What's up everyone? Welcome back to the epic gardening podcast. Today we are taking a question from Christine.

So she says I'm growing sprouts for my parrots and I hope you can help me with some questions I have about sprouts.

So what she's asking is she wants to know if... help me with some questions I have about sprouts.

So what she's asking is she wants to know if seeds will germinate faster

if you soak them, and then if seeds will germinate faster

if you soak them in hot water.

And then if that's true, how might you do it so first let's answer her first question

Do seeds germinate faster if you soak them? Short answer, yes. This is probably the easiest technique to boost the

productivity and the germination rate of your seeds.

So if we think about how a seed knows

whether it's going to, whether it's time to sprout or not,

well water is one of the main triggers.

All you have to do is pour hot tap water. It doesn't really matter what

kind of water you have into a container. You need to empty the seeds into that container.

You spread them out and you let them stand for up to 24 hours.

You don't need to go much longer than that,

and in fact you can go a bit shorter than that

because if you soak them any longer, they will start to rot.

And so what happens there is the seed starts to take on water,

the seed swells a bit, and the embryo inside starts to plump up. Now, I've run into problems when I pre- soak, I'll be honest.

I do it all the time with beans because that significantly improves their germination rate,

but I don't pre-soak every seeds.

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