Latest / Hydroponics Daily / Unlocking Seed Potential: From Cyanide to Nitrates

Transcript

Unlocking Seed Potential: From Cyanide to Nitrates · Hydroponics Daily

• 0:00
  Hello there and welcome back to
• 0:01
  Hydroponics Daily, your go-to podcast for everything soilless cultivation.
• 0:06
  And of course, hydroponics means soilless plant cultivation.
• 0:11
  However, does the general public know that? And that is going to be the new
• 0:16
  segment I'm going to start every one of my podcasts with.
• 0:19
  Today, it's does my niece know what hydroponics means? Let's find out. What is hydroponics?
• 0:28
  My uncle's brand. That's what hydroponics is. Yeah.
• 0:33
  It's fair to assume from that that my niece does not know what hydroponics is
• 0:37
  and does not listen to my podcast. Thanks very much, Ellen.
• 0:42
  Yesterday we talked about seed viability and vigor.
• 0:45
  And i said that there was a blog post on
• 0:48
  the utreema website that mentioned all the different chemicals
• 0:51
  that can improve seed germination well
• 0:54
  i thought i would rather than getting you to go and that down
• 0:57
  and find it i thought i'd go through those list of
• 1:00
  those chemicals and explain in a bit detail a bit more detail what they are
• 1:05
  so let's find the blog post here it is better germination through chemistry
• 1:09
  and it says that just soaking seeds and chemicals and then seeing if they grow
• 1:14
  or if they grow fast is probably the easiest experiment you can do in plant science.
• 1:19
  And so there are loads of experiments, loads of peer-reviewed journal articles
• 1:24
  about this, about how to promote germination.
• 1:27
  The other thing is that seeds can only do one of two things.
• 1:29
  They can either grow and germinate or die.
• 1:32
  So you don't really need expensive measuring equipment to test that.
• 1:37
  So the first thing is there are a lot of like synthetic solvents and compounds
• 1:42
  that will germinate promote germination chloroform is an interesting one there's
• 1:48
  a that's just made up of a chlorine carbon and hydrogen and you'll struggle
• 1:54
  to get chloroform really nowadays because it is used in.
• 1:57
  Nefarious activities but if you are
• 2:00
  a scientist you might be able to get hold of some chloroform i would imagine it
• 2:03
  probably kills the plants as well so ethylene is
• 2:06
  another one that contains carbon and hydrogen it's a
• 2:09
  gaseous plant hormone it's what gets given off
• 2:11
  by bananas when they ripen so maybe you could put some
• 2:14
  ripening bananas near your seeds if you're trying to get them to germinate then
• 2:18
  come the other plant hormones like cytokinins gibberellins
• 2:22
  though those two have been shown to
• 2:24
  promote germination things like aba abscisic
• 2:28
  acid unlikely to promote germination that's a germination inhibitor
• 2:32
  and auxin i would imagine that would
• 2:35
  would impede germination because
• 2:38
  it would promote too much root growth and the shoots wouldn't come out
• 2:41
  ether and diethyl ether that
• 2:44
  chemical that you would have used in a level
• 2:47
  chemistry another solvent another potent solvent
• 2:51
  chemical solvent that can promote germination just i
• 2:54
  think by breaking down the sea coat really is that
• 2:56
  that's how it's doing that's how it's working hydrogen peroxide.
• 2:59
  That can promote germination and it also sterilizes the
• 3:03
  seed so that's it that's a potential one
• 3:06
  to use in very dilute same with sodium hypochlorite the
• 3:11
  main active ingredient in bleach to dilute bleach you could use again that's
• 3:16
  going to sterilize the seed make sure there's no diseases on it so that's a
• 3:19
  good one thio urea that's another organic compound you're not going to come
• 3:23
  across much it's got a bit of nitrogen in probably working as a sterilizing
• 3:27
  agent and as a nitrogen source.
