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Re: Easy way to pre-soak-sprout seeds?

Rocket Jim:

First  I'm asking myself; "why do you want to pre-soak the seeds" in the
first place. There are only a few seeds I can think of that require a
pre-soak and those usually need a 24 hour soaking before planting. And
maybe pre-soak wasn't the thought you    were trying to get across -
seems like what you were talking about was pre-sprouting. Once again I
ask myself why. Not being snooty here - just curious.

Mike  (western Oregon, Sunset zone 8)
quincymike@juno.com


On Sun, 9 Mar 1997 21:43:07 -0600 James Marconnet
<Jim-Marconnet@WORLDNET.ATT.NET> writes:
>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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