A student of mine came to me for some advice regarding a project he's working on this year and I thought you guys might get some use out of it. It involves germination times for pinto beans, but I'd imagine it could be used on other types of seeds too.

The project is finding the optimum pH and soaking time combination to get the earliest possible germination from seeds (see the picture below). In each test tube is 50 dried pinto beans. Each test tube rack represents a solution with a specific pH ranging from 3.0 - 11.0. The range of test tubes on the racks represent the time that the seeds are allowed to be soaked prior to germination (1hr, 2hr, 4hr, 8hr, 16hr, 24hr).

Serial dilutions of 3% acetic acid (vinegar) and a 0.1M sodium hydroxide solution to reach the desired pHs. To rule out problems with germination rate (since most seed samples won't have a 100% germination rate anyway) he is considering the trial group to be "finished" whenever half of the seeds have germinated.

I'm curious to see where this goes. I'll keep you posted if anyone is interested in seeing the results!