Pre soaking beetroot seeds?

[crichmond]

Hi all

I planted around 200 beetroot boltardy seeds in a largish square pot to start them off, but for some reason only about 30 germinated dont know if they were new or old seeds as I threw the packet, so I decided to try soaking some first, done about 150 each of 4 different varieties (got loads). the reason for this question is does soaking help or not and also I have noticed that with all 4 varieties the water in the glass has turned a brownish colour is this because the seeds have been coated with something or is it a natural coating on the seeds that has coloured the water?

Cheers Chris

[dajehle]

I've had some germination issues this year that have never happened before and I'm putting it down to a cooler spring.

Beetroot seeds are multigerm (lots of seeds in the one casing) so soaking it helps disolve the chemicals on the coating that inhibit germination and make it easier for the seedlings to pop out... I think...

[Cutecumber]

Chris

The colour is natural, don't worry.

Soaking is indeed supposed to help get rid of chemicals that inhibit germination - I guess in natural conditions they have to get quite wet for this to happen - and I find it does improve germination rates myself.

[peanut]

How do you "soak" your seeds? do you literally submerge them in water? Don't they rot?

[momol]

I soak my beet seeds too, and it seems to speed the germinations.

Peanut, you just soak it like soaking beans seeds (couple of hours will do), they don't rot by soaking.

[peanut]

I see, I've never soaked seeds before but if it can get rid of chemicals then it sounds like a good idea!

[Cutecumber]

these are natural chemicals, you are not "washing" nasty things from them.

[Mike and Louise]

Yep we soak ours. Just put them in a small jar of water for about 2 hours.

By the way... it is not actually a seed, but rather a small dried fruit with between 2 and 6 smaller seeds stuck to it.

[willowstar]

this is interesting because I have had problems germinating beetroot this year. I too threw away the packet and bought new ones after the first batch failed miserably and only 5 of the 25 of the new ones have germinated. last year I had excellent germination. I'll try soaking them this weekend see if that helps.

[HeyWayne]

I have a tray full of beetroot seedlings, never pre-soaked the seeds just put them in a tray of moist compost and put them in the greenhouse. Seems like most of them have geminated. I used Boltardy, they're all a couple of inches high now and don't seem to have grown much recently, but they look ok.

[Pumpkin Becki]

I bravely direct sewed a row of Boltardy into the raised bed some weeks ago, and have yet to see one seedling, where as last year they were almost 100% germinators.

Is there something going on this year? I will definately try soaking a batch as well though, sound like a jolly good idea. I know that they used to recommend doing that with Sweet Pea seeds years ago, but you don't need to now.

[pigletwillie]

I bravely direct sewed a row of Boltardy into the raised bed some weeks ago, and have yet to see one seedling, where as last year they were almost 100% germinators.

We sow our in modules, 1 or 2 clusters per module. It works brilliantly and we just them plant the "clumps" 4-6" apart.

[Newbie]

i was under the impression that beetroot had to be sown direct as they didn't like being transplanted - is this not the case then?

[pigletwillie]

If you sow into modules and them transplant the module there is no root disturbance and they grow away just fine.

I dont thin them out either, just harvest roots when they are of a required size and the ones left then carry on growing.

[Newbie]

cool, will give that a shot then! Thanks PW!