Breaking dormancy in seeds!

Okay, really... I know I just posted two days ago, but man! This is rush hour in the green thumb life! :) Lots of springtime posts, and likely less when fall comes to a close... so enjoy it while it's here!

If you are one of my eager-beaver followers (AKA, if you're my mother lol!) then by now, you've been able to try your green thumb out in a couple of ways!

- plan what seeds you want to buy
- do any online ordering already
- started collecting coffee grinds and egg shells for the garden
- keeping an eye on kijiji for plant growing stands
- written out a schedule of when to start your seeds indoors or outdoors

Yup! You can already have completed all of these tasks by now! :) Don't worry if you haven't though. It's still pretty early, especially if you'll be using your window sill for seed starting. there just arent enough hours of sunlight quite yet, though its getting nearer! :)

If you've done all this, you might now find yourself with a handful of seed packets, a garden plan, and eager anticipating hands!! :) So now I want to talk about something i'd never considered in seed-starting until this year, when I read that seedling book! :) Seed dormancy.

All seeds go dormant for a season. That's how they preserve themselves. If they didn't, tree seeds would sprout right before a heavy frost in the fall, and they would die. It's a survival technique. For most seeds, they require something specific in order to break dormancy. Seeds are all different, but knowing this (as you may have noticed in my previous post) can drastically increase the germination time and rate of your seeds! This is especially important for expensive or rare seeds you want to ensure success with.

Light: Some seeds, require light exposure for germination. This can be a bright flash of intense light, or prolonged exposure to less intense lights. Either way, I've started waving a bright light over my seeds for about 20 seconds before I sew them.

holding a bright light over my rhubarb seeds for 20 seconds before sewing

water: some seeds will germinate faster, if they are soaked for 1, 12, or 24 hours. Be sure to do your research though. for example, beans and peas, if you soak for 24 hours, you'll just get beans and peas you can use in chili!! :) make sure you soak seeds appropriately. Google is a wealth of information on this topic. this information is very readily available.

Rhubarb seeds don't need soaking, but a 45 minute to 1 hour soak was suggested to improve germination

air: All seeds are living beings, and require oxygen. So you want to make sure however you plant them, they wont suffocate. don't use a straight-compost, as it's too clay-like and will be very hard on young seedling roots.

ensure air circulation for seeds by not tightly sealing lids, and poking holes where you can. Using a fluffy soil mix also is important to give seeds air.

heat: You may have seen commercial products out there called seedling mats or heat mats for starting seeds, etc... these are created to mimic the level of heat the sun gives off in early summer to starting-out seeds! Its usually enough to simply put your seedling trays in a warm area of your house such as the top of your fridge, or on your water heater, etc... But some seeds require very intense heat in order to actually germinate. I don't actually know of too many that are relevant to zone 3, but, for example, after a house fire, the author of my seedling book noticed all kinds of new flowers sprouting and growing. Maybe from a wildflower mix or what-have-you. you would think these seeds would just have burned up in the fire, but in reality the fire broke their dormancy. It makes you wonder what our forests would look like after a fire eh? I wonder if we'd have some incredible new growth of species that are otherwise dieing off in the wild.

Although the long tube lights don't provide heat, this screw bulb that was about $7 from home depot does the trick perfectly to provide heat during the day, and cold overnight when it is off.

Roughness: okay, that's not the technical term for it... but some seeds have very hard outer shells. and some need to even be stomped on  or crushed in order for the seedling to emerge from the hard outer shell. Without "nicking" the seeds or "scarification" (aka, scarring the seed shell) the tender seed inside has no access to the moisture and light and warmth you're giving it! :)

scarring seeds to break a tough shell. Shown on a larger seed for photo.

beans do not require scarring, but made a good example for photo.

cold: wait...cold?? YES! some seeds need a cold-spell to break dormancy! In fact, many seeds native to manitoba require this. Most pine seeds, and tree seeds that fall in autumn will not sprout until the following year. Rhubarb and many local flowers as well. With seeds like this that you've purchased or saved yourself indoors, they will need a spell of "stratification" in order to properly germinate.

Hollyhocks, Delphiniums, and Lupines, all sprout better when they are given a fake spring-time thaw experience of being in and out of the fridge.

I happened to purchase several flower seed varieties online and only discovered now, that they require stratification (cold) and some scarification (nicking the outer shell).

fortunately for me, I discovered this 2 weeks before it is time to sew these seeds indoors. So i was great for time to stratify! :)

 For this project, I used paper towels, ziplock bags, water, seeds and a spice grater (cheese grater might work too).

 You will notice these Lupine seeds are actually quite large! Several sources said that scarification was recomended to enhance germination, so I thought i'd give it a shot. :) The other seeds do not require this process.

 So really, all I did was take the seed, and tap it diagonally against my spice grater. (the other saw dust is from nutmeg I grated earlier that day for hot crossed buns! yum!).

 As you can see, the seed is unscratched. Just a tiny part of the outer shell has been nicked off, so that moisture has a place to get in, and the shell has a weak area for the seedling to emerge from.

 Now for the stratification part! It's much simpler than the name implies. Just pour some water into a plate or bowl, fold up the paper towel to fit in the baggies, make it wet, and wring out some of the water (make sure your paper towel is still generously damp).

 Next, spread the seeds out evenly on the paper towel. I do this evenly just incase some sprout in the fridge. Then you can just snip that chunk of paper towel away and plant it like that to not damage the roots.

 Into the ziplock baggie it goes, seeds folded between two layers of wet paper towel. The seed lable is in it's little baggie, inside the ziplock so I dont get my seeds mixed up.

 tada! All ready for stratification! I had five kinds of seeds to stratify. 2 kinds of hollyhocks, 2 delphiniums, and 1 lupines (which were also scarred).

 I popped all the baggies into a square container, just so I don't crush them under other food in my fridge. Once they have moisture in them, seeds are incredibly fragile and tender, unlike when they are dry and dormant.


One week later, I took a peek at my seeds.

 The Lupines are starting to swell up. the delphiniums are slightly larger but otherwise unchanged.

 And the hollyhock seeds look like tiny clamshells, swelling between the two pancake-like layers.

I took out all the seeds, fluffed the bags to give them oxygen, and let them sit on the counter for a couple hours to warm up. Then back into the fridge they went!

8 days after stratification began...

Several days later (8 days after I first began stratifying the seeds), I peeked at the seeds again. The hollyhocks and Dalphiniums were still the same, but the scarred Lupine seeds were looking quite a big more lively yet. Undeniably so...

close up, 8 days into stratification

I can't really just keep stratifying them at this point. The reality is, when the seedling emerges, the root needs nutrients, and those first tiny leaves need some kind of light source. So that means it's time to plant these!

 I used my standard Mel's mix (equal parts peat moss, vermiculite and compost), kept it nice and fluffy while wet, and then gently placed each seed into a pot. I save my seedling containers from year to year, and use them when starting seedlings.

 Remember, a sprouted seed is very delicate and easily crushed. So I didnt poke these down into the soil. Instead I gently crumbled some wet soil overtop of them. Not very much, just enough to make the seed not visible.

Then it's a greenhouse cover, and under the cooler tube lights until sprouting time! :) That way these little lupine's will have everything they need when they wake up.

Until next time, keep those thumbs  green!