Growing Home - Boosting Seed Germination

For centuries, farmers tried all kinds of tricks to boost seed germination and prevent fungal infections by soaking or dusting seed with chemicals. From the early 1900s to the mid 1970s, seeds were commonly treated with mercury compounds to improve sprouting. Mercury, being persistent and toxic, was finally banned. Today modern organic seed treatments use biology instead of mercury, including beneficial microbes, mycorrhizal fungi, and humic acids that protect emerging seedlings by outcompeting pathogens.