Question
Hello, I have a few drosophyllum seeds and i have heard that if you soak them in b1 superthrive, it will hasten and help germination.  Is this true? And when i am dealing with any bare rooted plant, will it help to soak them in superthrive for 30 minutes?
Thanks

Answer
Hi Adam,

I haven't heard about soaking seeds in SuperThrive?  It's not something I've experimented with, so I can't give you any recommendations to this issue.  However, we've had no trouble germinating Drosophyllum seeds.  We get nearly 100% germination rate.  The secret is nicking the seeds to expose a bit of the endosperm.  Usually we just plant them in the appropriate soil mix and keep the soil very moist.  When we see signs of germination (3-4 weeks), we then decrease the soil moisture.

Will soaking the seeds in SuperThrive speed up germination or improve germination rate?  That I just don't know.  I can at least say it won't hurt the seeds.  I've soaked Drosophyllum seeds for 24 hours in a weak solution of a plant hormone, and I had a very good germination rate.  Of course, I have good germination rate without soaking them in hormones or SuperThrive.  So all I can say that it may or may not improve germination, but it won't hurt your seeds.

We primarily use SuperThrive when we receive bareroot plants.  We soak the plants for 15 minutes before we repot them.  We use 1 teaspoon per gallon of water.

Good growing!
Jacob Farin