DO FLOATING SEEDS GERMINATE? SHOULD YOU SOAK SEEDS PRIOR TO PLANTING? | Gardening in Canada 🌱🐝

So floating seeds germinate? Or are floating seeds void of life ? The classic narrative is that floating seeds don’t have enough endosperm to power through germination. However, this is not always the case. The second question is should you soak your seeds the get a higher rate of germination. In this gardening in Canada video we are going to look at whether or not we should be soaking our seeds and what happens when a seed starting floating during the soaking process.

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Ashley is an agronomist who has had a passion for plants since she was a small child. In the long summers as a child, she would garden alongside her grandmother and it was then that she realized her love for greenery. With years of great studying, Ashley had begun her post-secondary education at the University of Saskatchewan.
 At first, her second love, animals, was the career path she chose but while doing her undergrad she realized that her education would take her elsewhere. And with that, four years later she graduated from the University of Saskatchewan with a bachelor’s degree in science and a major in Soil Science. 
Some of Ashley’s interests are YouTube, in which she posts informative videos about plants and gardening. The focus of Ashley’s YouTube channel is to bring science to gardening in a way that is informative but also helpful to others learning to garden. She also talks about the importance of having your own garden and the joys of gardening indoors. Ashley continues to study plants in her free time and hopes to expand her YouTube channel as well as her reach to up and coming gardeners. 

#gardeningincanada #canadiangardener #soilscience

[CentreMass]

Learned from my late grandad to always soak my seeds, if seeds float but sink when you touch them then they are good, throw out the rest. He worked on a farm since he was 12 in Alabama. I tested whether to soak or not on corn and boy it makes a huge difference to soak corn.

[chadvollrath]

Love this. I dont use tap water and looked into this video for peppers, hot, ghost peppers.
I personally will do a float control group because I agree. Floating does not = NOT VIABLE.

I am a pro at my canna seeds. They need to be soaked and because of the bullet proof shell? I score the seed, put into a jar on a heat mat or even a radiator.
Loved your video and if anyone wants to hear how I make out with my tests? Message.

This girl is not only intelligent but cute..lol

Happy planting

Chad Vollrath
Sarnia Ontario Canada

Zone 6B😊

[russkgreen]

Gonna soak my pepper and tomato seeds before starting- maybe a few hours. Thank you for the insight and the time it took you to share it.

[chesterhobbs]

Again, I do appreciate your training sessions. I've never soaked seeds. Now considering doing so. Rather hard to did with microscopic lettuce seeds, etc

[michaelmarchione]

My grandparents and great-grand mother always soaked their beans, peas, winter squash...the larger seeds. They soaked them in the morning and planted them early at day break the next morning. I soaked half of my golden delicious winter squash seeds for about 2 hours one spring, they germinated 3 days ahead of the other half all in the same garden bed in pure rabbit manure. Last month I found a 2015 wadded up package of sunflower seeds in the back of a drawer. I wrapped 10 seeds in a wet paper towel. Three weeks later 6 seeds germinated. I potted the 6 seeds and now have 4 little sunflowers, one is an inch high. My 6 year old grand-daughter and I had fun with that experiment. Thanks for the great info Ashley. It is nice to know the science behind what our ancestor always did.

[JadesLotusMeditationsMore]

Hi! Thank you for this explanation. I am brand new to vegetable gardening and have been wondering about this topic. Now that I’ve seen this, I will be soaking Most of my seeds. 💝✨🌱

[dymondwillow]

nice to know. I have been soaking meyer lemon seeds for a month or so.... not sure whether to toss them or plant them. Guess the latter would not hurt. Enjoy your weekend! Admire that framed paper.... and smile.

[sabin]

i planted over 50 longan seeds(fairly large round seed with a pretty hard outer shell). so far(about 2 weeks) not a single one has germinated. today i started soaking about 6 more. will plant those tomorrow(in less than 24 hours). hopefully this time a few will.