• 3:30
  Mecaphto ethanol i think that is a that's a
• 3:32
  sulfur containing organic compound that you're probably
• 3:35
  not going to find anywhere else apart from a lab it's not really good one
• 3:39
  nitrates is the next one and nitrates a
• 3:42
  great way of promoting germination it's found
• 3:45
  in a lot of fertilizers already and but
• 3:48
  you can buy things like potassium nitrates ammonium nitrates
• 3:52
  probably can't buy that because that's used in bomb making but potassium nitrate
• 3:56
  calcium nitrate you can you can purchase don't buy sodium nitrate because that
• 4:00
  will kill your plants so that's in a lot of fertilizers and that will promote
• 4:03
  germination so that's why i had one of the reasons i advise against using the
• 4:07
  paper towel method for germination because there's going to be no,
• 4:10
  nitrates around there can be no nutrients which can help promote
• 4:13
  germination not essential for germination that's why not people
• 4:16
  refer to it in germination but a small amount
• 4:19
  of fertilizer does help too much and you get an osmotic effect
• 4:22
  that will impede germination so don't put too much fertilizer down nitrites
• 4:27
  can also promote germination however they are they are so Nitrates are NO3 and
• 4:35
  nitrites are NO2 and nitrites are poisonous to plants.
• 4:41
  Unfortunately but they can promote germination so they
• 4:44
  might promote germination and then impede growth it's a bit
• 4:47
  of a strange one another nitrogen containing compound nitroglycerin
• 4:51
  can also promote germination so another ingredient in
• 4:55
  bombs can help promote germination really get your germination
• 4:58
  off to a bang cyanide that can
• 5:01
  help promote germination that is that is a chemical simple cn
• 5:04
  or cnh hydrogen cyanide you might
• 5:07
  think that's a strange one but it's in a lot of things like almonds
• 5:11
  and cherries the taste of almonds is cyanide and it's in apple seeds so it's
• 5:17
  a natural compound in seeds anyway cyanide so it's not so strange interesting
• 5:22
  story there was a story about two scientists one bet the other scientist that
• 5:26
  was not enough cyanide in a cup of apples.
• 5:29
  To kill a person and the other
• 5:32
  one said i think there is enough cyanide in a cup of apples to kill
• 5:36
  someone and the scientist he said that
• 5:39
  there wasn't enough he bet him and so he decided
• 5:41
  he would eat a couple of apples to prove it and he died not
• 5:45
  sure how true that story is but i think it is true so
• 5:48
  i might google it and find out yeah if you're an almond breeder that's one of
• 5:52
  the worst jobs you can have in plant science because every now and again when
• 5:55
  you cross two almond plants together one of one of the crosses produces a plant
• 5:59
  that produces almonds that are so bitter and disgusting that you have to take
• 6:02
  the day off work because you've consumed too much cyanide.
• 6:06
  It's in cherries, that's why you shouldn't eat cherry pips.
• 6:09
  Chytosan can promote germination, that's a product we sell. At Eutrema we manufacture.
• 6:15
  It's an extract, it's the soluble version of insect exoskeletons,
• 6:21
  crab exoskeletons and fungal cell walls.
• 6:24
  It's also a biostimulant, it's also a biofungicidal, and it also promotes germination.
• 6:28
  And we use it as a seed coating on a lot of, we've helped carrot farmers coat
• 6:35
  seeds with it to help promote germination and ward off fungal diseases in a very high value crop.
• 6:44
  Carrots make a lot of money from growing carrots if you can do it well.
• 6:48
  Hydroxyl amine, another nitrogen containing compound, doesn't sound very nice.
• 6:54
  Azides, these are like dyes with nitrogen in.
• 6:59
  Various acids can help promote germination, but again, that's probably due to
• 7:02
  scarifying the seed coat, breaking that down.
• 7:05
  Vitamin B, various vitamin B compounds,
• 7:10
  You'll see that in things like Super Thrive and, oh, there's a new one, isn't there?
• 7:14
  Super Boost that contains vitamin B, I think, is that? Vitamin B1?
• 7:21
  Thiosin, is that vitamin B1? Yeah, so plants contain vitamin B naturally anyway,
• 7:25
  but some reports that it can help promote germination.
