Grow More Food in Your Organic Garden Seven Fast Ways

To grow more vegetables faster in your natural garden, you will want to pre-germinate the seeds? Here are several new organic gardening tips. We can all explore them - inside our kitchens.

Why should we pre-germinate the seeds before planting them? Because we can be sure that every seed we plant will probably appear. Gardeners need that confidence if they're using seed that's a couple of years old or precious seed they can't risk. It also saves a lot of wasted amount of time in the garden planting seeds which will never come up.

And the faster we germinate our seed, all else being equal, the faster we'll get crops to eat.

A female in Switzerland - which has a very short growing season - wished to grow organic tomatoes very early. So she soaked some tomato seeds in water with several drops of valerian extract. Simply, she took some valerian blossoms, soaked them and strained off the juice.

She discovered that the seed drenched in valerian extract sprouted a full week before her other seeds. But was it the water or the valerian? she asked. She'd be the first to admit this was not a controlled experiment. Soak seed beforehand and it will come up faster than unsoaked seed. Having said that, growth stimulators might have a very significant influence on seed germination.

You will want to explore these simple suggestions to get your seeds off to a quicker start and grow more food - faster?

Fast and simple experiments in plant propagation

Lettuce seed is thought to germinate more quickly in the sunshine if soaked at 50F overnight in bleach (10% available chlorine). Why? It softens the seed coating Chances are, it'll get other notoriously 'slow' seeds like parsley off to an easy start too.

Soak the seed for 12 hours in an infusion of nettle, kelp or chamomile. Kelp infusion can be proven fungicide. For example, it helps to deter damping off disease in seedlings. So it is smart to feed and spray seedlings with a dilute kelp solution until they turn into sturdy plants.

- Strangely enough, cool tea is said to help seeds germinate faster, perhaps because of the tannin content. Logically, therefore, oak leaves might make a good substitute.

Look for a fast seed starter at a pharmacy

- Some experiments have suggested that commercial vitamins like C and B complex enhance seed germination, although to utilize synthetic preparations is hardly organic.

- Aspirin has also been used successfully. Simply dissolve 100mg of crushed aspirin in one pint of water and also a little alcohol like cheap vodka to ensure the aspirin dissolves.

Indeed, might an infusion of willow bark, that aspirin could be derived, serve equally well? (That's certainly organic!)

- Many essential oils have been recommended to germinate seeds faster. Try a 1% solution of mint, lavender, rosemary, tea tree or any other herbal preparation available at an aromatherapy or health food outlet.

Regardless, it's worth investing in essential oils for your garden, as they're something special to natural pest control. They'll drive off most insect pests that are attracted by smell. A clever tip would be to steep kitchen paper in essential oils, strap the paper to sticks and post them about your vegetable beds.

Plant physiologists at Hokkaido University in Japan discovered that seeds germinate faster if subjected to intense vibration. The jiggling about of starch cells in the grains causes the release of ethylene, which boosts germination, they suspect. So... should we put our soaked seeds in our pocket, when jogging?

In the past, gardeners would carry large seeds within their purse. The seeds surfaces were abraded by the coins.

What other gardening delights might we enjoy, even over winter? Simply take a trip round the shelves of pharmacy and health food stores. You might stumble on some elusive elixir, not yet recognized to horticulture, that may trick your seeds into earlier life - and faster food production at home garden.

Dr John Yeoman PhD is chairman of the center for natural gardening ideas [1], the Gardening Guild. You'll find an abundance of original plans to obtain additional fun, food and profit in your garden with less expense and effort in his practical book Lazy Secrets for Natural Gardening Success.

Claim it entirely free at: [2]