Soaking tomato seeds
Nobody is immune from the purchase of substandard seeds. Therefore before landing it is necessary to select all hollow, ugly and damaged. It is better to conduct this not by eye, but by a method of calibration.
Make a solution of table salt (take 5 g of salt on100 ml of lukewarm water), in it we make the soaking of seeds. The solution is covered with dry seeds and mixed well to remove air from their surface. Leave on for how many minutes - good seeds will descend, and the bad ones will remain on the surface of the water. The settled seeds are washed in clean water and dried a little. It should be remembered that the fresh seeds are calibrated more accurately than the seeds.
It should be taken into account that 80% of diseases of vegetables are transmittednamely with seeds. Therefore, disinfection of seeds should be carried out. Only if the package indicates that the seeds of tomatoes have already passed this procedure, it does not need to be repeated.
The easiest method is heat treatment, orheating in hot water. Wet the tomato seeds in a thermos by placing the seeds in gauze or linen bags. It should be remembered that with complete decontamination of up to 30% of the seeds, tomatoes may lose their germination capacity.
After the warming up procedure, the seeds should be immediately placed for 2-3 minutes in cold water.
Stopwatch and thermometer and with the warming apply necessarily! You can not break the regime!
The second method - soaking tomato seeds inmanganese. You need to make a 1-2% solution. If the concentration is increased, then it is possible to damage the plant. Half a cup of water should be added 1 gram of potassium permanganate. This solution has a dark, almost black, color. If you can not accurately measure 1 gram, then use the three-dimensional method. One teaspoon without the top of the potassium permanganate dissolves in three glasses of water.
The water should be at room temperature, after disinfection, you must certainly wash the seeds of tomatoes!
It is best to soak the seeds of tomatoes inrain or melt water. Of course, in cities neither rain water, nor snow, should not be collected because of pollution. You can freeze the taken from the tap - so we get rid of the salts and water will be able to activate the processes of germination of seeds.
It is very important to know how to properly soak tomato seeds.
- Soaking tomato seeds should occur after the disinfection procedure;
- The amount of water should be 50-100 times higher than the volume of seeds. Do not be afraid to dip the seeds of tomatoes completely into the water - when swelling they do not need air, they can not suffocate;
- mix the seeds several times;
- water must be changed if it becomes brown or yellow;
- Soak tomato seeds should be no less than 36 hours;
- Do not soak seeds in a solution of ash, fertilizers, salt solutions, because salts can inhibit the germination of seeds;
- after the soaking procedure, the seeds are either immediately sown, dried slightly to flowability, or put on for further germination.
It is useful to use biologically active drugs. Now there are about two hundred of them. Let's talk about three of them - "Humate", "Epin", aloe juice. The use of the first two preparations accelerates germination, and, most importantly, lowers the sensitivity of plant shoots to unfavorable conditions, increases their resistance to diseases, activating the protective mechanisms of the plant. When applying aloe juice, it is necessary to remember that it is not suitable for all seeds, but soaking the seeds of tomatoes in it is very useful.
To get the juice you need to take the lower onesyellowed leaves from an adult plant are not younger than three years old. Put them in the refrigerator for a week. Seeds should be aged in aloe juice 24 hours, after that they sow without washing.
Soak tomato seeds at room temperature - about + 20 ° C. At a lower temperature, bioactive substances will not work as efficiently.