Tiny seeds are filled with hope of spring

This month marks for many gardeners the start of the gardening season. Seed-sowing in trays, cell packs, peat plugs, recycled food containers and a host of other apparatuses begins! This is what we’ve been awaiting – the month when Mother Nature begins to relinquish her wintery grasp on our lives and begins to hint that spring is just around the corner.

Although there’s likely more snow in our future, there’s no sense dwelling on that fact. It is more fun to think seeds! Tiny packages of optimism, seeds are. We sow them, water them and watch as they miraculously spring up from the soil. Seeds are simply wondrous embodiments of life’s most triumphant proclamations of hope.

Reading through gardening magazines and seed catalogues, one comes across a number of terms relating to seeds. Here’s a glossary of seed terminology that might help you select seed and plan your garden this year:

. Seed storage. Proper seed storage is important if the gardener wants to get the most out of their precious investment. While amassing your collection of seed for the growing season, seed should be stored in air-tight containers in a cool, dry place. Plastic ziplock bags are perfect for the task. Even seed stored in paper or foil envelopes should be stored in air-tight containers: it is important to keep germination-inducing moisture away from the seeds.

. Seed scarification. Scarification refers to the physical degrading of the seed’s protective coating. This practice allows essential moisture to reach the seed embryo, spurring germination. Seeds may be scarified using a number of methods. They may be rubbed against an abrasive surface, such as sand paper. Large seeds may be nicked or chipped with a knife or nail file. As violent as this sounds, care must be taken to not damage the seed: only a small area of the coat need be removed to assist moisture penetration to the embryo. Scarification may also be achieved by soaking the seed. Commercially, seeds are soaked in an acid solution. Home gardeners can effectively soak seeds in water overnight to attain the same results.

. Seed stratification. Stratification refers to subjecting seeds to a period of temperature change, most often an extended phase of cold treatment. Chilling seeds in the freezer effectively mimics the dormancy plants naturally undergo during the winter – an essential process for some species, particularly plants of alpine origin. The period of chilling depends on the plant – 3 to 4 weeks mimics shallow dormancy, yet some plants require stratification for up to 20 weeks.

. Pelleted seed. Seed may be coated for a number of reasons. Home gardeners often find their seed has been pelleted or coated to increase its size. It is much easier to handle and keep track of fine seed from plants such as petunias if they are covered with an inert material to make them larger. Some pelleted seed is treated seed.

. Treated seed. Seeds may be coated or treated with a material that contains substances or chemicals that perform a variety of functions. Some treatments enhance germination. Other treatments include a pesticide that helps the seed and tender seedlings defend against disease or pests.

. Broadcasting. Broadcasting seed is perhaps the easiest method of sowing. Seed is thinly scattered across an area in the garden or across the surface area of medium in a germination tray. In the garden, broadcasting can make weeding difficult, but nonetheless, is an easy and effective way to sow seed.

. Drilling. Creating a defined space for seed sowing, or drilling, is a way to organize the seed bed. Using a rake, hoe or dibble, a row or series of rows are formed in an orderly fashion across the seeding area. Seed is carefully sown in the tiny trenches formed by the tool.

. Thinning. Whether broadcast or drilled, seedlings often need to be thinned to prevent overcrowding. Seed packages direct the gardener to thin or transplant seedlings a certain distance apart. For direct seeded crops – those plants that have been sown in place, not transplanted – thinning should be performed on a mild, moist day, when undesirable seedlings may be easily lifted from the soil without traumatically affecting the roots of desirable plants. If care is taken to loosen the soil with a trowel before thinning, the dug seedlings may be transplanted into another row or another area of the garden.

Diana George Chapin is the NEWS garden columnist. Send horticulture questions to Gardening Questions, 512 North Ridge Road, Montville 04941 or e-mail dianagc@midcoast.com. Selected questions will be answered in future columns. Include name, address and telephone number.