I know that one of my greatest concerns when dealing with a new species is being able to grow it out and harvest the next generation of seed. In this way I can ensure that I can keep the strain or species without relying on an outside seed source. The fact that this is cheaper than buying new seed every year doesn't hurt either! With this in mind I would like to share some helpful tips in taking that first step, germinating the seed.

The following is a complete list of everything the average gardener needs to grow from seed. Dirt and seed. That is correct, those two items are indispensable. This does not mean that there cannot be more, and indeed if we are serious about raising exotic plants there certainly should be more. A few inexpensive materials and some creative thinking will help us germinate a higher percentage of seeds, faster and without an excessive waste of time nor energy.

The first tool we will want to add to our kit is artificial lighting. This may not seem to make much sense, if we think of planting seeds as burying them. In fact many seeds require light before they will germinate. This is mother nature's way of ensuring that a seedling's leaves will find sunlight quickly after germination. If the seed germinates on the surface of the soil, it will not need to carry a large nutrient supply within the seed in order to grow through the soil and reach light. This means the mother plant can produce a larger number of seeds with the same amount of energy spent. Many swamp plants use this strategy, and light will be necessary to germinate them. Of course natural sunlight can be used. Most window sills however do not get enough sunlight for a sufficient period of time each day. Setting seeds outdoors will work, but only if you are planting seeds during the normal growing season. Starting plants indoors during the colder months still requires a return to artificial lighting.

Having said this, how much light do we need? Ideally 20 watts of fluorescent light per square foot, spaced no more than 6 inches from the seeds. Better yet will be to place the fluorescent a mere 2 inches away. This will be plenty to stimulate the most demanding seed, and as an added bonus it will make for stronger seedlings without a tendency to elongate as much as seedling raised on a window sill. Most any fluorescent tube will do to germinate seeds. Tubes designed specifically for growing plants have a slightly better balanced spectrum, but often accomplish this with a reduce total output. Total output of light is generally more important than the wavelength produced. This is even more important with fluorescent bulbs, which have a decently broad spectrum to begin with, but are not as effective in produce total light output as HID. I feel there is little to be gained from starting seeds under HID lighting.

Lighting can easily be obtained from hardware stores, Wal-Marts, Home Depots, etc. Look for a fluorescent desk lamp of the appropriate size. When I started out, I had a 20 watt fluorescent on a goose neck stand that worked wonderfully for several years. The gooseneck could be bent as low as desired, and could be easily set a little higher every couple of days, to follow the plant's growth. A friend of a friend uses a couple of 20 watt fixtures meant to be fastened to the top or side of a desk. He suspends them with string, which he can adjust as the plants grow. This spring I used a bank of 10 four foot long, 40 watt bulbs. They hang from the ceiling of the basement on chains and hooks, and are quite convenient to adjust. A single starting lamp will cost about $10-$20 dollars. With all the compact fluorescent on the market today, a person with a little knowledge could mount a ceramic fixture to a board and use one of the many fluorescent designed to replace incandescent bulbs. Incidentally incandescents are an absolute no-no, as the light they put out is far too weak for the amount of heat produced.

The next tool we will consider is bottom heat. This can be an expensive, mail order item from a gardening supply house. A cheap medical style heating pad has worked well for me. While this is not a must have item, I have found that with many species this can literally half the time required for germination, and it can boosts the germination rate greatly. I bought mine at a local pharmacy for $10. They had much larger ones for about twice as much, and if I purchase another, I'll get a bigger one. They also had choices of moist/dry heat, or dry heat only. Intuition says the moist/dry heating pads are safer for horticultural use, but I get by with unplugging the pad before watering. The moist/dry heating pads run a little more money. Keep in mind, using a heating pad this way will most certainly void any manufacturer's guarantee.

Now there are those of you out there that are saying, .This fellow hasn't done anything except suggest I spend more money!. Well for those of you out there on a shoestring budget, there are a few things you can do with practically no cash at all. Seeds require moisture and oxygen to germinate, with no exceptions. Plastic sandwich bags, made of polyethylene, permit transfer of oxygen, but not water. This means that if you dampen a paper towel, place your seeds in it or on it, depending on their light preferences, and place this in a baggie, conditions will suit them nicely!. This has several advantages over simply placing seeds in soil. The first is that water loss is greatly reduced. This means that the seeds are not constantly being cooled by evaporation. If your room temperature is 70, moist soil in that room may be as cool as 65. Warmer seeds germinate faster, up to a point. Also you will not be disturbing sprouting seeds every couple of days with regular waterings. If you need to go away for a couple of days, or if you are just plain lazy, this will ensure that seeds will not dry and die following sprouting. Keep in mind this will work poorly outdoors. Direct sunlight, or perhaps even HID lights, will quickly raise the temperature inside the bag to a point high enough to kill most seeds.

