Watering seeds with hot water???

I was told the other day " when you first water your vegetable seed ( indoor in trays ) to use hot water ". They said this is only for the first watering and fairly hot but not boiling. I have not done this but thinking about it i can see where it may help. Does anyone have any insight into this practice?
Thanks

 

Providing they are still in 'seed', not 'seedling' stage thats ok,

I had some hard seed in boling water for 48 hours, they were also put on the radiator to keep the water hot. And if that was'nt enough I microwaved them before potting.


The microwave, caution as I never tried that before.

 

It`s likely a bit of lore that (like a lot of gardening 'wisdom') takes a specific technique/circumstance and generalizes it into an essential practice. The technique in this case is most likely this: http://extension.umass.edu/vegetable/events/hot-water-seed-treatment-workshop, which is, like all such methods, a pre-treatment, and not done after sowing.

 

Thanks to both of you. This was told as a first watering of seeds in soil not seedling and I heard it from Bryan Minter. My understanding was it would perhaps help with germination. Reading the article woodschmoe sent ( thanks ) it was nothing to do with killing pathogens. Anyways thanks again, maybe I'll do a personal tested of my own.