Rules for soaking pumpkin seeds before planting

To get a good harvest, it’s important to carry out the right, and most importantly timely, preparation.It consists not only in digging the land, its shaving and buying planting material. Every gardener knows that the key to successful fruit growing is soaking pumpkin seeds before planting.

Rules for soaking pumpkin seeds before planting

Soaking seeds of other crops

Before planting in the ground, not only pumpkin seeds, but also other plants are subjected to this procedure. These include melon, watermelon, tomato, cucumbers, dill, celery, peas.

To soak them correctly, filter paper is laid out on the bottom of disposable cups, and several seeds on top. It is worth remembering that the optimum liquid temperature is 40 ° C. Observance of this condition helps to improve germination.

The peculiarity of cucumbers is that, before soaking, you need to warm their seeds on the battery – this contributes to faster seedlings.

Preparation

To get a generous harvest, the first thing to do is to figure out how professional gardeners soak the seeds. There are stages of preparation for this procedure, the sequence of which must be respected. Consider each stage:

• selection of material for planting in the ground. Planting material can be purchased at a specialized store or collected from last year’s crop. In the case of buying seeds, you can do without the process of their additional processing, because this manipulation has already been carried out at the factory. It is important to place the seeds collected independently in a solution of sodium chloride.Some of them will fall to the bottom – they are exactly what is needed for further work, and hollow floats will float on top;
• treatment with antiseptic substances. It is necessary to prepare a weak solution of potassium permanganate, which is an excellent disinfectant, and immerse the selected pumpkin seeds in it. After a while (no longer than 1-2 hours) they are dried and germinated.

Germination technique

Soaking seeds will accelerate the ripening process

In order for seedlings to reach a certain stage before planting, it is important to start the procedure several days before transferring them to the ground. Germination technique is a simple process:

• prepare dishes and hot water, in which the seeds are soaked for several hours;
• the water is drained and the contents dried.
• you need to take gauze, put it in several layers and place in a saucer. For proper germination, it is important to moisten the fabric, and cover the saucer with a plastic bag;
• every few days (preferably every day) it is important to open and ventilate the bag;
• soaking will be successful if gauze is constantly wet but not wet. It is also forbidden to allow it to dry out;
• only a few days will pass, the pumpkin seeds will sprout, and seedlings will be visible. Now the plant is ready for transplanting into the ground.

These events (soaking and germination) help to increase the ripening speed of the crop and its quality.

Additional events

Many people don’t want only to accelerate the germination process by soaking, but also to make the sprouts appear more resistant to adverse conditions. To do this, use a solution prepared from wood ash (1 tbsp. L. Diluted in 1 l of water). Soaking should last at least 6 hours.

In addition to folk remedies, there are also special ones that can be purchased at the store.

While the soaking process is in progress, you need to prepare the site. Before planting, it is important to loosen and remove weeds. The temperature of the soil also plays an important role – it must be at least 15 ° C.

The bed needs to be loosened and fertilized using organic top dressing. The hole is made with a depth of not more than 5 cm and placed one sprout very carefully so as not to damage anything. After that, the plant is covered with a substrate and watered with warm water.

Important! If everything goes perfectly, then after 7 days the first shoots appear. At this time, thin out the rows of pumpkins from weak shoots.

If you properly soak the pumpkin seeds, you can significantly increase their germination. Any of the options stimulates the development of culture and contributes to the emergence of strong, healthy seedlings, from which strong seedlings are formed in the future.

Each gardener selects a method of germination based on personal experience. It is important to understand that not everything can work out the first time. Do not give up, because the result of hard work will be a wonderful autumn harvest.