Seed Eggs

New experiment this month!

I wanted to know how we might be able to take things like poor germination rates and long germination times out of the gardening equation (Because these are the things that keep me up at night). Currently growers compensate for these issues by deploying a few well established techniques. Such as over seeding then thinning back to achieve a desirable distribution. Replacing empty spaces with well established 3″ potted herbs like parsley to fill the voids in a timely fashion. To pre-soaking the seeds in water to speed up germination times. To even inoculating seeds with micorrhiza spores to improve seed mortality rates. Or in some cases keeping an orderly and properly spaced planting bed strictly by hand planting only well established seedlings, which works for some things but not others. All these techniques work to shave a few days off the maturation rates or improve germination rate and efficiency of space.
Perhaps one way to take care of many of these issues is to deliver seeds that we know are viable and are at a much more advance stage of growth. Not just a soak but a sprout-like an embryo! Sort them for viability, inoculate with microrrhiza, and deliver to the ground 5-10 days ahead of schedule already equipped with its microbial team.

By encasing the seeds in clear organic microbial and plant polymers we can achieve all these goals like in the image. Automating the process with little bit of Raspberry Pi, engineering and some basic microbiology, we might have a cool way to take food production to the next level. I’m thinking not so much paper seed packs but plastic squeeze seed bottles! Teach those carrot and radish seeds whats up!