Move over butter chicken and mushroom risotto. There’s a new use for the Instant Pot, the popular kitchen appliance known for speeding up slow-boiling dishes.
An Ottawa scientist who is an avid hobby gardener has discovered that certain seeds germinate during jig time while exposed to the constant low heat of the Instant Pot yogurt setting.
Lyanne Betit is a government scientist with a background in biochemistry and organic chemistry. Last year she struggled to find seeds due to increased demand during COVID-19.
“When I found seeds it was very late in the season to start with peppers and eggplant and I was trying to figure out what could make it faster,” Betit said.
She decided to start her seeds in her instant pot and swap the pizza dough for pepper seeds.
Eggplant seeds sprout in Betits garden hoe. “Lots of people have a hard time with … eggplants. You come to my door and say, “I failed” and I say, “Yeah, it’s very hard until you put it in the instant pot.” (Lyanne Betit)
She put the seeds in a ziploc bag between layers of damp paper towel, put them in, and turned the pot on to yogurt. Et voilà. Not that much of a surprise to the scientist Betit.
“I expected it to work. I knew it was the perfect temperature for seedlings growing in very hot countries … around 32 to 33 degrees Celsius.”
According to Betit, it’s the perfect temperature for germinating seeds like peppers, hot peppers, eggplants, tomatoes, watermelons, and cucumbers in hot weather.
Some seeds need slightly cooler, yet consistently warm temperatures, such as B. basil. Betit places the Ziploc bag on the instant pot lid, where the temperature is around 24 ° C.
CLOCK | Scientist’s Instant Pot Seed Hack:
Ottawa-based Lyanne Betit, who works as a government scientist and is an avid hobby gardener, describes how certain seeds can be sprouted using the constant low heat of the Instant Pot yogurt setting. 1:46
The Instant Pot hack is helpful when you’re in a hurry, but it’s not just about planting quickly. Betit believes this will result in much higher yields. “Because the temperature is so good and the humidity is constant, there is no mistake.”
Betit would set her pot germination record against any window builder or even against a heating mat system where “the percentage of actual germination is much lower than my instant pot”. Even with three-year-old seed debris, “I still had a yield of over 70 percent. And that’s unusual … for home gardeners,” said Betit.
“A lot of people have a hard time with peppers and eggplants. They come to my door and say, ‘I failed’ and I say, yes, it’s very hard until you put them in the instant pot.”
A variety of plants including eggplants, tomatoes and peppers, all sprouted in a Betit Instant Pot. (Lyanne Betit)
Betit shared a video of the hack with the lively online gardening community Edible Ottawa on Facebook, and people like Lynda Boonstra of Gatineau, Que., Noticed. Goodbye juicy ribs, hello seeds.
“I had made a whole raft of peppers and none of them sprouted because my house floor was so cold and I had no space outside the floor,” Boonstra said. The Instant Pot hack put their gardening work on the fast lane.
Pepper plant seeds, which usually take seven to ten days, were ready in two to four days.
“A good quarter of the seeds sprouted in two days and the rest were done in four days,” said Boonstra, who was suddenly up to her neck in tiny pepper seedlings that needed to be transplanted. “I was in a total panic.”
Lynda Boonstra with chili peppers all sprouted with the help of her instant pot, which she usually makes ribs out of. (Christian Boonstra)
Even so, Boonstra advises “giving it a try”, especially for seeds that thrive in hot climates.
“The okra and peppers exceeded all of my expectations. The tomatoes were just normal. They didn’t care one way or another.”
She recommends avoiding the Instant Pot hack for seeds from the Brassica family, “so no cabbages, no kale, no parsley, no chives.
“I now have peppers as big as I would normally put them outside.”
The problem is, it can take Boonstra two months to plant them outside. “I know. I’m in trouble.”
To slow them down and make them bushier rather than leggy, Boonstra topped them off by pinching the bud, which would encourage their peppers to grow out rather than grow up.
Okra seeds grown by Boonstra with constant instant pot heat. (Lynda Boonstra)
Betit has not yet reached out to Instant Pot to share news about their germination hack, nor does it plan to invent a purpose-built seed incubator.
“People don’t want any other device. They want a device that works for everything.”
