Smoke helps germination

[Permagrin]

I heard about this quite a while back and was helping it might be of some good information to everyone else. Smoke seems to really help germinate seeds that might otherwise not have germinated. I haven't tried this on hemp seeds, but after listening to this program again I would be willing to bet that it would help them germinate faster and with better chances of survival.

Here is the link to NPR where you can listen to the program that originally aired on July 9, 2004. I am actually impressed that I was able to remember something from that long ago. :) Brain's not totally fried. :hmmmm: :trust:

[Cranky]

Brain's not totally fried.

hahaha i disagree...ya forgot the link:p

cranky

[gorilla]

Too funny! :happy:

[Vortex]

Guess it's time to smoke another bowl!!!!!
ROFLMAO

[Permagrin]

LMAO. Ok I'll try this again.

NPR LINK TO SMOKIN SEEDS (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=3253026). :)

[Vortex]

LMAO. Ok I'll try this again.

NPR LINK TO SMOKIN SEEDS (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=3253026). :)
So the extra bowl helped with posting the link this time :D

All joking aside very interesting.

[Cranky]

intresting indeed..only got 5 mins in though...will listen to all 17 mins tomorrow for sure;)

nice link;) got there in the end:D

cranky

[peakguy]

that this is going to work for our favorite plant. The guy is talking about "fire sensitive" plants like the lodgepole pines that grow where I live after forest fires; folks use to think it took heating action in the soil to get them to germinate but, based on this story, it is probably the smoke. He also mentions that this chemical in the smoke that they have identified helps seeds to break dormancy, but hopefully the seeds we are planting are not so old. However, he does say that what he called "smoke water" is available, although I have never seen or heard of it.
Well, I am planting some seeds tomorrow night (under the full moon) so tonight when I get the seeds out of their containers, I will put them in a baggie and seal a couple tokes in just for luck.

[Permagrin]

I went and got the grill going. I put in a few pieces of wood and got it burning then realized there wasn't much smoke so I took some prarie hay and laid it on the fire and it smoked like crazy. I was worried about putting too much heat on the seeds so I don't think I did it quite right. I just took the seeds I had in an old 35mm film case and moved it around a little bit over the smoke and just had it close enough to get it warm, then put the lid back on the case. They are growing nicely atm. I just put them in jiffy pots instead of the neat plastic baggie and wet paper towel method and it took about 4 days to pop out of the soil. I can't say it sped the process up any at all, but I had to try.

When I do it next time... probably next week... I'll figure out some kind of a screen mechanism so as to get more smoke and less heat on them and may have a little better results. I felt the smoke would help due to mary jane being a "weed/grass" type of plant.. no im no herbatologist* and prarie grass in the great northern plains where the buffalo used to roam freely grow better when burned every few years. This is all logical not scientific by any means.

[Trebor]

Am... No, the condittions for germination are moisture OXYGEN and suitable temperature. Soryy.

[Cakes]

I think they are talking about adding something more to the moisture, oxygen and warmth. They are pretreating the seeds and then germing them in the regular fashion.

And it's true they say it helps in different ways. Not only an unknown chem there but the lye in the ashes makes seed coatings open easy; it acts as an acid even though it is alkaline. And the high phosphorus content of ashes might be a nute boost and help the many mini cells of old seeds to get going while it is helping to soften tough old seed coatings.

Methyl alcohol fumes can hasten germination. I think it's penetrating, softening effect helps to accelerate the transition of otherwise old or inert outer cells. It might increase males because of the mutations/cell melt downs? The fumes are released from ripening fruit and fresh wood. Some speciality fruits/flowers/seeds really benefit from their use.

Some guy claimed that exposing seeds to wintergreen (i think it was wintergreen) made a lot more females. Three weeks exposure and then a rest of three weeks? not sure about the rest period length; might have been two weeks or a month, didn't seem to matter if the wait was a (little?) over.

some seeds like fire because the heat actually p0ps their outer protections open.

Besides the mystery chem, in real life, i bet the result of a fire clearing grassland would be that herb seeds would have a clear field with no old brush blocking their sun when spring and germ time came.

[mSeTxOiNcEaRn]

I have no problem getting 99% rates with the cup o water method and a source of heat. It seems like going out of your way for something that seems more of a theory than a proven method.

[CB]

Besides the mystery chem, in real life, i bet the result of a fire clearing grassland would be that herb seeds would have a clear field with no old brush blocking their sun when spring and germ time came.

thats how it's done here in the grass seed capital of the usa :)

and it's that time of year again now to torch em up.. wheat rye barly it all burns this time of year here... It's a fast burn tho and dont think it really hurts the seeds from what I have seen ;)

[co-d]

I was thinking of ways to produce CO2 without a generator. I was smoking a bowl one day pondering whether or not having a fire or smoke around my plants would actually help them. SO, I lit a few candles by them and that was that. I didn't have a chance to see if there were any positive results because I got too nervous that the wax would drip onto my ballast. Anyway, ixnay on the candles. BUT, it is possible that enough fire or smoke could create a nice amount of CO2. I'm pretty sure fire works like our lungs do. :pass:

[Cakes]

yup we give off a lot of carbon dioxide just like fires do.
and ha ha because we use CO2 to put fires out also.

[Cakes]

http://i124.photobucket.com/albums/p14/CakesPix/thepoppyburn.jpg

I have clusters of poppies in my yard and every year they spread a little. A few new clumps a year. But this last year there was a burn pile and now there are about 65 new plants around the burn. It looks like a Fairy Ring.

I wonder if it was smoke related.

[co-d]

hey thats cool

[Cranky]

yep..watched a prog awhile back now about this flower garden place we have in the uk....they used the same hormone from the smoke to get these seeds going that were over 200 years old....and it worked:)

cranky