Grow More Food in Your Organic Garden Seven Fast Ways

To grow more vegetables faster in your natural garden, why not pre-germinate the seeds? Listed below are several new organic gardening tips. We are able to all explore them - in our kitchens.

Why should we pre-germinate the seeds before planting them? Because we are able to be sure that every seed we plant is likely to come up. Gardeners need that confidence if they are using seed that's a few years old or precious seed they can not risk. It also saves lots of wasted amount of time in the garden planting seeds that may never come up.

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

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

She found 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 is not just 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 said to germinate quicker in the sunshine if soaked at 50F overnight in bleach (10% available chlorine). Why? It softens the seed coating It’s likely that, it'll get other notoriously 'slow' seeds like parsley off to a fast start too.

Soak the seed for 12 hours in an infusion of nettle, kelp or chamomile. Kelp infusion is also proven fungicide. For example, it can help to deter damping off disease in seedlings. So it is a good idea 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 read more 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 a single 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 can be derived, serve equally well? (That's certainly organic!)

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

In any case, it's worth buying essential oils for the garden, as they're a gift to natural pest control. They'll drive off most insect pests that are attracted by smell. An inspired tip is 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 put through 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 read more gone by, gardeners would carry large seeds in their purse. The seeds surfaces were abraded by the coins.

How more info might we enjoy, even over winter? You need to a trip round the shelves of pharmacy and health food stores. You might stumble on some elusive elixir, not yet known to horticulture, that might 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 a wealth of original plans to get more 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]