How to get fast seed germination.
With this easy, fast seed germination hack you’ll know that your seeds have germinated every time. Whether you’re late sowing and need to know for sure they’ve germinated, speeding up warm weather seed germination without all the cost dependent tools, or like me you’re also just impatient to know they’ve actually sprouted. This saves time, and missing that vital head start on a short season. There is nothing worse than sowing seeds in the ground, waiting for weeks and nothing happens. Seeds can get eaten by pests, rot in situ, just fail due to age and the weather, or even be a batch with a bad germination rate. Even when we sow seed indoors to give them the best conditions, they can still fail.
Think seeds
Not all seeds need to be started early, and some are easier to direct sow than others. Peppers are well known for taking a long time to germinate. Whilst parsnips are known for being fickle due to their age. It’s why Seed Suppliers give us so many seeds for direct sowing. If like me you have damaged hands, this poses another issue. Thinning out presents another job to do, takes time, and can be painful. Making sure our seeds have already germinated before sowing eliminates all this.
What you need
Now I’ve tried all sorts of methods over the years whilst trying to get Sweet-peas to germinate, but it wasn’t until doing this that I hit success every time. We are constantly told to recycle, and as gardeners we’re also trying to reduce the amount of plastic we use. Yet we still seem to end up with so much of it, so one thing we can do is repurpose it. Reusing our plastics is also an excellent choice if we are gardening on a budget.
Equipment
A selection of small to large take-away style containers.
Kitchen, or Tissue paper.
Water.
Seeds.
Plant label with varieties written on it for both the containers, the seed trays and beds.
If starting Parsnips this way you need to have their bed ready to sow them directly in to.
For all other seeds have your seed trays, and pots filled with compost, pre watered ready for the seeds to go into.
Tweezers- optional, but I find this an easier way to handle the seed without damaging the delicate root.
Method
Take a plastic pot size appropriate for the amount of seeds you want to start. For eg, starting 10 pepper seeds is best suited to the individual sauces pots from take-aways, but sowing a large amount of parsnips, or delphiniums is best suited to the actual meal containers. Line the container with enough Kitchen Roll, or Tissue Paper that it will fold in half. I prefer Kitchen Roll as it is stronger, and you are going to need to check the seed regularly. Add enough water for the kitchen roll to absorb it, but there to be no extra drop when tipped upside down. Place the seeds in the pot, cover with the excess kitchen roll, and put the lid on securely with the plant label on top. Most seeds will germinate just fine like this, but such as delphiniums need the dark, so cover with a tea towel.
Keep checking the seeds after a few days. Parsnips in particular will germinate very quickly this way, and should be sown directly where you plan to grow them due to their tap root. Don’t worry if you end up with the root a little too long. Just make a small hole, place the root down into it, and gently cover. Trust me, it works, I’ve been doing it for years. With your warm weather seeds place them in your pre prepared trays. Should these sprout quicker than you expected, one of two things can happen-
Trouble shooting
Either the root will grow into the paper, but just gently cut around this and sow as with the parsnips above. Just make sure the seed head is still under the compost so it doesn’t dry out, and the leaves to break out. The other thing is that the leaves will also emerge. This is also fine. The root will probably also be in the tissue too if this has happened, so you’ll cut around it, and make your hole deep enough to compensate. Make sure your leaves are just above the compost, and not in direct sunlight for a few days. They will be perfectly fine. Make sure to water everything in, but not to over water.
You can also watch this video here-
Useful seed companies
I am in no way affiliated with these seed companies, but the seed I use in the above video comes from the following companies-