Anyone can do seed successfully in my opinion, it doesn’t require expensive equipment or some complicated skill. It just requires a willingness to learn.

Often times instructions are too vague or too complicated when you receive them that is why I want to get back to basics.

 I do a great range of seed, but I do not for instance use heating mats or a grow box. What I have at my disposal is what most people have, namely common sense and being involved. Most of my seed are done in nothing more than plastic basins with holes made using a normal 3mm electric drill. Most of the time I use Culterras’ germination mix as medium. In few exceptions like with succulents I use other mediums. The one advantage I have over the average gardener is a plastic tunnel, which you can compensate for by using a piece of glass.

The first step is easy: look. As I collect rare and difficult plants I have learned to look at a seed and see what it requires. When you get your seed, first of all look at it. You can forever be reading and following instructions on germinating seed, or you can learn to be observant and learn that way what to do with the seed you find at hand. The seed you are looking at tells you a lot about what is needed for germination.

Use these links to skip down to relevant seed germination sections:

• Small sized seed
  
• Medium sized seeds
  
• Large sized seeds
  
• Chilling
  
• Seeds that need light
  
• Seeds that need darkness
  

Basics:

Seedling tray/plastic basin method: Culterra has a germination mix that works well. But if you can’t find it, you can also use Vermiculite and seedling soil, use 20% vermiculite and the rest seedling soil. NOT POTTING SOIL-it dries out like a nightmare. Fill the container with your medium, wet with hand sprayer, and tap flat. Now with the side of your hand or a stick make slight indentations in the medium, sprinkle the seed in the indentations. I like to cover the seed with vermiculite no matter whatever medium I used as then I can see where my rows where and it is very light so the seedlings can push up easily. You can cover the seedling tray partially with glass to help keep in the moist. Place in a warm area, but out of direct sun, keep moist. Use a hand spray bottle to mist the seed when they dry out or slowly lower the seed tray into water to wet from below. As soon as seedlings appear you should remove the glass, also lessen your watering frequency and start applying fertilizer, use Seagro as a foliage spray or a seedling fertilizer. Plant seedlings out when they have made their third set of leaves.

Directly in the garden- can be done using your own medium, simply prepare the site by working in compost, be careful about adding MooPoo as it can burn seedling roots, if you want to mix a fertilizer in I suggest Bone meal, it won’t burn roots, in fact it will help root development. Now make shallow trenches about 2cm by 2 cm, line these trenches with your medium, and slightly wet it. Now sprinkle the seed out on the medium, lightly cover, wet again and keep moist. As the seedlings appear you can lessen your watering and start fertilizing.

Small seed:

If the seed is tiny you have a good indication that planting it 10cm deep is a bad idea, as a general rule most seed want to get covered by twice their diameter of soil at most. Remember they have only so much growth material stored that must reach light in order to be able to grow further. So with tiny seed often times covering them only partially is best. What is more important is the medium, you should concentrate on using the right medium, normal garden soil will dry out on the top and be wet lower down, which could mean that your seed could die right after sprouting, in an afternoon if it was windy or very warm. By the time you see the topsoil is dry they might already be long dead. My suggestion is this, either start tiny seed in a seed tray (or plastic basin with holes- my favorite as it’s deeper and cheaper) using a germination mix that stays evenly moist, or sow directly in the garden.

Some small seeds need extra treatment:

Aquilegia- chill 2-8 weeks need light

Balloon flower- needslight

Candytuft- needs light

Centaurea- needs dark

Clematis- chill 3 months

Larkspur- chill 6 weeks, needs dark

Delphinium- freeze 4-6 weeks, needs dark

Dianthus- chill 4-8 weeks, needs light

Digitalis- needs lights

Gentiana- chill 2-4 weeks

Gypsophila- needslight

Helenium- needs light

Heuchera- needs light

Liatrus- chill 6 weeks

Lobelia- chill 10 days, needs light

Bells of Ireland-freeze 5 days

Penstemon- chill 4-8 weeks

Petunia- needs light

Phlox- chill 2 weeks, soak 7 days, changing water every day, needs dark

Polemonium- chill 2 months

Primula- chill 2 weeks, needs light

Rudbeckia- freeze 1 week, chill 1 week

Salvia- chill 1 week, needs light

Scabiosa- needs light

Tanacetum, feverfew- needs light

Verbena- needs dark

Veronicas- chill 2 months

Medium size seeds:

Smooth hard shelled seeds. Simply looking at these seeds suggest to me that somehow or another the outer shell needs to be penetrated for the seed to be able to get out. So what method does nature use? Sometimes it is simply time on the ground that does the job, other times the acid of being digested by an animal. Using two basic techniques covers your bases.

Scarification is when you use a physical method to “scar” the shell of the seed so water can penetrate the seed. Take two pieces of sand paper and rub the seed between them, take care not to harm the “eye” of the seed as this will harm the seed. Scarification should only be done when suggested; there is a less invasive way to breach the outer hull, soaking.

Soaking- exactly what it says. Use luke warm water (NOT BOILING) and soak the seed overnight in a thermos. Next morning rinse seed and use warm water again. Soaking periods can be 6 hours or 48 hours, generally if the seed has started to swell you can plant it.

Plant seeds following basic seed sowing guidelines. Pea family seeds should be planted directly in the ground or in polystyrene cups, so they can be removed root ball intact when transplanting.

Also check if seeds might need:

• Chilling
  
• Light
  
• Dark              
  

Large seeds

Some seed truly are large. Sometimes it is because it is the actual size and other times it is because there is a thick outer shell that needs to be penetrated to get to the inner core. If the seed sounds like there is something moving inside when you shake it, chances are has a second layer inside which is the actual seed. Helping moisture penetrate that layer generally helps germination. But if not actual brute force is employed, a good warm water soaking shouldn’t do damage. Most big seeds need constant high temperatures to germinate, so plant twice their diameter deep and cover the seed tray after watering, and these seed trays should do fine in full sun if only partly covered. 

Seed that need chilling

There is a simple reason some seed respond to chilling in a refrigerator. In nature the seeds’ growth hormones get stimulated by prolonged exposure to a certain temperature. The reason is that should the seed experience a freak warm week in winter, it will not germinate only to die of cold a few days later, because nature protects it by it’s germinating being dependant on a certain period of cold, followed by a certain period of heat. Trees like Acers need longer periods of cold treatment than annual as they have longer to live before seeding, annuals can take a chance that in a short period they will be able to get around to making seed before the cold gets them. So what to do? Once again, easy: simply take a Ziploc bag, half fill with semi-moist vermiculite, mix seed in and place in refrigerator for suggested amount of time. I suggest a Ziploc bag as it will keep out chemicals released in the refrigerator and keep in moist. I have found that if I treat seed for a period of time in the refrigerator but plant them out before spring arrives, so that nature does it’s part as well, I have better results.

Seeds that  need light

Generally seed that are distributed by wind or animals in nature might need to be only partially covered so light can reach them.  But on the other hand seeds need to be moist to germinate, so how to do both? Actually quite easy, if you use vermiculite to cover the seed, they should get some light, as vermiculite is bigger than most other mediums, and therefore will let through light, or simply cover the seed slightly, but pull a see-through plastic over the seed tray or glass. This will let in light and keep in moisture.

Seed that need darkness