I got this from another forum (Icmag) and I had to test it - the “Germination Machine”. It is basically a larger container with warm water heated by an aquarium heater to a constant temperature. The original inventor said that 76°F would be perfect for weed seeds. Since I used chili seeds I used 82°F.
In that bath I put another container swimming on top of the warm water. This plastic food storage box (or something similar with a lid) contains sponges - two for each seed sample. The sponges are moistened and wrung out. They should be moist but not soaking wet. Sandwiched between two sponges are the seeds to be germinated. No extra water in the inside box. The inside box is closed with a lid.
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My trial run: I had two sets of seeds which I knew had problems germinating. Probably too old or dried in too much heat.
So I took 30 seeds of Guajillo and put them between the yellow rectangular sponges. Another 30 seeds of the same cultivar were in one of the small glass bowls between some sheets of Kleenex.
The other kind of seed I tried are Pequin which also had a few problems germinating before. 30 seeds between the rounded beige sponges, another 30 in another glass bowl. I started this two weeks ago.
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The glass bowls with Kleenex were used as a test if there was a significant difference in germination time and quantity.
The results, so far:
After 10 days (last Wednesday) there were 0 Guajillo seeds germinated. There were 0 of the 30 Pequin seeds in the glass bowl but 3 out of 30 germinated in the germination setup with the sponges.
Yesterday, there was 1 Guajillo (although it does not look too great, a very dark root coming out of it which probably would not grow healthy) germinated between the sponges - none in the glass bowl.
9 Pequins germinated between the sponges, 0 in the glass bowl with the wet Kleenex.
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I found this to be pretty impressive since the Kleenex method works nicely with “good” seeds. But, as D.S. Toker. MD from ICMag said: the sponges are the real secret because they allow enough air/oxygen to get at the seeds while still keeping a ~100% humidity in the box.
In the future, I will always germinate more problematic seeds in the germination machine. I can only recommend this device.
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Nice! I made an incubator this way with large tubs. Love the smaller scale version your working with.
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@Pigeonman : Any photos or description of your complete setup somewhere?
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I checked one last time today. After 20 days, those are the results:
0/30 Guajillos in the bowl. 3 Guajillos between the sponges tried hard. The roots were very dark and stopped growing after about 2 mm out of the seed. So, those would most probably not have been good enough to grow a plant.
4 germinated Pequins in the bowl, 14 (!) Pequins between the sponges.
So, this was good enough for me to prove the germination machine rules. At least for very old or valuable seeds, this is definitely the way to go.
When I have enough canna seeds, I will try with those. Currently I don’t have any significant amounts to waste and they are all too new.
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