Saltpetre

[Love2Troll]

I'm having problems germinating some seeds and remembered from an old AOL forum that potassium nitrate was useful. Ebayed some, but don't know how to use it.

Thanks in advance.

JohnT

[carolyn137]

HI, I"m Carolyn from the old AOL tomato Forum, LOL, who would also sneak into the pepper Forum as well. What was....aha, it was Cajun who was the main poster in the pepper Folder.

Anyway, it was I and actually Craig, who used to also post there, who I think first talked about the K Nitrate.

It needs to be used at a concentration of about 0.2% and that comes out to be about one teaspoon per gallon.

Soak the seeds overnight in it and then I used to also use it to water the seeds until I saw some germination and then would switch to plain water.

That being said, Craig and I tried all sorts of waker uppers such as giberellic acid with or without K nitrate, different soak times, microwave and more.

And the conclusion I came to, at least, was that the best results I had were obtained just by soaking seeds overnight in plain water, believe it or not.

Byron used to swear by the use of cold tea for peppers and there's a thread here now in this Forum about that, but when I have to wake up old tomato seeds that are dessicated I do it just with an o/n soak and also add a pinch of blue stuff such as Peter's or MG or one can also use a few drops of liquid fish or seaweed prep.

Addition of those fertilizers in small amounts ups the nitrate ion level which is supposed to be important in seed germination.

Many years ago I contacted several seed physiologists to find out what it did, and they didn't know either.

[Love2Troll]

Carolyn,

Thanks much! Actually, I remember you. <G> I wonder what happened to Cajun Papa? Probably living in France by now.

JohnF in Maine posted someplace (don't remember where) that he had old seeds sprout after giving up on them, letting the soil mix dry out & then rehydrating the mix.

JohnT

(who still drives to town every day to see if his John Henry pens have arrived & listens to your interview on PBS at least once a week)

[carolyn137]

JohnF in Maine posted someplace (don't remember where) that he had old seeds sprout after giving up on them, letting the soil mix dry out & then rehydrating the mix.

*******

Yes, I've had that happen as well, but it's only after I take the wee seedlings out of the seed pans or whatever and the soil has been riffled up and then I water so that I keep alive the seedlings I didn't need so that if anyone wanted them they'd be there.

But if I knew I had seeds that weren't germinating to start with, that's not what I'd do.

JohnT

(who still drives to town every day to see if his John Henry pens have arrived & listens to your interview on PBS at least once a week)

And what year was it that you ordered your John Henry pens may I ask?

And I was only interviewed on NPR, never PBS, so you've got the wrong gal John, said Carolyn looking to her right where there's still a half full box of said pens.