Anyone soak seeds overnight before planting?

MORPH3US

Hi folks,

Have read on a few sites that you should soak your seeds overnight before planting. Does anyone bother doing this?

I can imagine for bigger harder seeds it would make them soft to get them started quicker.

M

artha

MORPH3US wrote: »

Hi folks,

Have read on a few sites that you should soak your seeds overnight before planting. Does anyone bother doing this?

I can imagine for bigger harder seeds it would make them soft to get them started quicker.

M

I always do this for sweet peas

misskool

i do it for peas and beans but nothing else. guessing seeds that don't like it too wet (courgettes, cucumbers) will rot before sprouting if you did that?

elsien

Nope, never heard that one. Might explain why half my seeds don't germinate though. (Then I kill the other half, but that's another story entirely. :rotfl:)

roosterpotatoes

Ive heard you should soak tomato seeds, peas and peppers

foreign_correspondent

I have never soaked tomato seeds, and always get a good germination rate.

I soaked my chilli seeds this year (in weak black tea) as the germination for some varieties can be erratic... can't really tell if it has made any difference - some varieties have still had quite a low germination rate, whilst others haven't.

I know some people soak beetroot seeds, but I've generally had pretty good results with them anyway, so don't bother.

One thing I will say is that after soaking relatively small seeds (eg. chilli sized) they tend to clump together when damp, so sowing is a little bit fiddlier.

Mojisola

If you really want to soak small seeds - and I don't think most seeds need it - lay them out on kitchen paper and keep it moist. Either lightly spray it or lay it on a tray and pour in just enough water for the paper to soak up. When you're ready to sow the seeds, you can cut the paper up and plant the paper with the seed on it.

rosie383

I haven't soaked any of my seeds before and have had no problems with germination, even with my sweet pea.
I was reading yesterday, that it is a good idea (if you have time) to soak seeds from courgette, squash etc before planting and then plant on their sides so that they don't rot. First I've heard of it. I just planted straight into the soil last year once it was warm enough and had 3 lovely plants from 3 seeds

bromsgrovebarry

some seeds with a tough seed coat will benefit from the softening effect that soaking overnight gives. These are usually those in the pea family and include beans, sweet peas and lupins. Unless you are advised to do so on the packet, it is generally not worth doing.

valentina

We always soak ricinus seeds, and chip and soak canna seeds. (in case you don't know what chipping is, you make a tiny nick in the coating of the seed with a stanley knife, then the canna seed swells up when you soak it - you can apparently do this with sweetpeas too but we don't usually)

Davesnave

valentina wrote: »

We always soak ricinus seeds, and chip and soak canna seeds. (in case you don't know what chipping is, you make a tiny nick in the coating of the seed with a stanley knife, then the canna seed swells up when you soak it - you can apparently do this with sweetpeas too but we don't usually)

Yes, I chipped a load of Paraserianthes lophantha (sorry! ) earlier this week, when putting them in a glass of water for a few days produced no reaction. Overnight, the vast majority trebled in size, so I planted them without delay.

These seeds were from 2007. If they'd been fresh, this action would not have been necessary.