Do seeds sprout in microwaved water?
I have heard that seeds won't sprout in microwaved water. So I did an experiment. I microwaved two cups of filtered tap water and let it cool to room temperature. I put one cup of sunflower seeds in each jar and soaked one batch of seeds in the microwaved water, the other in room temperature filtered tap water. I let them soak 8 hours, then rinsed each batch with filtered tap water two or three times a day. After four days you can see the microwave water batch - that's the one with the blue tape on it - is significantly less prosperous than the plain water batch. Obviously to be scientifically valid the experiment needs to be repeated multiple times, and I'd add a third batch, water that has been boiled in a pot on a burner. But honestly, I'm surprised. I truly didn't expect there to be any difference and don't have an explanation for it.
After another day, the microwaved water seeds have grown and caught up to the other jar. And I have a possible explanation. The non-microwaved jar may have gotten just a bit more light from the window the way the two jars were placed side-by-side in the dish drainer.
So more trials are clearly necessary.
Here's the image of my second, better controlled trial.
#Comments: 4
Soaked the jar with the M in microwaved water, rinsed it twice a day in microwaved water. Did the other jar with filtered tap water, same time, same temperature water, made sure to reverse the positions of the jars each time so one didn't get more sun than the other. And the sprouts are identical this time.
I mean, this was a second trial. I'd post a picture but the site wouldn't let me. I'll do so when I figure it out.
okay, I added the second image, above.
Hi Sumi,
Thanks for posting this!
Good thinking about switching up the positions of the jars. There are a couple of other things you might want to control for if you were to see a difference, though they are probably not worth worrying about at this point.
One thing you might consider in future trials would be to use multiple small jars (or maybe custard dishes?) with just a few seeds in each (maybe 5 dishes per treatment, with 20 seeds each?). That way you'd be able to quantify the frequency of sprouting, rather than just having a rough qualitative estimate. Also, by doing multiple jars, with a quantitative measure of sprouting, you'd be able to statistically differentiate the treatment effects from jar-to-jar variability. Jar-to-jar difference might arise (as you suggested) from light/temperature differences, but also from things like soap residues, interactions among the seeds, etc.
Best.
—Mickey