Soaking seeds just speeds up germination slightly. I never soak parsley. It gets soaked by itself by moist soil when planted.

Dill not bill:)

No. Why make work for oneself? Can you imagine trying to handle multiple plant small, wet seeds? I soak no seeds other than perhaps favas and only if I’m sure I’ll be free to plant them the minute they start to germinate..

You are supposed to soak dill and parsley. It is almost no work, I soaked in a wet paper towel. Also not sure why wet seeds are more difficult? I never noticed a difference.

That's a very good point. Dry seeds are far more easily manipulated and dropped into holes. Wet seeds just stick to everything, especially small ones. Not sure who is supposing them to need soaking. Ain't true. I guess if you're impatient, soaking might be helpful.

You don't have to soak the seeds of dill and parsley....it is only a suggestion to speed germination but it is not a requirement. It is also suggested to soak pea seeds before planting. Sometimes I do....sometimes I don't. I see no difference in germination one way or the other.

Thanks! I press my seeds into potting soil so it is easy but now I get it - wet seeds sticking to fingers, I never thought of that! Parsley always seems to take a while. I feel like soaking helped in the past. Never actually confirmed though.

“You are supposed to soak dill and parsley.” Upon what authority? Certainly nothing I’ve ever read, heard or seen has said that. I direct sow parsley in quantity in drills by simply sprinkling between my fingers. Impossible if the seed were wet and no way could I be bothered to sow individual seeds. Even for large seeds like peas, if you miss the right time to sow due to bad weather or lack of time you end up with a lot of rotting, slimy seed.

floral good point. I read the sed packets and they mentioned nothing about soaking.

I do with parsley, as it does seem to help, but I've never tried soaking any other herb seeds. I get my seeds from Pinetree, and they suggest doing so.

https://www.superseeds.com/collections/parsley-1/products/flat-leaf-parsley

Again, there are remedies for impatience. Parsley does take a while to germinate otherwise, but ...

Every fall as I clean the garden I mark a space with tall stakes where I want parsley to grow the following year. Or, I fill a large pot with soil and compost, leaving it outdoors for the winter. During one of the late Feb/March snow blizzards or ice storms I toss parsley seed on top of the melting snow in my chosen location. An old New England method that is worth trying. Once tried it will become one of your fall rituals.

This is an interesting study.

https://agsci.oregonstate.edu/sites/agscid7/files/coarec/publications/07_parsley_seed_germination.pdf

They find that soaking parsley seeds for a week actually reduces germination. Maybe it's faster, but there is less of it.

But many seeds just know when conditions are favorable for germination. You plant them anytime in the winter, and they'll come up when the soil temp is high enough. For seeds that benefit from scarification, this is a nice natural scarification strategy.

I think you intended to write stratification. Scarification is something else.

No, scarification is where you weaken the seed coating to encourage germination. That's what I meant. You can do that by physical abrasion, or by biological degradation. The former is fast. The latter is slow. I do the latter routinely with my Malabar spinach seeds that have a firm coat. You plant those, and they will largely not come up at all promptly. Major PIA to scrape them with sandpaper or a knife. So what I do is plant them on New Years Day, LONG before they'll want to germinate. Then, every year, on March 15, they start popping up. By then the firm seed coat has degraded, and the soil temps are nicer.

Now, one might say that parsley seeds just need scarification to germinate, but the study I referenced says that scarification doesn't work for them. So I guess with parsley, it isn't a matter of having them sit in moist soil until the seed coat degrades. They're just slow.

I only soak seeds overnight. Soaking for a week would make them rot, I think...

I did get pretty good germination from parsley. I soaked them for 24 hours. FYI