Every chilli grower has their own special way of getting chilli seeds to germinate – especially when it comes to tricky to germinate seeds like super hots or old damaged seeds. One of the most common methods touted is the idea of pre-soaking seeds in a variety of different solutions. Some soaking solutions like hydrogen peroxide is thought to mimic the seed being eaten by a bird and coming out the other end, others are said to soften the seed coating making it easier for the roots to break out and some presoaks are thought to help kill off any potential bacteria on the seed that could infect the seed.

To help solve the mystery I’m going to test out the most common germination methods to see which has the highest success rate. To make it fairer we’ll be using different chill varieties to see if certain types respond better to different methods.

The Soaking Process

For each soaking method we’ll use 10 seeds of each variety. They’ll be soaked for 8 hours in room temperature liquid then setup to germinate using the paper towel method.

Chamomile Presoak

Chamomile has natural bacteria killing properties so it’s a pretty good choice for a seed soaking solution. Not only will it help kill off potentially harmful bacteria, it’ll help to soften the seed casing making it easier for the roots to emerge.

To make the chamomile presoak make a cup of chamomile tea letting the teabag to brew for 2 minutes. Then, make a second cup of tea with the same teabag and let it brew for 2 minutes. Leave it to cool to room temperature then dump your seeds in there to soak for 8 hours.

Black Tea Presoak

Black tea is a bit of a mystery. While it does help to soften the seed casings to make it easier for the roots to emerge, it’s not exactly clear what else black tea brings to the table. I’ve seen mention of the tannins working some kind of magic, there’s also talk of the flavonoids doing something but nothing definitive.

Never-the-less there’s an interesting posts about black tea being particularly useful when it comes to hard to germinate seeds or very old seeds along with some reports of it drastically reducing germination time.

To make the black tea presoak make a cup of black tea letting the teabag to brew for 2 minutes. Then, make a second cup of tea with the same teabag and let it brew for 2 minutes. Leave it to cool to room temperature then tip your seeds in there to soak for 8 hours.

Distilled Water Presoak

Distilled water is used as a presoaking solution to rehydrate seeds which is thought to “wake up” the seeds from dormancy. It also helps to soften the seed coating making it easier for the roots to emerge from the seed casing.

Put your seeds in room temperature bottled water and leave them for 8 hours.

Tap Water Presoak

Tap water is the easiest and cheapest soaking solution. Soaking in water is thought to rehydrate the seed “waking” it up from dormancy as well as softening the seed coat making it easier for the roots to emerge.

The problem with tap water is it contains chemicals such as chlorine and fluoride which are thought to inhibit plant development and growth. However, many people use tap water without any problems.

Put your seeds in a glass of room temperature tap water and let them soak for 8 hours.

No Presoak

Plenty of people skip the presoaking step and go straight to the paper towel germination part so it’ll be interesting to see if these seeds keep up with the rest. 

This is our control group. It’ll help show whether presoaking offers any advantage or if it’s just an additional unnecessary extra step.

Chamomile wrap

With the chamomile wrap there’s no presoaking involved. We’re going to setup our seeds for paper towel germination but instead of moistening the paper towel with water we’re going to use some of our chamomile tea presoak solution.

I’m curious to see if it’s possible to get the benefits of presoaking without needing to spend 8 hours soaking the seed.

Black tea wrap

The black tea wrap process is the same as the chamomile wrap process except we’re moistening the paper towel with the black tea presoak solution.

The Seeds

I figured that some seeds might respond better to different methods so I’ve got a variety of seeds to test on. We’ll be planting ten of each type for each method.

• Jalapeños
• Cascabel
• Camba
• Cobincho
• 3 Year Old Seeds (excluded)
• 5 Year Old Seeds (excluded)
• Chilli Flake Seeds (excluded)

I’ve heard that the tea presoaks are supposed to work wonders on old damaged looking seeds so I’m hoping that the older seeds might sprout with those methods (or any method really!).

The Results

I’m not entirely sure how to present the results in a way that’ll make sense so feel free to let me know in the comments if you think there’s a better way. Would some kind of graph be good?

	Germination Rate	Avg Germination Time
No Presoak	100%	9.2
Chamomile Wrap	97.5%	9.7
Black Tea Wrap	95%	9.5
Distilled Water Presoak	92.5%	9.6
Black Tea Presoak	92.5%	8.8
Tap Water Presoak	87.5%	9.8
Chamomile Presoak	85%	8.8

We’re two weeks in and the old seeds haven’t started sprouting but I’ll be checking them daily for another two weeks in the hopes that something germinates. I’ve excluded them from the results for the mean time but I’ll update the post if any of them germinate.

The four types of chilli seeds that were in good condition have all finished germinating and I’m fairly certain any that haven’t germinated yet aren’t going to (but I’ll give them another two weeks just in case any are late starters).

Germination Rates

While there was pretty good germination rates across all methods the No Presoaking method outshined the rest with 100% success.

The most interesting thing the results show is that all three of the methods that didn’t involve a presoak had a higher germination rate than the presoaked seeds.

On top of that, in the no presoak method tap water was used to moisten the paper towel and it outperformed the “cleaner” chamomile and black tea wraps.

I’m pretty surprised that the tap water presoak yielded more germinated seeds that the chamomile presoak too.

Germination Time

The fastest average germination times come from the chamomile and black tea presoak methods. However, when we look that the data in more detail taking into consideration when the first signs of germination appeared to when the last germination occurred things look a little different.

The no presoaking method wasn’t the first to have a seed germinate, but it was the fastest germinator of the lot with all the seeds being germinated after 11 days.

	Day of First Germination	Day of Last Germination	Total Days to Germinate (from first germination)
Chamomile Presoak	6	12	6
Black Tea Presoak	5	13	8
Distilled Water Presoak	5	12	7
Tap Water Presoak	7	13	6
No Presoak	6	11	5
Chamomile Wrap	6	13	7
Black Tea Wrap	6	13	7

Conclusions

According to the results I got, skipping presoaking worked out the best. It germinated all of the seeds, it did it quickly and it takes the least effort.