People who are in practice of growing hydroponic fodder, they have to focus on 5 major points before going for soaking procedure in this system
- SEED CLEANING
- SEED QUALITY
- PRESOAKING AND OVERSOAKING OF SEED
- WATER TEMPEATURE
- WATER QUALITY
- SEED CLEANING
Before soaking seeds in water check your seed either they are clean or not if you find that they are unhygienic, clean your seeds with some cleaning solution like hydrogen peroxide or calcium hypochlorite or any other cleaning solution which is safe to use. use very small quantity of chemicals for cleaning the seeds as instructions given on them.
- SEED QUALITY
Always select new, good and big size seeds for soaking seeds. If your seeds are old, you may face dormancy issues, germinations issues.
Also there should not be broken seeds present in it , they never sprouts but on the other side they rot and spoil all the other seeds. This is the major cause why people fail in growing hydroponic fodder.
Seeds should be healthy in size, small size seeds doesn’t give good performance. Biomass of hydroponic fodder reduces in that case.
- PRESOAKING AND OVERSOAKING OF SEEDS
Maize seed should be soaked in normal water for approximately 12-16 hrs ideally depends upon seed quality and Wheat, Barley, Oats should be soaked for 4-8 hours in normal water. If seed and climatic conditions are not normal seed may take more time for soaking.
Remember one things if you pre-soak or over-soak the seeds, further they will stink/smells bad and get fails to sprout further.
Remember seed soaking procedure should be carried out in dark place only.
Never expose to light.
- WATER TEMPERATURE
Always remember when you soak the seeds in water your water should not be too Cold or too Hot.
Your seed embryo doesn’t activate if proper water temperature is not maintained.
Hence in winter season or in snow fall area region water temperature should be increased by any heat source up to 30 to 35 degree Celsius (86 to 95 degrees Fahrenheit)
Also in very hot region areas you have to maintain the same temperature range of water in which you are going to soak your seeds
Remember one thing, that in cold areas or in winter season your seeds may take some more time to soak and in hot region areas it may take less time to soak . Atmospheric temperature and water temperature plays very important role in soaking of seeds.
- WATER QUALITY
Water should be clean and tidy. It should be free from all bacteria’s and foreign dust particles
Nature of water which is used for seed soaking should not be too hard.
It is suggested to use reverse osmosis water for soaking the seeds.
But we can use water whose TDS is not more than 100-150 ppm.