Another version of this is to plant the seeds in a small pot and enclose the pot in a baggie. This will accomplish much the same thing, with the same disastrous results if used outdoors. But very small seeds such as Nicotiana or Papaver will not need to be transplanted from paper towels to potting soil. Larger seeds do better with sprouting on paper towels then transferring to soil, as this allows a more even distribution of the plants in your available growing space. A key thing to remember is to use the strongest towels available. If the package says extra-strength, so much the better. Paper towels labeled .soft. or anything to that effect tend to turn to mush quickly, becoming difficult to work with. Some practice will be needed in manipulating the wet paper towels into and out of plastic bags. The thinner the plastic, the easier oxygen diffusion will take place, making thinner plastic bags the preferred choice. This also happens to be cheaper than the thicker freezer type bags. As a point of reference, I had N. rustica planted in an open clay pot at 70 deg F, and seeds from the same batch planted in a plastic pot, enclosed in a sandwich bag, on a heating pad. The clay pot took 2 weeks to show growth. The plastic pot took about 6 days. Also I got a dismal germination rate with the clay pot, and a much higher rate with the plastic. Due to the small size of the seeds, I could not get accurate counts and do not have exact rates.

This brings us the question of what sort of container to plant in. Use a container with drainage holes! I have germinated seeds in pots without holes, but it is safer to have good drainage. Remember that the roots have to be able to breathe. There is little gas exchange between plant parts, and the roots generally get oxygen from the air spaces in the soil. If you over water plants in pots without holes, you will quickly kill your new seedlings, or even rot your seeds. Next, I prefer plastic pots over clay. They are generally cheaper and easier to clean. They do not break nearly as easily. They are usually much easier to find in the stores. Clay has one major advantage though. It evaporates water from the sides of the pot as well as the top of the soil. This means the pot dries out faster and stays cooler. For the indoor grower, this is not worth much. The pot doesn't usually get too hot anyway, and drying out faster means you must water more often. Cactus and desert succulent growers may still find an advantage in clay pots, but for most of us, I truly believe plastic is the way to go.

Much has been said of gibberellic acid. It should be noted that GA actually inhibits germination in certain species. One concentration may promote germination in a certain species, but a slighter stronger concentration may actually inhibit the same species. If you must experiment with it, use a control group so that you can determine the exact effects of the plant hormone. Interestingly, many cacti seeds are very much positively influenced by GA. More specifics are available from the trio of books by Dr. Norman C. Deno. Due to the complicated nature of this chemical, and my lack of experience with it, I will omit directions for its use and instead refer those wishing to try it to these books.

Hydrogen peroxide, extreme heat, and bleach have all been recommended as stimulating germination in a variety of seeds. Most of these I have not tried, though extreme heat seems to work in some cases. As a whole, I currently believe that an over all better germination rate will be achieved by avoiding these methods. If anyone has personal experiences that indicate otherwise, I encourage you to contact me. Keep in mind that to prove something like this works, a control group is needed to contrast the results.

There are several seed treatments that I know work. One is a cold germination. This is often referred to as cold stratification. In this, seeds are stored at approximately 40 deg F for at least one month, and there is evidence to suggest that 3 months is ideal for many temperate species. Most tropical species do not normally experience a cold period in their natural habitat, and are not likely to enjoy being subjected to these temperatures in your home. Most refrigerators are set at 40 deg F, making this a convenient storage area. Freezing seeds generally does not increase germination rates, and may be deleterious to the germination rate. During this cold germination period, it is important to keep the seeds moist, as refrigerating them in a dry state will not induce germination.

Drying seeds, and keeping them dry for an extended period of time is actually necessary for some species to germinate. In other species dry storage aids in germination by removing other requirements. For example many common garden vegetables require either light or GA3 in order to germinate when they are fresh. After 6-12 months of dry storage however, they will germinate easily, and often times more successfully, without either. Desert species also commonly require a dry period before growth.

Scarification, or nicking, the seed coat may help certain species to germinate. This is best accomplished by using a small file on the outward curving (convex) portion of the seed. Very small seeds can be rubbed with sand, then sown sand and all. I believe that very few species benefit from this. I've tried several techniques on seeds with hard seed coats, and I've found that in most cases I get as good or better germination without filing. This is in direct contrast to what many gardeners have reported, but is supported somewhat by botanical literature. Most hard seed coats have been found to have at least one pore or soft spot on the seed, often indistinguishable to the naked eye. I would urge anyone attempting to grow hard coated seed forming plants to try several methods, and let us know what works best for them, and with which species. Certain species of temperate trees do require piercing or removal of the seed coat before they will germinate. At this point it should be mentioned that the coat should be filed only until the meat of the seed can be seen, and that some seeds have an inner and an outer seed coat. It is not always the outer coat that is water impervious.

While I am mentioning that properly drying seeds can be helpful and in some species it is a requirement, I should also mention that drying out will kill some seeds. Many wildflowers such as Trilliums and buttercup will die with less than two weeks of dry storage. E. coco is said to die within two weeks of harvesting the seed. Research and trial and error will let you know which seeds need to be dried, and which need to not be dried.

Hopefully as you explore the world of gardening you will learn much that will be shared with others for many years to come. Enjoy yourself, and try not to get too much sun!