Light or Dark to germinate seeds?
Oftentimes you'll read about lightness requirements on seed packets for starting seeds. These requirements were developed by commercial plantsmen who need to force germination in order to get a crop ready for market by a particular date. The Winter Sowing Method uses Mother Nature to control the germination and does not force seeds to germinate outside of their natural cycle of life. Seed packet lighting requirements for indoor germination are not used.
Winter Sowing and Light Requirements
I have always found light/dark germination requirements one of the oddest ideas I've encountered concerning seed germination. I have never ever paid attention to it....even before I developed Winter Sowing. Seeds need "packet darkness requirements" to germinate outside? Seeds need "packet light requirements" to germinate outside?
Total Darkness: Where on this earth does Mother Nature sow seeds in total darkness...total darkness exists in deep caves or at the poles of the earth during their winter. Mother Nature does not sow seed in either of these places.
Total Light: Where does total light exist? On the sun or the poles during their summer....but at the poles that's not even a complete 24 hour cycle.
So how do seeds germinate in the wild without these recommended requirements? Simple.
For every day there is also the night.
The Winter Sowing Method does not use the light requirements that professional nurseries use to force seeds to germinate in greenhouses so they can be brought to market at a desirable time and sold to hurry-up gardeners wanting the earliest flowering plants for their beds.
Mother Nature controls the germination of Winter Sown seeds...it produces stock that is far hardier than that which is produced by artificially forced indoor germination. Every time you remove an element of Mother Nature when you germinate seeds you remove some of their vigor. All those time tables, temperature charts, and light requirements were created for commercial nurseries to produce stock which can be marketed just as it is coming into bloom. Plants grown this way are forced with controlled light into artificial bloom periods, as well as grown with excessive fertilizer to attain a specific industry size.
Winter Sown germination is never forced, the seedlings are put in the ground while very small and initially fed with weak fertilizer solutions. They come into bloom at their own right time, and they achieve their height and width at a gradual pace....they develop naturally and are vigorous and healthy because of it.
Seed sowing and germination should be simple...that IS the emphasis of Winter Sowing. We do less work and are rewarded with more seedlings because of it. It's an uncomplicated method....keeping it simple will always keep it fun.
Tip suggests these links for further study.
by Bill Brandis
Now @ THE GARDENS, Volume 1, Issue 1, Spring 2004
Royal Botanical Gardens Newsletter
by Terry Dowdeswell
Dowdeswell's Delphiniums ~ Germination
by R.H. ELLIS, T.D. HONG and E.H. ROBERTS
Handbooks for Genebanks: No. 3,
International Board for Plant Genetic Resources
by Stephen G. Saupe , Ph.D.
Plants & Human Affairs (BIOL106)
Biology Department, College of St. Benedict
St. John's University, Collegeville, MN 56321
The Magazine of the Canadian Seed Industry
by Terry Coffelt and Dave Dierig
U.S. Water Conservation Laboratory
PSS 2321 Plant Propogation
Department of Plant and Soil Sciences
Texas Tech University
