I recently purchased some peruvian white habanero seeds, on the instruction paper it says to soak them in potassium nitrate found in the pharmacy (cvs) overnite. I looked it up and it says its a chemical used for multiple uses most widley know for helping cigarettes burn evenly. My questions this, I've always been told nitrates are bad, and if they're putting it in cigarettes, is it really something I should be adding to my garden? Its a known carciogenic from what wiki tells me. So, Are there any risks? has anyone tried this? is it organic? are there other options?should I just stick to soaking them over nite in some warm water?
Hello, I have never heard of soaking seeds in KNO3. I am curious as to why it is suggested that the seeds be soaked in this instead of water. Do you have more info? KNO3 is something that I use in my own gardens (in one form or another) for flowering plants and veg alike. It occurs naturally in soil and is a constituent of many fertilizers. Pepper seeds I just place in seeding soil,water and cover with vermiculite...and that's all. There are only a few seeds that I use that soaking technique with, from time to time but they are the notorious ones like lathyrus and parsnips. At any rate, I don't think that soaking the seeds overnight in KNO3 would be harmful to people eating the resultant 'fruits', in fact I sometimes place match heads in the bottom of the hole that I plant peppers in because pepper plants do seem to require a bit of sulfur phosphorous.
Rock, If you only have a few seeds I'd still be tempted to take a few of them, soak them overnight in some blood warm water and put them inna moistened (& wrung out) paper towel inna ziplock. Place all on top of fridge or a warm windowsill and see what happens. If (by day 10) a little tail pokes out of seed, they've germinated. Plant into cells with moistened soiless mix. Your race will have begun ;-)
I always thought pepper seeds had to be planted under asphalt to keep them from germinating! I've never heard of soaking them in anything except warm water. Let us know how your experiment turns out, please. Sjord, I love that matchhead idea. When I plant my bell peppers I'm going to try it on half the plants, and see which ones do better. I love this forum--so many new ideas!
For soaking your pepper seeds, you might try adding a bit of liquid fish emulsion to water. When planting the seeds, try adding some epsom salts to soil mixture and mixing it in well: epsom salts contain magnesium and sulphur, both of which are highly beneficial to seed germination. You also can mix some into soil at transplanting time; side dress with same when peppers begin to bloom as a preventative against blossom-end rot that may occur in some pepper strains. This works wonders on TOMATOES as well!
Wow, I had no idea about the match heads! Thanks for clearing up the nitrate situation, I definatly will try it. I've never seen instructions like that and had never heard of it so I was a bit skeptical to dip my seeds in. I'll definatly have to try it with a seed or 3, I think I'll also try a couple of others (including the paper towel idea, never tried that with peppers )at the same time and see what comes out to be the better way for my peppers. I've always had trouble germinating peppers, so I try my hand at the fancier ones i cant get at lowes or any other big box store at try my hand at those and buy the 6 or 8 cells of bells and chilies since I can get them for under 2$ each pack. I've heard about epsom salt but a gardening friend has it drilled in my head to not use miracle grow because of the salt content. So I guess after that I automatically ruled out bringing any sort of salt in the garden.. I watched a viodeo on youtube called donnas sq ft garden and she uses epsom salt and dry milk, she did say that the salt helped with end rot on tomatoes and peppers but I never found out about the milk, any ideas? Are there even more benifits from using the milk and salt together? I dont have any other info on the kno3, that was honestly the first time i've ever even heard of it, But Im interested to know how you use it in your garden! Do you just pour it around or spray iton the leaves or base? What does it do?
Hello Rock, I use the epsom salts (MgSO4)dissolved in rainwater--sprayed on the leaves of my peppers, paprikas and tomatos. The milk--Well, I use milk diluted with water to spray leaves of plants which have a powdery mildew (a fungus sort in the family, Erysiphaceae) problem. If you use the match heads in the holes that you plant your peppers in, be sure and cover them with a thin layer of soil before putting in the plantlet. I am not aware of using epsom salts and milk together. The Potassium Nitrate I just sprinkle on the ground before the plants go in and scratch it in...or I scratch-in some at the base of my flowering shrubs and perennials. The N in this compound will promote leaf growth and the K promotes flower production, and thus fruit. I have also heard that K stimulates root system development like P. Potassium Nitrate is a compound that naturally occurs in the soil but some flowering plants as well as some veggies are so hungry for this that beds can become depleted sometimes and require amending.
Here is an entire piece I wrote on nitrite, nitrate, and ammonia for kids to understand how they work in our environment. Although the piece is discussing nitrosomonas and nitrobacter, their dinner are the very natural chemicals we are discussing here. Nitates are very useful/needed; in our environment. As amatter of fact, if you read through, you'll see that they are actually fine for use on plants. http://pollywogsworldoffrogs.com/Text-h ... er101.html
