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Instant pot seed germination

Posted: Fri Apr 02, 2021 2:06 am
by Gthegardener
Has anyone tried seed germination via your pressure cooker? I saw this in the news this past week and watched the woman’s video. I put some seeds in my instant pot to try it out! I’ll let you all know how it goes!

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.cbc.ca/amp/1.5966064

Re: Instant pot seed germination

Posted: Fri Apr 02, 2021 8:29 am
by MissS
Who would have thunk???

Re: Instant pot seed germination

Posted: Fri Apr 02, 2021 11:33 am
by pepperhead212
You may want to use the lower setting for jiu niang - the yogurt is about 110° f, while the lower setting is about 90°, which would be good for peppers. Wouldn't be big enough for all my pepper seeds, but I use the low setting for dosa.

Re: Instant pot seed germination

Posted: Fri Apr 02, 2021 1:59 pm
by Ginger2778
Wow!

Re: Instant pot seed germination

Posted: Fri Apr 02, 2021 4:20 pm
by maxjohnson
Seems like I would put the seeds in between two heat pads for similar effect.

Re: Instant pot seed germination

Posted: Fri Apr 02, 2021 5:00 pm
by Amateurinawe
It was a close touch growing so many seeds around every window sill in the house. if you think I am going to try my other halves IP's then you must think I have a death wish. If I was a cat I'd have done my nine lives already.

Re: Instant pot seed germination

Posted: Fri Apr 02, 2021 9:59 pm
by Gthegardener
pepperhead212 wrote: Fri Apr 02, 2021 11:33 am You may want to use the lower setting for jiu niang - the yogurt is about 110° f, while the lower setting is about 90°, which would be good for peppers. Wouldn't be big enough for all my pepper seeds, but I use the low setting for dosa.
I used the custom yogurt setting and used 85 degrees! No germination yet (it’s been 2 days). I’ll keep you all posted!

Re: Instant pot seed germination

Posted: Fri Apr 02, 2021 11:03 pm
by pepperhead212
[mention]Gthegardener[/mention] That custom yogurt setting you mentioned must be on newer IPs - so you can set any temperature you want with it? That's great! Mine just has the regular and low temp.

Re: Instant pot seed germination

Posted: Sat Apr 03, 2021 10:28 pm
by Sue_CT
Might be worth trying with older seeds. Soak them in the blue stuff first and then use this method. For most tomato seeds, they sprout pretty quickly anyway. I am late this year just planted my seeds a few days ago. I went to bed the third day, nothing, I looked late in the morning of the 4th day and almost half little cups of seeds had germinated. I do use a mat set at 80 degrees and lay plastic wrap loosely over the tops to keep the moisture in, so I probably get pretty consistent temps and moisture. If you don't have a mat or a consistently warm place to start seeds, this seems like a good way. I don't know what the seeds she demonstrated with were. If they are tomato seeds the 4 day time seems about right. If they are pepper seeds, it is probably quite a bit faster since I know they can be pretty slow to germinate. I have one cup of pepper seeds germinating on the mat, so I will have to see how long they take. If I get tired of waiting, I will try my IP. :)

Re: Instant pot seed germination

Posted: Tue Apr 06, 2021 1:29 am
by Gthegardener
pepperhead212 wrote: Fri Apr 02, 2021 11:03 pm @Gthegardener That custom yogurt setting you mentioned must be on newer IPs - so you can set any temperature you want with it? That's great! Mine just has the regular and low temp.

Yes! I got my IP in 2020! I had success this week with germinating ground cherries and older tomato seeds. I had normal germination with the pepper seeds I started. The oldest seeds I’ve germinated in the IP so far were from the Carolyn seeds and they were from 2010.

Re: Instant pot seed germination

Posted: Fri Oct 01, 2021 7:27 pm
by pepperhead212
Here are my results, from a recent experiment in the IP:

At noon, on 9-29, I started the seeds for some seeds for Longhorn, Craig's Jalapeño, and Maui purple peppers, plus 2 curry tree seeds, in the Instant Pot, on yogurt mode, on low, and the temp stays around 90°, or just under. And yesterday, after soaking in 500 ppm GA-3, I started some Eggplant seeds around noon, so they are just a day later. Here they are before the eggplants:
ImageLonghorn, Craig's jalapeños, and Maui Purple peppers, plus 2 curry tree seeds, planted 9-29 in IP by pepperhead212, on Flickr

And today, a seed of one of the longhorns sprouted, after just 55 hours! The one on the right, touching the one below, is the one sprouted.
ImageLonghorn pepper seed, in the IP yogurt low mode, sprouting in 55 hours. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Re: Instant pot seed germination

Posted: Sat Oct 02, 2021 11:29 am
by pepperhead212
I just checked the seeds again, and some of the EP seeds have sprouted in 3 days, and both of the curry seeds in 4 days. No more of any of the peppers have sprouted, but it is still early, for peppers.

