How to Speed up Loofah Seed Germination – Moist and Temprature

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Keeping seeds moist and at optimum temperature quickens germination.

For most seeds, soak seeds overnight (some beans like Romano Pole Beans should be soaked for 2 hours maximum), wrap the seeds in the wet paper towel and put in a zip lock bag, then keep them at optimum temperature. The germination temperature should be printed on seed packets. If not, just google it.

For seeds with very thick, tough shells like loofah seeds, nicking the seeds before planting increases the chances of sprouting and prevents the seeds from rotting. Clip the pointed end off the gourd seed with a nail clipper. Only clip through the outer seed coating and avoid cutting into seed inside. Google “how to nick seeds” if you need help.

How fast it can be? Let see our experiment on luffa seed germination.

Loofa seeds are notoriously difficult to germinate even indoor; many people only get around 40% to germinate in a given patch. This is because loofah seeds germinate best at around 85-90°F, but room temperature is only around 70°F.

To combat this, use seedling heat mat with thermostat controller to keep the seeds in an optimum temperature zone. But wait, we want to reduce carbon footprint and the heat mat + controller increase it and cost a lot. We came up with a plan:

We used a conventional oven to keep the seeds warm by turning on the light on the oven, which naturally heats up to near 100°F. Since this is too high, we also kept the oven door ajar to let some heat out.

To prepare for this, we first soaked the seeds in water overnight, then wrapped them in damp paper towels, put in a ziplock bag when they went into the oven.

This idea ended up being wildly successful, with the seeds germinating in just 36 hours and 60 hours (12 hour soaking plus rest of the hours in the oven. Loofah plants usually take around 7-14 days to germinate, so this is a super fast and efficient way to grow your Loofah plants.