Winter Chill

Gardening 101:

Today we’ll discus something that may be a critical factor in your success or failure of getting those little seeds you’ve planted to germinate: Stratification!  What the heck is stratification?  Well, basically it’s making a faux winter for your seeds so that they will “wake up” and grow when planted in the spring.   Now, I have to admit, I had never heard of this until a couple of years ago when I cracked open a book on starting one’s own medicinal herb garden.  The reason would probably be that most commercially sold seeds are hybrids; they are designed to just pop up and start growing as soon as you give them some soil and water.  If you buy your seeds from big box stores, chances are you will probably never have to worry or bother about this particular gardening technique.  But, if you ever want to start planting native or woody  plants, you may soon find a need to know.  And even if you don’t, I personally feel this is a technique that should be learned and passed on to the next generations.  Gardening secrets should never be lost! 
If you’re worried about whether or not your seeds will need to be stratified, the easiest way to find out will be to check the back of the seed pack.  Even if the seeds would normally need treatment, sometime the company you’ve ordered your seeds from will have done the work and stratified the seeds for you before shipping them, but if you decide to save the seeds from those plants for next year, you’ll need to remember which ones need to be winterized!

There are quite a few techniques you can use to stratify your seeds.  One simple method is to sow your seeds where you want them to grow in the fall and let nature do the work.  This has it’s disadvantages, though.  Seeds can be eaten by birds, blown by the wind to land in places you don’t want them growing or be killed by weather rather than helped.  Many gardeners will instead use the more controlled conditions of their own refrigerators or freezers.  Put the seeds into moist (not wet) peat or vermiculite and into a container that will go into your fridge or freezer for for 4 to 6 weeks before you want to start your seeds indoors.  And that’s it!