To get good seedlings without black legs and the same midges flying around, it is important to disinfect the seeds. First of all, this applies to seeds taken from your plot, bought from your grandmother at the market or taken from a neighbor. If the tomatoes and peppers were sick, the probability that the pathogens are on the seeds is very high. They are just waiting to be lowered into warm, moist soil.
And here the main thing is not to beat the fever and not go to extremes. Because using a so-called “proven” tool, you can spoil all your endeavors.
The list of tools that are recommended to disinfect seeds consists of several dozen names for sure. But not all of them are “equally useful”.
Manganese is usually at the top of the list. It is followed by hydrogen peroxide, salt solution, aloe juice, garlic water, boric acid, iodine, chlorine, green tea, vodka and other drinks.
And no one knows exactly how long it should be soaked. Someone keeps it for a day, someone for half an hour, and someone thinks that even 10 minutes is enough. Also, no one knows how exactly these substances affect the seeds themselves.
For example, manganese
Usually the advice sounds like this: “soak the seeds in a weak solution of manganese.” Just how weak is he? And it often happens that it is soaking in manganese that prevents the seeds from coming together.
The second example is peroxide
How he is praised. But what is there, they shout about him at every intersection. And it turns out to be simply ineffective as a poison.
If you place the seeds in a diluted solution of peroxide, you can achieve the fact that germination will improve slightly and only because the seed coat will soften. Although ordinary water will cope with this. But peroxide breaks down quickly, in a matter of seconds, and does not have a harmful effect on “bad” microorganisms at all. Unfortunately, the oxygen into which peroxide decomposes does not disinfect.
Aloe juice or garlic water can be classified as detoxifiers with a stretch. There is an effect, even if it is weak, from its use. But the main thing is that there is no harm.
What can you choose from the list?
There is a truly effective remedy in the list of “folk remedies” that not only eliminates the infection, but also has a positive effect on seed germination. This is chlorhexidine – reliable and proven.
The antiseptic does not even need to be diluted. It is enough to leave the seeds in it for half an hour, and it will do its job, and very delicately. It will cope with bacteria and prevent the development of fungi.
The method is cheap, fast, very accessible and, most importantly, effective.
