When preparing vegetable seeds for planting, you can increase your germination rate and overall health of transplants by a few simple steps before and after they go into your garden beds.  

Soaking seeds:

While many people like to soak seeds overnight, I prefer to soak seeds for 2-6 hours.  This is up to you!  Place one teaspoon of liquid kelp in a pint of clean water, sprinkle seeds in the water/kelp mixture, set your timer so you don’t forget your seeds.  After soaking, strain seeds (use the mixture to water any of your plants), sprinkle a small amount of powdered mycorrhizae, and spread out to dry for an hour or so to make sowing easier.  Wet sticky seeds are hard to manage.  Sow according to seed pack instructions.  Once your seeds have been planted, give them their first watering with the Root Drench Solution at the end of this article. 

Transplants:

To reduce stress of transplants, dip the root ball into a bucket of the drenching liquid as follows.  2 teaspoons liquid kelp, 1/2 teaspoon powdered mycorrhizae and a gallon of clean water.  Allow root ball to soak up mixture.  Plant as usual.  Drench soil with Root Drench Solution for their first watering. 

Root Drench Solution:

1 Teaspoon Powdered Mycorrhizae 

1 Tablespoon Liquid Kelp

1/4 Cup Fish Hydrolysate

1/8 Cup Molasses

2 Gallons Clean Water

1/2 Teaspoon Humic Acid (humaplex)*

1/2 Cup Compost Tea*

1/3 Cup Liquid Calcium (this is excellent for tomatoes!)*

*Optional

Use the solution within 24 hours of mixing. 

I use a watering can to apply as a soil drench, but a sprayer can be used instead. This mixture can be used every one to four weeks as needed in addition to your soils watering needs.