Soaking seeds before sowing?

[jcosmo]

What kind of seeds do you soak before "planting" in the AG? I soaked mimosa pudica seeds overnight before dropping them into a failed pepper pod and 2 days later, I can see that they're germinating. I'm wondering if I should've done that with the peppers as well... still waiting for 2 pods placed in a Sprout on 12/19 to germinate (sweet pickle peppers).

[Shawn]

The only seeds I have soaked were Peas and they were done in a wet paper towel to germinate.  You should not have to soak pepper seeds.  Just placed them in a pod, put them in the unit, cover and wait.  Some plants take longer to germinate.  Sheesh my Rosemary took over a month.


I am sure others can chime in with what they soak if any.

If you mean by 'soaking' letting them sit in a cup of water,
I used to 'soak' those seeds with tough nut-like exteriors until I tried scarifying or nicking the corner and them popping then directly into the machine. I don't soak any more.

But I , like Shawn and several others here (and I am sure you will hear from them as the day progresses) sometimes start seeds in a moist paper towel and pop that into a plastic baggie until germination occurs. 

Most seeds get 'soaked' sufficiently in the sponge when they are in the machine.
That's the way I like to germinate seeds.

[MaryL]

The only seed I germinate outside the AG is cilantro because it’s a confounding little bugger.  I do the damp paper towel method with them.

[drbanks]

I accidentally dropped my packet of calypso cilantro into a bowl of water.

After a couple days, they'd all sprouted.  Sadly, no place to plant them.

[MaryL]

Maybe the bowl of water would be superior to the paper towel for the cilantro.  I always have trouble extracting the root from the towel to transplant. It rips at times no matter how gentle I am.