What is Germination?

You may have come across the term "germination" when reading about individual plants. Many gardening resources, including the Plant to Plate site, include this information. We mention it in every gardening facts article.

For example, our Growing Squash article contains this statement:

Squash takes 4-10 days to germinate at a temperature of 60-105°F.

What is germination? Why does it matter? Read on to find out.

Jump to: What it is | Why it matters | Where to find it

What is Germination?

Germination describes how a seed changes into a seedling. It is also colloquially referred to as sprouting.

Germination is mainly done either by direct sowing or by starting seeds indoors. Future Plant to Plate articles will discuss the specifics of each of these methods.

Some seeds require a special treatment before starting normal germination methods. Some examples of this are cold stratification and scarification.

So how does knowing germination time and temperature help gardeners?

Why It Matters

Proper germination temperature is essential to successful germination. If a seed is outside of this range, it may take longer to germinate, or it may not germinate at all. Each plant species has a unique germination temperature range, so it is helpful to know the right range for the plant you are growing.

Knowing the germination time helps you to set accurate expectations. For example, spinach can germinate in as little as 5 days. But bell peppers can take up to 3 weeks.

If you had only grown spinach before, you might conclude after a week or 2 that your bell pepper seeds had failed to germinate. Conversely, if you had only grown peppers before, you might not have your final planting site ready for spinach because you overestimated how long it would take to germinate. So knowing the germination time is important.

Additionally, it is important to know any applicable special conditions. For example, many fruit trees like apples need to be cold-stratified for several weeks before their official germination time begins. If you know of these conditions, you can provide them and therefore be more likely to have a successful germination.

Knowing the germination time and temperature can help you to time transplanting and other gardening activities accurately. This can come in handy during the garden planning process.

Speaking of garden planning, why not grab a FREE printable garden planner?

So knowing a plant's germination time and temperature allows you to have a successful germination and appropriate expectations. It also helps you to time and plan your garden better. Where can you find this information?

Where to Find Information on Germination

Each of our gardening facts articles considers a specific plant. For example, the gardening facts article Growing Lemon Balm gives an overview of optimal growing conditions for lemon balm in a straightforward, easy-to-reference format. Each of these articles has a germination section.

You can access this section by going to an individual plant's gardening facts page. From here, you can click on "Germination" from the "jump to" menu at the top of the page, or you can scroll down to the section itself, which starts with "How long does..." such as this one for parsley.

Most seed packets also contain this information.

Check out these articles about more of the categories listed on our gardening facts pages:

Plant to Plate

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