[tlojewelrylove]

Wow, this is very informative and you are correct that not all seeds' viability can be evaluated by whether or not they float. I just did an experiment as per a tutorial on Amaryllis Man's YouTube channel where I floated amaryllis seeds. I checked on them tonight and I actually have roots beneath the water line and tiny green plants above the water line. I think floating is an excellent way to germinate seeds for ones that will germinate this way but it's good to know that some seeds are bad if they float so thank you for sharing this invaluable information! I guess it's time for me to experiment some more!
Cheers!😊

[christinamarie]

Love this! So many questions I’ve had answered here! Thanks, Ashley! 😃

[freelivingtennessee]

I had a problem germinating an old pack of lettuce seeds. On another channel I saw a guy pre sprout his lettuce in a cup of water! I did this and then took tweezer and transplanted then carefully. I also did this with the notoriously hard to germinate Celery seed too! Lol and then once by accident I was fermenting off the gel coating on tomato seeds I had them in a sunny windowsill and they stared to sprout too 😂

[ancientgardening]

The size of a seed is also important, as more material makes it grow faster, like the peach seed, it grows super fast into a big tree as it has a lot more energy and it's starting volume means a lot fewer times it has to double to get to a certain size. Compare larger floating seeds and smaller sinking ones, to see which do better overall. If we screen our seeds for size, would we darwin them into making more seeds of that size, and how would that affect how the plants grow and the final size of the plant?

[maggiemanzke]

Great video! This is my first season, and I plan to soak my spinach seeds, along with parsley (older seeds), and any that have that harder coating you referred to. Thanks!

[mrscaldwell]

Wonderful information thank you have a question; I germinated heirloom watermelon seeds on we paper towel; they sprouted; planted them out in large growing pot with good soil and watered regularly this was over a month ago no sign of growth :( any suggestions why this would happen? Thank you for your time and wonderful information. Also I did germinate pole beans, sugar snap peas same way, coming in nicely! FYI.

[vance]

I start by soaking my seeds in a Diluted humic acid, I use 1ml of Liquid Humic Acid in 1 gallon of Distilled water, and I use that to soak my seeds overnight, then I transfer to a paper towel dampened with the same diluted humic acid solution, Seal them in a baggie and sit it on top of my PC. When you are working with seeds that range from 10.00US to 20.00+ US per seed, you make sure you do all you can.

I read a Study and shared it in a seperate comment. I have used this method on 10 plus year old tomato seeds and gotten 90% germination rate, 9 out of 10 sprouted and grew.

[robertnewton]

How long should you soak collard seeds? Excellent presentation

[Jonas_Fox]

Interesting insights! Any insights on Pink Banana germination? Their notoriously hard to start. I've heard advice like soaking in 90 degree water for 3 days, scarification, and all kinds of strange things. I'd love to hear your take.

[vance]

Abstract: In the present study, we have tested the effect of humic acid on seed germination of Radish (Raphanus sativus). Seeds were soaked in various concentrations (0.1%, 0.25%, 0.5%, 0.75% and 1%) of humic acid at different time periods (10, 60, 120, 180 and 240 minutes). After 7 days, the seeds were analysed for their germination capacity, root and shoot length. The study infers that humic acid with the concentration of 0.25% showed maximum seed germination (100%) and the optimum shoot and root length was recorded as 6.175cm and 11.46cm respectively after 60 minutes soaking. Key words: Humic acid, Raphanus sativus, seed germination, plant growth studies.

Introduction Raphanus sativus belong to the brassicaceae family and is distributed all over the world. They vary in their size (10-15cm), colour (ranging from white or red) and in cultivation duration. It grows best in sandy loams and full sun light with pH 6.5-7.0. It is rich in ascorbic acid, folic acid and potassium. The root of R. sativus has several polyphenolics like vanillic acid, phenyl pyruic, syringic acid, p-coumaric, o-coumaric and caffeic1, 2. Wild radish seed has 48% of oil content and used as biofuel. Radish are rich in potassium, which helps in maintaining the blood pressure and have benefits in certain ailments like jaundice, piles, urinary disorder, weight loss, constipation, cancer, skin disorder and insect bites3. In this study, effect of humic acid on seed germination of radish was evaluated. Humic acid are the component of humus, consist of humic, fulvic and hymatomelonic acid4, which are formed by organic decomposition of organic matter like lignites, peat, as well as from abiotic organic matter like soil and water ecosystem. Structure of humic acid complex found to be organic containing polyphenolic backbone with carbohydrate and peptide side chain. So, they have high molecular weight 5&6. In general, humic acid supplies both macro and micro nutrients to growing plants, increases soil fertility and productivity, increases water holding capacity and enhance seed germination. Humic acid also reduces the other chemical fertilizer requirements, increases aeration of the soil, increases the protein and mineral contents of most crops7. Hence the objective of this present study is to gain information on humic acid and its effect on seed germination of Raphanus sativus L


Materials and Methods Radish seeds were purchased from local market and healthy seeds were selected for this study. The seeds (10 Nos) were soaked in sterile distilled water and treated with various concentration of humic acid (0.1%, 0.25%, 0.5%, 0.75% and 1.0%) for various time intervals (10 min, 60 min, 120 min, 180 min and 240 min). All the treated seeds were placed in sterile petridishes containing a thin layer of wet cotton and covered with wet filter paper. Seed germinated in distilled water was served as a control. The percentage of seed germination, root length and shoot length were recorded after 7 days of sowing and tabulated.

