Does soaking seeds in hot water help their germination?

Question

Um, yeah, the question states it all, really. I have a biology experiment where I have to soak seeds in hot water for specific amounts of time (0.5 mins, 2.5 mins, 5 mins, 15 mins, and 30 mins) and then basically write an average school-student report on my findings. So far I've discovered that the Control (the seeds NOT soaked in hot water) have sprouted first, the the 0.5 minute-soaked one, and so on. What I want to know is why. For some reason my brain thought that hot water would affect the cells and therefore make them open and sprout, but obviously not. Can anyone help...please?? Thanks in advance :)

Answer 1

Maybe it depends on what sort of seed they are, I know you are supposed to soak some sorts of wattle seeds in hot water, but maybe if you used some other sort of seed the heat would damage them?

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When you get acacia seeds the instructions aren't always to soak in hot water, some say to nick the seed coat instead (usually easier said than done if you have a tiny hard seed).

Answer 2

You did not say what temperature. In your experiment, heat obviously caused damage to the seeds. The longer they were in the hot water, the less chance they would germinate.

I did the exact experiment as you did long time back, when I took plant physiology. I do not remember what seeds I used. But the seeds actually require fire to help them germinate. That makes perfect sense. After a fire, they will be the first to germinate. I soaked the seeds at 60 C, and took some out every five minutes. I found that heat did help the seeds germinate upto a certain point. After that, the viability of the seeds declined rapidly.

Answer 3

Remember, natural selection has favored seeds that would sprout best under normal environmental conditions.  Typically, that's NOT going to include seeds that sprout best when they're put into hot water.

Also, hot water can denature (destroy) proteins within the seed, killing it if the temperature and/or exposure is high enough, and damaging it at lower temperatures and times.