Seed Sprouting with H2O2

[3Berries]

I got some Potassium Phosphate KH₂PO₄ and was wondering what to do with it. Came across an article that showed a boost in germination rate. But they added a bit of H2O2 with the water.

I used rain water with a 23 ppm/pH 6.6 start

20mM of H2O2 or, 2.35 mL/gr of 35%, 23 mL/gr of 3% per Liter
1 gr/1ppm KH2PO4 and another with 2 gr/2ppm per Liter

And one with the standard of my well water. 455 ppm and 7.4 pH which is what I usually do.

I soaked them in the solution for 24 hrs then went to paper towels saturated in their individual solutions. Placed vertically in the dark. Room temp 68F or so.

Quite frankly I'm amazed. The well water one was the only to sink. The others all had bubbles attached from the dissolved O2. Repeated dunking did no good. After 24 hr the only one to crack was the well water one. It appears the soaking in the solution was a waste and should have gone straight to the paper towels.

I then put them on paper towels separate from each other and placed the tray vertically. After another 24 hrs (48 total) they all were cracked open and all showing a root nub. Pic of all three at bottom.


wll 1ppm
2ppm

After another 24 hrs (72 hr total, 48 on the paper) the 1ppm sprout was out of the gate and in the lead by a wide margin. The 2ppm one was close behind with the well water one pulling up the rear.



Well 1ppm2ppm

At 96 hrs total and 3 days on the paper towels the 1ppm one is way ahead and even showing a bit of red on the root base, 2ppm is not far behind and the well water one again strolling along.

So today I planted them in 16 oz solos with ProMix Bx and watered with their original solutions. Fingers crossed. This is where they usually fail for me at the initial transplant.

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphy.2020.618320/full

https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/Potassium-dihydrogen-phosphate

And does the picture loading on this site suck. Sorry for the ill edited post.

[Gingerbeard]

I always used H2O2 when towel sprouting. Adds oxygen and dissuades other things from growing.
I might not be surprised if a seed can sprout in H2O2, alone. No water.
Next experiment on the way...

[90Gizmo]

Well commercial h2o2 is mostly water. Side note I worked at a chem plants and caught the concrete floor on fire when I spilt 34% on the floor. Named for the chemical, "peroxidizing" occurs when oxidizing h2o2 boils off the water and the h2o2 gets more concentrated and boils off the water and... I've seen 4% do it on a paper towel but not too the point of catching fire. I was in a bit of a panic with smoke coming from a crack in the concrete but the seniors guys on the plant floor said just step back that it would go out on its own. My plant nickname was Spill and I always volunteered to bottle the ethanol though the H2O2 scared me enough I avoided those orders in the future.

[3Berries]

The original experiment was 20mMoles or 2.35 mL of 35%. I used 23 mL of 3% H2O2 in 1 Liter of rain water.

[3Berries]

Day 6 from the start, day 2 in soil. The plain well water one is just about to poke up . The Home is the best, Forum was a day behind breaking ground. Been watering about a fl oz a day with their individual solutions. I don't know how much H2O2 is still in solution though.

[Franklin]

I heard an interview with Jeff Lowenfels on the GrowCast podcast where he claimed that each seed strain is encased with its own unique bacterial signature that is the best suited to that strain for growing. He advised strongly against using any sort of chemicals for sprouting so that you keep these specific bacteria alive, advised for direct soil seeding for this purpose, or if you must sprout in a paper towel, adding that paper towel to your soil to ensure bacterial transfer. I don't know if there's any real research on ultimate plant health for if the bacterial signature was retained or not, but he certainly believed there was a lot of research on the presence of a bacterial signature. His example was that a durbin poison bacterial combination will be different than a northern lights bacterial combination, and that these are identifiable. To me it seems kind of unbelievable, so I'm just passing on the knowledge, he definitely knows a lot more than I do about biology!

[Blowdout2269]

Weird. Yeah, sounds unbelievable.
I might have to research this sometime.

[3Berries]

The way I usually sprout and plant is like I am doing with the well water 0 seed minus the 24hr soak. The 24 hr soak I don't think does much when the paper towel is also saturated. But it has just broke soil today. Fully three days behind and that is the usual performance I have gotten. I also lose about 30% at the seed transplant time in the past.

The H2O2 is a very small amount too. The other two use rain water too not well.


Somewhere it mentions to avoid any magnesium or other metals. I usually use the well thinking the hard water is giving it some Ca and Mg right off the bat.

They are all up now so I'll go with the normal veg nutes next.

[Gingerbeard]

Were it true for weed seed, it would be true for all seed.

[Franklin]

Here's the episode I was referring to, if you don't want to click on a link you can also find it by going to the growcast Google podcasts site and doing a search for Jeff lowenfels https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR...MDYwMzQz?ep=14

[Bluey]

I get an 80 to 90% germination rate with really really old seeds just in covered saturated but not puddling wet paper towels in total darkness....about 7 days from start to plant. 21⁰C (70⁰F) pH 6

Same seeds in Jiffy pellets 0% germination rate...total failure.

[SoOrbudgal]

Exactly Bluey there's something about jiffy pellets in my experience with them has been failures i quit wasting seeds on them and went back to paper towel an baggie.

[3Berries]

Here is the beginning of day 8 from the start of the seed soak. The well water one 0 has caught up height wise, even being 2 days longer below soil. The 1,2 have a bit more leaf development. 1 had the longest tap root when put in the soil. All got their first drink of 1/4 strength nutes yesterday.

ProMix BX with Miracle Grow Veg nutes. Using well water to start for the Ca.Mg. Bit of molasses from the start too in the soil.

[3Berries]

Here's the ten day update. All are near the same height with the leaf fill out still 1,2,0 but hardly any difference. The roots are at the side of the 16oz solos cup now. I had the light a bit too bright at 70% and the soil too wet so they are a bit stunted I think.

So I can say that the H2O2 and Potassium Phosphate soak definitely did something but at 10 days they all look similar. Just have to wait it out and see how they turn out.

[Franklin]

This is a super cool experiment, much props to you for doing it, but it does seem like the type of thing that needs a large sample to notice differences for sure. Genetics, slight environmental variations that you can't detect, and pure random chance is probably going to have a much larger influence than anything else. I remember somebody posted a couple months ago about the thousand or so seeds that they had created, that would be a fun experiment. Randomly assigning to condition and then just testing which ones pop most and fastest. Anyway, this is super fun to watch and thanks for doing it

[3Berries]

I only do a couple seeds at a time. I will most certainly try the straight well water and just the H2O2 next time. That should knock out two possible outcomes, faster case opening (well water or sinking to the bottom) and longer root development (potassium phosphate). I'm really surprised the growth has evened out once in soil. 1 and 2 have started their second set of leaves but all are the same height.

Be interesting to see the root condition when transplanting.

[Gingerbeard]

Coffee filter sprouted two seeds in pure H2O2. It took 36 hours. Put them on top of water moistened coco. Watered once with pure H2O2.
This is them at 7 days. Since they were laid on top, they are still a bit shallow in the root.

[3Berries]

I'm watering my seedlings with half 3% H2O2 and 1/4 strength nutes.

[Bowhunterwoody]

Hey Gingerbeard. Is that 3% or 30% when you say pure?

[Gingerbeard]

Pure 3%, out of the bottle. No chaser.

[3Berries]

I have the plants in clear 16 oz solo cups in a bucket with soil surrounding them. This is for the bucket heater so it has some mass to heat up instead of just the cups. The soil stays at 72F or so.

But I noticed when pulling out the cup to look at the roots that they were all going toward the side facing the heater