imafan26 wrote: ↑Sun Apr 18, 2021 1:00 am
Thanks pepperhead212, I don't have petri dishes but I could put the paper towels in ziploc bag. What is GA-3 solution? Is that similar to Superthrive?
GA-3 is one type of gibberellic acid - a hormone, which is produced by plants, and I think some types of fungi are used, for commercial production of it. I'm not sure if it's in superthrive, which smells like B vitamins, if I recall! As applestar noted, it is used for setting fruit, but that's foliar spray, which they do commercially - not something that I do. When researching this, most of the seed treatment I saw references to were about flowers. But I saw something about them using foliar spray to create seedless fruits - I always thought they were just hybrids. Maybe that's what creates some of those seedless peppers I sometimes get. They also use it to speed up sprouting (a.k.a. malting) barley and other grains, when making beer, and other alcoholic beverages.
When I first got it, I tested a number of old seeds I had in my stash, and tested them compared to water, 1:32 peroxide solution, and 500 ppm GA- 3, soaked 12 hours in each of them. I didn't compare them to saltpeter - I would have run out of petri dishes, plus I knew that helps peppers, from a test I did years ago, compared to a water soak, and there was a definite speed and % increase, with pepper seeds, but I haven't found any noticeable advantage with others I have tested, like the herbs.
Peppers were actually slower, with the GA-3, tomatoes about the same, and eggplant, parsley, cilantro, okra, basil, and chard were definitely faster, as well as higher % with those old seeds. I've used it with a number of other seeds since then, and got faster sprouting, with most.