Both of the curry seeds sprouted, but one is most visible:
ImageCurry tree seeds, sprouting after 4 days in the IP, one most visible. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Image3 of the eggplant seeds sprouted in 3 days in the IP. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Re: Instant pot seed germination

Posted: Sat Oct 02, 2021 8:52 pm
by pepperhead212
This evening, I put those sprouted curry tree seeds in the stray with 6 others, that I put directly into the seed starting mix, after squeezing out of the berry. So they have already been in 4 days - I'll see what grows better. And I started soaking some bitter melons - 3 in water, and 3 in 500 ppm GA-3, to see if this heat helps, and if either is better. In each dish I soaked 2 of this year's variety - Sayonara - and one Comet, which is a variety that I just ordered. I've had trouble with these sprouting in the past, and I just thought about them today.

Re: Instant pot seed germination

Posted: Sun Oct 03, 2021 1:13 pm
by pepperhead212
Here's an old seed, sprouting in just 4 days.
ImageOne 5 year old Craigs Grande Jalapeño seed sprouted, 10-3 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Re: Instant pot seed germination

Posted: Sun Oct 03, 2021 3:06 pm
by MissS
You are having some nice results. It sure looks like a successful method.

Re: Instant pot seed germination

Posted: Sun Oct 03, 2021 3:30 pm
by pepperhead212
And I forgot to mention - all but one of the 8 eggplant seeds had sprouted when I checked everything at noon - and they were started a day later!

Re: Instant pot seed germination

Posted: Tue Oct 05, 2021 1:09 pm
by pepperhead212
Still no Mauis, but some of the bitter melon seeds sprouted in just 2 days, plus the overnight soaking. The ones in the GA-3 didn't do any better than plain water, in the Sayonara - the Comets didn't sprout yet.
ImageBoth Sayonara bitter melon seeds sprouted in 2 days. Didn't make much difference for the GA-3, the lower dish. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Re: Instant pot seed germination

Posted: Wed Oct 06, 2021 11:38 am
by pepperhead212
Still no Mauis, but it's been a week, and often peppers have taken longer my usual way, keeping them around 85-90°. The Comet bitter melons haven't sprouted, either, but the other sprouts are over an inch long, with a lot of roots! And the ones soaked in water are the largest.
ImageSayonara sprouts on steroids! Comets not sprouted yet in 3 days. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Re: Instant pot seed germination

Posted: Fri Oct 08, 2021 2:56 pm
by pepperhead212
Still none of the Mauis or the Comets, but when I checked everything at noon, the za'tar was the only one of those herbs that had sprouted in just about 36 hours. Soon I'll have some spots set up in my hydro for some of these, but I'll plant some za'tar and hoja santa (which hopefully will sprout) in some of the seed starting mix, and see which will do better.

These are the herb seeds I put in about 7 pm on 10-06. The hoja santa are the smallest.
ImageMore seeds going into the IP experiment - parsley, zaatar, cutting celery, and hoja santa. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Re: Instant pot seed germination

Posted: Wed Oct 13, 2021 8:54 pm
by pepperhead212
So far, no Maui sprouts, and examining the seeds closely I may see one possibly showing a sign of a sprout. If they don't sprout soon, I'm going to do another experiment, based on a strange thing that happened a couple of years ago, when I tried sprouting these with my usual pepper seeds, in the heated vermiculite tray, which is usually kept in the high 80s. Out of about 20 seeds, none sprouted in 2 weeks, when all the rest of the peppers were off and growing in their pots already. So I gave up on it, and pulled all the unused sprouts out of the tray, and dumped the vermiculite into a bag, and stuck it in the shed. It sat their, through the summer, and the shed would get so hot sometimes that when I opened it, I had to let it cool for a while, before touching some things. So I always figured the soil components I kept in there for making up batches of seed starting mix had been sort of "solarized". In fall, I made up a batch of starting mix for the cool weather seeds, using some of that vermiculite. The usual things went in, mostly brassicas, and in just 2 days things started coming up. Normal for lettuce, but usually takes longer for the rest. Plus, the seedlings didn't look normal. And some were sort of purple, and the only one I planted that was purple was kohlrabi. By the 4th day, a bunch of what I planted were coming up, next to the earlier ones, and I realized that they were those Maui purple seeds I had given up on!! In just 2 days they had started coming up, and they had been drying out in that hot shed all summer! I got over a dozen sprouts, yet I didn't get one in the spring.

So here's what I'll do now, in a couple days, if none sprout - I'll take that petri dish and uncover it, and put it in my oven - the one with the pilot light, that stays around 125-130° all the time. In a few weeks I'll plant those in regular soil, at room temp, and maybe a few in the coir in the hydro, and see if any sprouts appear.



Today I took those seeds out. The Comet hi melon seeds didn't sprout at all, despite all 4 of the others ending up like small plants! None of the hoja santa sprouted, and I thought that one might benefit from the warmth. The parsley nor the celery sprouted - I'll try new ones of them in a seed sprouter, as that has worked before. The spearmint is already sprouted in the hydroponics, so I threw those away.

And now, I'm actually making some yogurt in the IP using the yogurt mode! 4 pints curing in there.