Hydroponic Systems Blog

Suppose you have saved your seeds from a prior year or you have some older 'store bought' seeds. Many times when planting such seeds only 60% may sprout. There is a more efficient way to go about this. Seed viability can be pretty much accurately determined before planting.

I think of a seed as a small factory just waiting for someone to flip the 'on' switch and start production. They are small airtight and sunlight proof capsules just waiting for heat and dampness to trigger them into production causing a seedling. Due to their complexity many things could go wrong making the seed unviable.

If air were to penetrate the seed casing the integrity of the 'seed factory' would be compromised and dampness would soon follow along with bacteria causing the seed to rot.

A foolproof way to check a seed for viability is to determine whether the seed casing is compromised. This can be done by dumping the seeds into a glass of water. The seeds that float are bad because air has penetrated the seed casing while the ones that sink are viable.

This is simple and extremely effective as a viability test. Using this method will give you a much greater rate of germination. Try it out ...