Towards the end of winter, gardeners begin the active period of sowing tomatoes for seedlings. Before planting, tomato seeds are subject to mandatory treatment, which enhances protection against viruses and ensures better germination.
Recently, the method of sowing tomato seeds in boiling water has become increasingly popular among tomato growers. Despite some disagreements, this method immediately caught on and worked well. After all, after treatment with boiling water, even poorly germinating seeds germinate quickly and amicably.
How is this possible, and why don’t the seeds die? The thing is that heat treatment helps to destroy the ethereal shell of the seeds, which interferes with germination.In addition, boiling water disinfects both seeds and soil, so the seedlings turn out healthier without additional treatments.
Step-by-step instruction
This sowing method is very simple and does not take much time.
- Pre-prepared containers should be filled with earth approximately three-quarters.
- The soil must be saturated with moisture.
- Boil the kettle and pour boiling water over the ground thoroughly.
- After this, you need to sow the seeds evenly on the ground and press them with your fingers or a knife. For better contact with the soil, you can lightly press each seed with a match.
- Immediately cover the containers tightly with film or a plastic bag.
- Wrap it in thick cloth and place it on a hot radiator.
- After an hour, the containers should be moved to any warm place.
You can slightly change the processing process, turning it into sowing tomatoes under boiling water. In this option, you first need to sow the seeds on moist soil, and then pour boiling water over them. And even in this case, they will not suffer and will give one hundred percent germination.
Caring for “boiled” seedlings
Now all that remains is to ventilate the mini-greenhouses daily and monitor condensation. The absence of condensation will indicate that it is time to water the seedlings. When the first “knees” hatch, it’s time to move the containers with seedlings under additional lighting without removing the film. After the appearance of cotyledon leaves on most seedlings, the film must be removed from the containers.
Due to the fact that the seeds practically lie on the surface when planted, they quickly stretch out when germinating. To form a strong root system, they need to be buried.You can immediately plant the sprouts in separate cups or carefully pour soil into a container and plant them in a couple of weeks, when the seedlings have become stronger.
Tomatoes sown in boiling water experience a shock, which stimulates them to produce offspring faster. So sowing seeds in boiling water not only affects germination of tomatoes, but also speeds up the fruiting process and has a beneficial effect on productivity.
In this way, you can process not only tomato seeds, but also other plants: peppers, eggplants, celery, cucumbers. Many flower seeds respond very well to treatment with boiling water. Summer residents love to experiment, so new methods appear that can turn the tedious struggle for the harvest into a pleasant adventure.
Reviews
Julia:
I use this method when growing peppers and tomatoes. They germinate much better than with standard sowing. I'm afraid to scald seeds without a hard shell.
Leonid:
Using the boiling water method, we are trying to plant not only tomatoes, but also cucumbers. We pour boiling water over the prepared bed and sow the cucumbers, without pre-soaking. Cover with film and you're done.
Larisa:
When I first read about the method of sowing with boiling water, I doubted it, but I wanted to try it. I sowed some of the seeds in the usual way, and treated the other part with boiling water. The ones under the boiling water hatched first, and the shoots turned out friendly and strong. But the usual sowing method did not give such results.
Natasha:
I don't like to experiment. If the seeds are of high quality, they germinate and develop well without additional manipulation.
Olga:
I haven't tried scalding yet. Usually I just pour a hot solution of potassium permanganate onto the soil before sowing, and everything germinates beautifully.
