8 to 10 years old.
Germination rate about 90%.

Worth

[Salsacharley]

How long did it take the seeds to sink to the bottom?

Originally Posted by Worth1

What a big word we used for soaking seeds.
Yes I have on 10 year old seeds I have soaked them in a solution of water and a pinch of Miracle Grow until they fell to the bottom.

I did not use polyethylene glycol which would be used as an anti surfactant.
No scientific data no control group just seeds that germinated in about 8 to 10 days that were around 8 to 10 years old.
Germination rate about 90%.

Worth

[Worth1]

Originally Posted by Salsacharley

How long did it take the seeds to sink to the bottom?

Over night or about 24 hours.
I didn't really time it because I wasn't writing a paper.

The (Pinch) was about 1/8 teaspoon to 2 cups of RO water.
Temps where around 65 degrees F.
Container Pyrex measuring cup.
Light level low to fluctuating.
All testing done at Worth lab/garage.
Verified and peer reviewed by Cat Smokey.

Worth

[Salsacharley]

Thanks Worth.

[Worth1]

Originally Posted by Salsacharley

Thanks Worth.

You might ought to go back and read the reply again I added valuable information.

Worth

[joseph]

I pre-soak watermelon seeds, and some varieties of bean seeds. In the beans there are some 'hard seeds' in my populations that do not absorb water when soaked. It sucks when cooking a pot of beans if some of the seeds remain shriveled and hard. So I pre-saok before planting to try to eliminate those seeds. Overnight is sufficient time.

With watermelon I get quicker and more reliable germination with pre-soaking. I aim for about 16 hours. Testing I did previously on watermelon seeds suggested that 30 hours pre-soak harms germination rates.

I used to pre-soak sugary enhanced corn seeds, but that lead to poor germination, so I stopped pre-soaking corn. I speculate that the kernels swelled up so fast that the embryo was damaged.

I don't pre-soak small seeds like tomatoes.

[carolyn137]

Osmopriming? Well yes, I have soaked tomato seeds under certain circumstances.

For seeds less than 5 yo I do nothing

For seeds from about 5 to 10 yo I double sow.

For seeds over 10 yo if low germination or no germination I have done thefollowing.

My seeds are stored at ambient temps in screw cap vials and some in small business envelopes, not sealed,too many to store otherwise since I've never thrown out one saved seed since about 1990.

First method I tried was using combos of Knitrate and giberellic acid to see how that worked. Not a success.

So switched to the following which has been very successful.

Put seeds in a small container, add a pinch or so of blue stuff, such as Peters, MG or whatever,or if organic a few drops of concentrated fish or seaweed stuff.

Stir from time to time, for about 24 hrs at room temp to hydrate the seeds and when hydrated they fall to the bottom.

Sow seeds normally, preferably in a soilless mix, cover the container with an open baggie to allow for air circulation, water when needed with the same kindof mix used to initially soak the seeds.

Depending on the specific seeds and seed age it may take up to two months before you see germination, and then sometimes not at all, especially with seeds for heart varieties.

The blue stuff and/or fish/seaweed stuff provides the Knitate that is known to be important in seed germination.

My current record is waking up 22 yo seeds of September Dawn.

The absolute record to date for tomato seeds is waking up 50 yo seed and that occurred when the precursor to the USDA was located in Cheyenne, WY and all seeds were shipped to Ames. IA to the new USDA station there,

The tomato seeds in WYwere stored at ambient temps in a filing cabinetin WY and germination done in IA.

Carolyn

[snugglekitten]

wow thanks for the feedback guys, and yes! what a term!

The only reason I used it was because I thought maybe someone might have a special chemical ingredient that does wonders.

I usually soak seed 24-36 hours in tap water, I did this before I ever heard the term osmopriming.

That being said I do wonder if any of these chemical solutions really do provide any germination/standing advantage at this stage....

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by snugglekitten

wow thanks for the feedback guys, and yes! what a term!

The only reason I used it was because I thought maybe someone might have a special chemical ingredient that does wonders.

I usually soak seed 24-36 hours in tap water, I did this before I ever heard the term osmopriming.

That being said I do wonder if any of these chemical solutions really do provide any germination/standing advantage at this stage....

Here's a link that addresses your question. I did the Google search using potassium nitrate seed germination, so within the link Knitrate is addressed as are other agents that have been tested.

I feel strongly, from experience and use of controls, that K nitrate works quite well for tomato seeds.

Considering the fact that I used to grow several hundreds of tomato plants each season, no way did I ever have the time to pre-soak tomato seeds for all of them, but then according to what I wrote above as to seed age and how I handled the situation, there really was no need to do so.

Notice in the link that Knitrate has been shown not to be so good for several Genera and species, but does fine with tomato and pepper seed.

https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q...nation&start=0

Hope that helps,

Carolyn

[snugglekitten]

Thanks Carolyn, I will check it out, promise.