In the present study, effect of humic acid treated radish seeds showed significant results over untreated seeds and are presented. (Table- 1) shows the percentage of seed germination over control in different concentrations of humic acid. Among the treatments, maximum seed germination was observed in 0.1% and 0.25%. Similarly Patil et al8 reported that the application of 1% of potassium humate with deproteinized leaf extract increased the seed germination of soybean and black gram up to 100%. Volenec et al9 stated that deproteinized juice (DPJ) consists of many free aminoacids, vitamins, hormones, and the foliar application of deproteinized juice significantly increased the growth and yield of crop plants. Radish seeds after germination were observed for their growth in terms of shoot and root length between 24 and 168 hrs and the results obtained were showing significant improvements than control seeds (Table- 2 & 3). The maximum shoot length was recorded as 6.175cm at 168 hrs in 0.25% of humic acid. The same trend was observed in root length i.e. 11.4cm at 168 hrs in 0.25% of humic acid with 60 minutes treatment. Xue et al10 observed better performance when humic acid was applied along with chemical fertilizer in maize, wheat, cotton, rapeseed and sesame production as compared to Di-ammonium phosphate and other fertilizers. Humic acid increases resistance of the crop against drought, cold and diseases, resulting in overall improvement of crop yield and accumulation of availability to the plant nutrients. It induces and increases plant growth sustainably by releasing its nutrients slowly to the plants and microflora associated with it and expressed its effect on root enzymes and rhizosphere soil11&12. Trichoderma viride has effectively converted humic acid from Lignite and similar effect was obtained on Sorghum and Stevia rebaudiana and the same author also reported that 60% of potassium humate enhances the mushroom growth, 4% enhances Morus alba and 0.2% of humic acid enhancing the growth of Spirulina plantensis13-17. Kazuhiro Sugimoto18 reported that wild radish seeds A were capable of tolerating NaCl at 25 °C, with tolerance of 10 mM MgCl2 and 100 mM MgSO4, but was sensitive to NaCl and CaSO4. The growth response of the humic acid are due its hormonal effect and rich in macro and micro nutrients Atiyeh et al.19. Similar effect was found in this study and can be used effectively for seed treatment and high crop yield.

Conclusion Thus the present study reveals the required concentration of 0.25% of potassium humate for seed germination and seedling growth with effective root length and shoots length. This can be used for both seed treatment and growth regulator.

Acknowledgement The authors are grateful to the management of Sathyabama University for providing laboratory facilities, support and encouragement

[Bons_Eye]

I let some float on water such as amaryllis, (nicked) castor bean, sweet pea and hibiscus. Just cause I like watching them swell up to tell me their good.

Just starting to germinate many flower seeds via the baggy /paper towel method.

Using a mini ziplock bag I put the name of the seed on first because I have a teeny tiny itty bitty problem with remembering shit.
Cut to size a piece of paper towel and place inside (The writing should be on the bottom and should be covered over when you put towel in, wet it slightly, not drenched with water, place the seeds on top, seal and turn over (You can now see your writing and don't have to pick through turning them over to see what's what. Then store according according to what helps them germinate, under light, in the dark, in the fridge/freezer etc. Takes up minimul space and let's you be nosy and see what they're doing. I'm very nosy and check every day.

Seeds grow downwards naturally so you store them with the paper towel on top so that the seeds don't grow into the paper towel. Pain in the ass to get them little ones loose, or you could just plant it with the little bit of paper towel so you don't hurt the little roots.

There. I think that's it.

It's a cool way of starting seeds which I got from watching Robert's Garden Fundamentals on Youtube and reading his blog.
Give it a go!

[bluebird]

Have you ever used a starch gel for planting seeds? Any reason not to?
I’m new to growing carrots this year and found a couple of videos that suggested soaking for a week or so until the root tip just starts poking out, then suspending them in a cornstarch gel (I found a potato starch gel gave me a more useable consistency). Then you put it in a plastic baggie, snip off a corner, and squeeze it out in long rows into your garden for even spacing.