2014 pre-germinating/sprouting experiment Peas, Corn, Curcs

[skiingjeff]

I've been reading along with interest to your post, Applestar. I found it interesting for the following reasons:

1. General knowledge of what works by pre-germinating and what doesn't work so well.
2. General procedures to pre-germinate. Sprouter/wide mouth jar; paper towel in baggie in refrigerator.
3. What a germinated seed actually looks like (normally we only see them when they pop out of the soil).
4. A great way to plant only viable seed (many folks don't have a lot of space for their garden and would like to plant only viable seed in order to maximize space usage. Nothing worse than plants a space and only getting 60% or less to grow )
5. Tips and tricks as you've gone along the process.
6. An understanding that you're on the seeds timeframe not your own. When they sprout, you plant

I don't know if this is the type of list you were looking for, but I've certainly enjoyed reading it. I'm thinking of trying it later in the year for a fall crop of snow peas and seeing how it goes. Thanks for the great info!

[applestar]

...still pre-germinating...

Since Baby Fweddy-Fwed did a number on the pole beans, I started some more, this time out of my saved mixed hot weather crops seeds bag. It had little round black BB sized seeds in it that I think are okra. Okra was the first to germinate in 1-2 days so I already sowed most of them in my Edible Landscaping Front Yard Fence Row. But here are a couple left, along with other beans. There were some corn in there too so they also went in the FYFR, along with some of the beans. The rest of the beans were distributed to re-seed where Baby Fweddy-Fwed decapitated them, as well as some other locations that are hopefully inaccessible to him,

A couple of okra and beans

[applestar]

I forgot to thank skiingjeff -- Thank you!
Exactly what this thread needed -- an orderly mind to provide a sense of reason to counterbalance my rambling.

[skiingjeff]

No worries

So I tried to pre-germinate some bush beans but didn't do so good. So I have a quick question to clarify what I might have missed in the thread. You first soak the seeds you cover them in water about 12 hours (overnight), then you drain them and let them sit without any water for until the next night. Then that next night you soak them again overnight and then drain. Continuing to repeat until they germinate. Correct?

If so, I understand why a dish works better than wide mouth jars because there is less potential damage to the seed.

Again, thanks for the great thread!

[applestar]

OK I see where you went wrong. After the initial soaking, the seeds/beans are rinsed twice only, no soaking. Also, in the summer heat,initial soak should be limited to 4-6 hrs.

If the temperature is warm (over 75°F) and/or air is dry, you need to rinse twice and drain more often so the delicate roots won't dry out. I really like this EasySprouter because it creates a thermal airflow between the inner cup with drainage slits and the outer solid cup. But I have made my own version with two plastic beverage cups that seem to work. Trick is to suspend the inner cup over the outer cup with a small gap in between when stacking them.

I've had some success with personal size salad spinner with the inner basket sitting on a jar lid to raise it a bit more from the collected water in the older bowl.

I really thought turning the salsa jar on its side worked pretty well too.

[skiingjeff]

Thanks! I guess I overwatered them

Just like everything with seed starting, it seems to always be a matter of too much water or too little water....lol

I'll have to try again because putting the Carson yellow beans into the ground doesn't appear to be producing many plants and I want to check on the viability of the seed before contacting Territorial to express my displeasure with their seed as I bought them new for this year's planting.

Thanks for the clarification

[applestar]

Bumping this thread as reminder to myself and others in my planting zone that it's almost time again to start pre-germinating corn and squash, etc.

Reviewing this thread, it looks like I also pre-germinated peas to direct sow about this time last year, but this year, I already started some inside that are a month old, 3-4" tall and ready to plant with several true leaves. (I'll add the link for that thread later)

It's good to know I can still sow some peas though (as long as the spring weather is going to be like last year) since I have a lot more seeds.

[applestar]

I started the first variety of corn -- Glass Gem

I plan to grow at least one more variey... A third if I can work out the logistics and another location to plant them. It's a question of staggering the planting times based on days to maturity as well as planting on opposite sides of the house to effectively buffer/block accidental cross pollination by the wind and air currents.

[applestar]

And this batch is ready to plant already!

I really wanted to plant them today but could not find the time. I'm going to have to get them in the ground tomorrow or the day after at the latest.

[applestar]

Last year, I found out that by pre-germinating and starting them inside for planting as early as possible, early maturing C.pepo variety and C.maxima, which are vulnerable to SVBs (squash vine borers) were able to mature fruits before SVBs took down the vines.

This year, I direct sowed the pre-germinated seeds in raised hills for warmed soil, etc. and it worked!

-- I harvested these Kakai hulless seed squash today (along with the one volunteer maxima) Almost all Kakai vines have collapsed due to SVB.

I only got two Guatemalan Blue fruits from two plants -- but par for the course since I had 6 Kakai plants -- but I believe they are also nearly ready to harvest -- there is corking starting in the fruit stems. Since the vines are not quite collapsed (supplied by secondary roots from nodes along the vines), even though they are infested by SVB's at the base, I'm going to give them another day or two before harvesting.

This is working out well since now, melon vines that are enjoying the hot weather can move into the space that had been occupied by Kakai, and I sowed pre-germinated edamame/soybean seeds in the Guatemalan Blue hill.

[applestar]

FYI -- Subject: First Glass Gem Corn Harvest


...came back to this thread again to see if it's time to start pre-germinating corn for this year. Looks like I should start this week end or next week.

[applestar]

Subject: 2016 -- starting seeds and cuttings for the new season
Sat Apr 23, 2016 8:28 pm

I have 2 or three different varieties of corn to grow this year. I'm going to try to be careful to stagger planting time for them and will also grow in beds that are located on two opposite sides of the house. I'm also learning to use isolation tassel and shoot/cob bags for corn seed saving.

First up, I started soaking my Mirai 350BC seeds yesterday. After soaking all morning, I drained the water and put them in my seed sprouter, and have been rinsing them at approx. 8 hour intervals.

...just a little while ago, I decided to give them another rinse, and was tsk- tsking that these shriveled up corn kernels had NOT plumped up with water and that some of them are STILL not sinking to the bottom, wondering if they are duds since I tend to think good seeds should sink. Then did a double-take because I realized one of the floaters had a rather long radicle/seedroot growing already. -- Time to sow!


I started sowing them in the 1/2 gal rice milk carton. For this, I stand it up on one of the long narrow side like this, which provides 4.5 inch depth. I can comfortably fit two 10 seed rows = 20 per carton, and could squeeze in another 4 in between for even two dozen per carton.

-- today, there were actually only 16 germinated seeds, though. So I left space for 4 more seeds.