Spring is the beginning of the season, when gardeners and gardeners think about the future harvest. Planting plans are created, seeds and fertilizers are purchased in stores. Some crops, such as tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, begin to be cultivated from growing seedlings. Other plants do not require a similar preparatory period. They are planted immediately in the ground when the ground warms up enough. But in both cases, gardeners may be wondering if the seeds should be soaked, and if so, how.
Expert Tips
To prepare the material for germination, it must be placed in a warm place. For example, put next to the battery. First you will need crops such as pumpkin, cucumbers, squash, zucchini. The temperature in the room should be plus twenty degrees. If the seeds are warmed up for a month or a month and a half, then later they will sprout earlier and provide an earlier harvest.
Calibration
Not all planting material is suitable for growing strong and he althy plants. It is possible that seeds bought a long time ago are already expired if their expiration date has expired. Therefore, before processing, it is necessary to sort through them all, remove damaged, small ones.
To make the process take less time, it is enough to resort to the popular method of selection. You will need to dilute in a liter of water from thirty to fifty grams of table s alt. Drain the water to leave the sediment, and pour the material with a clean one. Thus, you have learned how to properly soak the seeds to identify defective specimens. As a result, within an hour you will receive the following picture. Those of the seeds that are suitable for sowing will sink to the bottom of the jar, and the empty ones will rise to the surface. They will need to be thrown away. The rest are washed in running water. So you can sort through the seeds of almost all crops.
Soaking
Directly look at the process describing how to soak the seeds before planting, what needs to be done for this. Planting material is placed in water at room temperature. Such processing helps to awaken dormant forces in a small seed. Seedlings will be early. Gardeners are concerned about the following problem: how many days to soak the seeds so that they are ready for planting. Parsley, beets, peppers, celery, carrots, eggplants, parsnips, onions are enough to keep in water for forty-eight hours. For cucumbers, radishes, cabbage, melons, radishes, lettuce, zucchini, pumpkins, squash, eight to twelve hours is enough.
Decontamination
When culling, not only empty, damaged, but also diseased seeds are removed. After all, they can be carriers of dangerous diseases,which then pass to adult plants. As a preventive measure, disinfection is carried out. Before soaking the seeds before planting, they are subjected to a special treatment.
The most effective way to disinfect them is to warm them up in water with a temperature of up to 50°. Place the planting material in a bag of fabric and dip in boiling water for twenty minutes. At the same time, it is necessary to ensure that the temperature does not fall. Then the seeds are soaked in cold water for three minutes. Similar tests are suitable for carrots, cabbages and beets. Do the same with zucchini, eggplant, watermelons and melons. True, they require a longer "hot bath" - for two hours.
Stratification
The options for how to soak seeds before planting are very similar, but at the same time not the most basic. Before soaking, planting material can be frozen in the refrigerator. The seeds are wrapped in a damp cloth and placed in the freezer. They are stored at low temperatures - from -1 to -3 °. So pumpkin, tomatoes, eggplants, peppers are hardened for three days. Having withstood such conditions, they will be ready for planting in open ground much earlier than unhardened ones.
Processing with mixtures
When preparing planting material, you can safely experiment. For example, here's how to soak seeds before planting with nutrient formulations. You will need a solution of potassium permanganate. It is prepared in the following way. One gram of potassium permanganate dissolves infive liters of water. But it should be borne in mind that such treatment inhibits the development of plants. Therefore, experts recommend resorting to specially produced mixtures.
For example, you can use growth regulators "Zircon", "Albit", "Energen". It is necessary to prepare solutions with these drugs according to the instructions that are attached to them. As a replacement for a solution of potassium permanganate, you can use five grams of baking soda per liter of water. Treated seeds will also undergo disinfection. Any of these solutions is suitable for the preparation of pumpkin seeds, cucumbers, zucchini. They must be kept for twelve hours.
There is another option. Prepare the following composition. One matchbox of wood ash is dissolved in five liters of water. Insist for two days. In this solution, the seeds must be kept for four to six hours. They wake up after soaking, swell. If this does not happen, then the whole procedure should be repeated from the beginning. It is necessary to hold them in warm water for one to two hours. Aloe juice, infusions of valerian, chamomile, oak bark are also suitable for processing planting material.
Having considered the above methods of processing planting material, we can conclude that the question of whether seeds should be soaked is rhetorical. If you go through all the stages of preparation correctly, then as a result you can get good seedlings, strong he althy plants and a rich harvest.
