How and when should zucchini seeds be soaked before planting?
To create optimal conditions for improving the germination of seeds, it is recommended to prepare them in advance for transfer and planting in open ground. In this case, the treatment, disinfection, soaking and so on. All these activities are aimed at increasing the yield. It also allows to improve the quality of the seeds themselves and not infect other cultures on the site.
Some seedlings have a rather dense shell that can negatively affect rapid germination. These cultures include zucchini. Therefore, such seeds are soaked on a mandatory basis before planting, which allows sprouts to get out faster and not die in the ground. To improve and accelerate the germination process, it is recommended to soak in special biological solutions.
To do this, you can use both the drugs purchased in the store and those prepared by yourself - this does not affect the quality of soaking.
Why do this?
Soaking the seeds of zucchini before planting in open ground allows you to quickly appear the first shoots and improve their germination. It is necessary to soak in special formulations, and also to follow a certain process. This will require gauze, water, capacity and material for planting. It is important to use water from melted snow or from a natural source, for example, from a well.
If you can not find such a liquid, you can buy regular distilled. You can also use tap water, but experienced gardeners do not advise doing this. It can only be used in extreme cases.
Seeds are laid out on gauze, and covered with the top of her second layer. After that, a liquid is poured into the container, the temperature of which should be within 30 degrees. The volume of water is chosen in each case individually - depending on the number of seeds.
Soaked seeds should be moved to a dark place with a temperature not higher than +20 degrees. Some experts cover the raw material with plastic bags, which allows you to create the effect of a greenhouse.
It is also important when soaking to ensure the access of oxygen to the seeds, otherwise they will disappear. It must be remembered that a long stay in the planting stock solution also negatively affects it. It is necessary to keep the material on average 20 hours, so that it swells.
Before the process, biological preparations can be added to the water, which will stimulate the germination and growth of seeds in the future. Among these can be noted:
- "Zircon";
- "Appin";
- "Humate".
All these tools are added to the water and improve the germination process. If you can not buy them, you can prepare such infusions at home. To do this, you can take chamomile, boil it and soak the seeds in this composition.
Stages of the procedure
To help the seeds germinate faster, improve germination and prepare them for planting in the ground, it is necessary to soak them in warm water, the temperature of which should be within 20 degrees.
Calibration
Not all raw materials that are intended for planting in the ground, can give a healthy plant. Some seeds may be damaged or diseased. Therefore, before disembarking in the course of processing, such must be removed. Also unsuitable for planting are small seeds.
To soak hold quickly, you can use the popular methods of seed selection. To do this, water is diluted with a few grams of salt, which should settle. Seeds are poured into this solution and left in it for 60 minutes. Those seeds that can be used for further sowing fall to the bottom of the jar, while the empty ones rise upwards. Accordingly, those that surfaced must be discarded. The rest is washed in running water and dried. After that, they are ready for planting during the remaining procedures.
Disinfection
It is important in the preparation of seeds to remove not only empty, but also sick and damaged.All of them can carry a different infection, which is able to move to other plants and infect them. Therefore, it is necessary to disinfect before disembarking.
The most effective way is to warm the seeds in water +50 degrees. The raw material is placed in a bag made of cloth and lowered into such an environment for 15 minutes.
It is recommended to ensure that the temperature does not decrease. After that, seeds are dipped in cold liquid for 2–3 minutes. Then the raw material is removed and tapped. Now it is ready to use.
Effective means
When preparing the material, you can experiment using different compositions that can be prepared independently, for example, potassium permanganate with water. There are also other methods of the procedure.
Folk
For soaking it is necessary to take a fairly large, but shallow capacity. Some water is poured into it and a cloth is placed on the bottom. Gauze is folded in several layers. Then the seeds are placed on it so that they are at a distance from each other. Then the grains are closed with a second layer of gauze and poured with water.
This capacity is carried in a dark and dry place, where the temperature is kept within 20 degrees. During soaking, it is necessary to ensure that the water does not darken. When this happens, it is recommended to pour fresh.
Periodically it is worthwhile to open the seeds to give air access to them. Such a procedure will positively affect the quality of the seeds, as well as help them not to die after planting. The whole procedure does not take much time and effort.
Professional
To accelerate seed growth and increase germination, you can improve their quality. To do this, it is recommended to use products that are sold in stores. Such drugs are more active and work well on seeds than folk. If the seeds are processed by natural and folk methods, this is a more benign and environmentally friendly option. Everyone can choose solutions depending on their preferences.
