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Easy way to pre-soak-sprout seeds?


I wanted to soak my seeds prior to planting them in potting soil and/or in the
 garden
itself. There must be an easier way than what I did:

Bought some blank plant tags at a local nursery. $.05 each. White plastic. They
 look
sturdy enough for several years of use if the critters don't chew on them.
Wrote name of seeds on the tags with Sharpie pen (Permanent). Let dry
 thoroughly.
Cut a paper towel into 1/4s and folded each piece into half, then opened back
 up.
Opened up a Ziplock Snack-size bag.
Put 1 or 2 or however many seeds into the folded paper towel. (It SURE seems
 funny to
count out 1-2 seeds!)
Slid it into the bag carefully. Some seeds want to roll out of the paper
 towling.
(Guess I could pre-wet the paper towling to reduce seed rolling, but have not
 tried this
yet, perhaps next time)
Put the plastic plant tag into the bag so the name is readable from outside the
 bag.
Poured in some water to wet the paper towling, plus a little more for insurance.
 (I used
just a little H2O2 in my water.)
Closed the bag tightly. Tipped it each way to be sure the water wetted
 everywhere.
Repeated the above steps in a different bag for each vegetable seed type I
 wanted to
pre-soak.

The paper towel is white when dry, but gets translucent when wet, so you can see
 the
seed and whether it has sprouted yet.

I'm looking at each bag daily for sprouting progress or lack thereof.

Today I opened up each bag, poured out the excess water, and left the bag open
 so some
air can circulate. Don't know if this air is necessary, good idea or bad?

Am keeping all these bags in a plastic container to catch drips. On top of
 refrigerator
for slight warmth.

I plan to cut the paper towling and plant part of it, it necessary, rather than
 tearing
the plant roots out of the paper towling.

Any comments/suggestions? This seems like an awful lot of trouble to pre-soak
 seeds, yet
to keep them straight till ready to plant.

A long time ago I read someone's suggestion to mix all their garden seeds
 together in a
bowl, spread them evenly over the garden, then rake them in. This would be
 interesting,
but I'm not sure what else. At least you would not have to thin-a good thing
 because you
could not tell one thing from another or from a weed.

Rocket Jim in Rocket City (Huntsville AL)


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