• 7:28
  Vitamin C, which is ascorbic acid, that might be a pH thing,
• 7:33
  it might be an antioxidant reason.
• 7:35
  Estrogen, which is a steroid or
• 7:37
  animal hormone, has been shown to promote germination. That's interesting.
• 7:41
  You could get your HRT tablets and put them in some water or find a lady friend
• 7:46
  who's got some HRT tablets.
• 7:48
  If you're struggling to germinate a few seeds or they're being poorly germinating.
• 7:52
  Aspirin, the technical chemical term for that is Cetal salicylic acid.
• 7:58
  And obviously that's a pharmaceutical compound similar to the plant hormone,
• 8:02
  though, salicylic acid.
• 8:03
  So you could mess around with aspirin tablets, or you
• 8:06
  could also buy salicylic acid like utreema we
• 8:09
  make a highly concentrated salicylic acid product and
• 8:13
  then the last one is carrikin i'll
• 8:16
  talk about carrikin in more detail probably tomorrow because that is a whole
• 8:21
  subject on its own carrikin you won't have heard of it but you probably might
• 8:25
  well you might have heard about how it works and where it comes from and oh
• 8:30
  i've missed one compound off altogether and that is
• 8:34
  you might have heard of it it's a
• 8:37
  solvent and it's found quite commonly and
• 8:41
  that's dihydrogen monoxide sounds dangerous
• 8:45
  doesn't it dihydrogen monoxide aka water water
• 8:49
  is a chemical that helps promote germination it's essential for
• 8:52
  germination you've got to have water you've got to have warmth you've
• 8:55
  got to have oxygen other things all the other chemicals listed on here they
• 8:59
  will help promote germination but they won't be the limiting factor they'll
• 9:03
  be maybe bump it 10 or 20 percent might increase growth rate by 10 20 percent
• 9:08
  but they're all things you can try and maybe one will work for your plant so
• 9:12
  as i say a lot of them will be working by just adding a bit of nitrogen.
• 9:15
  Breaking down the seed wall and breaking down that physical dormancy on a hard
• 9:20
  seed coat is probably how most of them are working and then having an extra
• 9:25
  sterilizing effect a lot of these chemicals will be sterilizing as well and so we'll help with
• 9:29
  pest and disease control on your seeds.
• 9:32
  Things like grey mould, damping off, you know, diseases of seedlings, so that'd be an issue.
• 9:37
  There'll also be lots of chemicals that inhibit.
• 9:41
  The germination of seeds. Things like abscissic acid, as I talked about,
• 9:45
  that plant hormone, that's the stress hormone.
• 9:47
  But other things like inhibitors of gibberellins will be particularly inhibitory
• 9:52
  to seed germination because gibberellins
• 9:53
  are, there's a massive boost in gibberellins when seeds germinate.
• 9:58
  And so things like paclibutrazole and growth regulators, they will inhibit germination.
• 10:03
  So if you are reusing growth media, and
• 10:06
  you have applied a growth regulator during flowering to
• 10:09
  prevent stretch one of these nasty chemicals that
• 10:12
  you'll find under the cabinets at grow rooms and
• 10:15
  you reuse your grow media and you put seeds into your
• 10:18
  grow media then they may struggle to germinate because
• 10:21
  of the growth regulators that are in the grow media something
• 10:24
  to consider you might want to break them down or use fresh
• 10:27
  grow media for your seedlings okay until
• 10:31
  tomorrow we'll have another when we're going to carrikins that's an exciting
• 10:34
  subject and really interesting where you can get hold of them how you can use
• 10:38
  them to promote the germination of a wide range of species and we'll have another
• 10:42
  somebody else i'll come across tomorrow i'll ask them what is hydroponics so
• 10:48
  if you listen to this and you meet me,
• 10:50
  even on a daily basis a weekly basis a yearly basis make sure you know what
• 10:55
  hydroponics is because i'm going to put my phone in your face and say what is
• 10:58
  hydroponics and you're going to have to answer and yeah make sure you get it
• 11:03
  right not like my niece today okay until tomorrow thank you very much for listening.