This is a public-interest archive. Personal data is pseudonymized and retained under GDPR Article 89.

Re: Bubbling Seeds...

Tim,

Pete Glasier, another legendary world class grower here on the West Coast,
originally explained to me the process of seed bubbling.

Pete does not use this method as a rule of thumb for starting his seeds,
only on seeds he knows can be hard to germinate, such as the Zehr's 975
which has a very poor germination rate of approximately 40%.

While I have not had the experience or years practicing this technique,
Pete suggests 8 to 12 hours of bubbling max @ 70F.

Beyond 12 hours you are not accomplishing anything other than to drown the
seed and you certainly don't want to leave them in the water until they
germinate, if they don't first drown

Why this method works, I can not explain. Perhaps it has something to do
with higher levels of oxygen in the water which stimulate the seed, just a
guess?

I can only attest that those whom have tried the method with very difficult
to germinate seed have had almost 100% success.

Also, Len Stellpflug has written a couple of articles on this subject.
These are both published in WPC Newsletters, the first article is in the
September 1989 issue. It is a brief article but Len  wrote a much more
detailed article on the subject in a later edition of the news letter. I
seem to be missing my copy of this particular issue from my files but will
keep looking!

Chris Andersen
Moraga, Calif.
____________________________________________________
> I ran into legendary grower Len Stellpflug last week on my trip...seems 
> he somewhat developed the technique of bubbling seeds to better 
> germination...
> 
> 
> Chris Anderson orginally passed along this idea of bubbling seeds to me 
> - stating 8 hours was the proper amount of time...But Len relates he 
> bubbles the seeds til they actually germinate..approx. 2 - 3 days..
> 
> Thought I'd pass this along - hoping it might help anyone trying this 
> technique..
> 
> 
> I had good luck with a batch of seeds with this bubbling technique...
> 
> 5 of 6 germinated thru bubbling for 8 hours..
> 
> In a second batch - I bubbled for 12 hours and only 3 of 8 germinated...
> 
> ..so I initially thought I "drowned" these seeds somehow...
> 
> 
> Maybe someone has better information regarding this technique...as I'm 
> still new to it....having mixed results...
> 
> 
> 
> 
> ps - male blossoms to be opening on a number of plants tommorrow at the 
> "experimental" farm...
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Great Luck....Tim, Florida..
>
Follow-Ups:
Other Mailing lists | Author Index | Date Index | Subject Index | Thread Index