Experienced gardeners recommend using such professional tools as "Zircon" and "Eliton."
- "Zircon". The basis is acid, which is obtained by processing echinacea. It improves plant growth, strengthens the roots and increases resistance to disease.
- "Eliton". Stimulates growth and is based on extracts from plant components. Improves germination, makes seeds resistant to diseases and negative factors. Also increases cold resistance. Often used in regions where the climate is cold.
When using all these tools, you must follow the instructions on the package. It is also important to respect the dosage, so as not to harm the embryo.
Recommendations
In addition to the above methods of soaking seeds before plantingOh, apply other techniques that are aimed at stimulating seedlings during their germination, as well as strengthen the roots.
- Potassium permanganate A weak solution is used: 2 grams of the product is diluted in water. The water should turn pinkish.
- Wood ash. In this case, 5 grams of the product are diluted in a liter of water and allow it to infuse for 4-5 hours.
- Nitrophoska. In a liter of water, 5 grams of the substance is diluted and infused for 2–3 hours. Next, the mixture is poured into a 10-liter tank and clean water is added. The resulting solution can handle seedlings.
Gardeners do not recommend ignoring seed soaking. It is also important to perform this procedure correctly. If the seedlings are not processed, they can freeze or grow poorly, which will affect the deterioration of the crop.
The whole period of soaking does not take much time. Usually they do this in a few days. Those seeds that do not hatch and do not germinate are removed. There are only healthy seeds that will give good germination.
Soaking of this material can be made immediately before disembarking in 2–3 days. The whole procedure is carried out at room temperature and in warm water.It takes about 24 hours to swell. Throughout this period, it is recommended to periodically open the tank for the flow of air, as well as change the water in it.
Some experts recommend semen stratification. Although this event is not mandatory, it nevertheless helps to improve the properties of seedlings. On the basis of this measure, the immunity of plants is improved, and their frost resistance is also increased.
The seeds are wrapped in a rag, poured over with water and left in the freezer. There should be up to -3 degrees. There are seeds in the freezer for 3 days. After this procedure, the seeds will be ready for planting even before the deadline. They are not afraid of frost or pests.
Even in the case when the seeds were stratified, they are recommended to be put back into the saline solution after the process and see which ones float and which will sit on the bottom: some sprouts can be negatively affected by freezing temperatures, and therefore they die in the freezer.
This helps prevent the landing of obviously unhealthy seeds. The material that settles to the bottom in the tank is ready for use after stratification. The rest you need to collect and throw.
Such events are held annually before disembarking. They can be used for courgettes, and for other plants. The principle of work and holding events is no different, but in each case there are certain points that must be taken into account. To do this, germinate the seeds properly and based on the advice given by experienced gardeners.
All these activities (calibration, soaking, etc.) allow you to get rid of unhealthy, as well as infected seeds even before they are planted. This will not give the opportunity to damage the entire crop and bring the infection into the soil.
Thanks to such procedures in the garden you can get a pretty good harvest from a small area. Also, these seeds can then be collected from grown vegetables and leave them next year for planting. In this case, you can protect yourself from buying materials that do not grow or infect other crops in the garden.
The whole procedure can be performed at home without the use of special tools. To do this, you only need to follow certain rules, as well as properly prepare the solution.
When using chemicals that are sold in the store, you should pay attention to the shelf life. When preparing the solution, it is necessary to determine the exact dosage. If you increase it, it will adversely affect even healthy seeds: they may die or burn.
Those gardeners who do not want to use chemicals sold in the store, can use traditional methods. There are many of them, and therefore such solutions and tools can be prepared by everyone in his home. It is important to pay attention to the time of soaking and the entire procedure: they may be different depending on the solution used. Nevertheless, the soaking time should not exceed 24 hours. This will give the opportunity to germinate the seedling with seed, which will improve and increase germination after planting them in open ground.
Based on the above, we can conclude that all processing methods are good enough for the material. Everyone can choose any of the favorite options for soaking. If you soak the seedlings correctly, then as a result you can not worry about the future harvest: this will improve its germination in open ground.
You can see that the soaking process is quite simple, and therefore it can be carried out by everyone in their area or in a city apartment.
Also, experts note that soaking is carried out only after preliminary disinfection of seeds. This allows you to identify damaged seedlings, which are then recycled, which makes it impossible for others to become infected.
How to soak the seeds before planting, see the next video.