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Before you plug in your grow lights, check out the how's, why's, and whatever for starting plants from seeds. There are several Chisago County Master Gardeners who know a lot about starting seeds of all kinds. However, parts of this article are taken from Felicia Parsons, A Prior Lake horticulturist and writer.

Understanding their basic mechanism is essential to the success of the seed starter. The most critical factor governing seed germination is dormancy. This is state of minimal metabolic activity when growth is suspended. Until they sprout, seeds are dormant, and can stay that way for a long time.

Some seeds have virtually no dormancy requirements. Most vegetables and annual flowers fall into this category. Plant them, give them water, and if they contain a living embryo, they will grow. Perennial and woody plants are different. They usually have one or a combination of several types of dormancy. All of these factors must take place in order for the metabolic process to kick in. This is all about water for if there isn't any water there isn't metabolism, and therefore no sprouts.

In seed-coat dormancy, the plant embryo is prevented from growing either because the hard outer skin, or seed coat, is too strong for the embryo to break through, or because the seed coat prevents water from entering the seed. In chemical dormancy, a chemical in the seed coat inhibits germination. Physiological dormancy results from the embryo failing to receive some necessary stimulus, such as light to germinate. Some species even require exposure to fire or smoke to break dormancy. Double dormancy describes seeds that fall under any combination of primary dormancy types.

In nature, environmental forces serve as triggers for the seed to wake up and drink water. Some seeds are gnawed on by animals, breaking the seed coat. Others are subjected to freezing and thawing, or even the digestive tract of seed eaters. There are three basic pretreatment techniques that initiate natural forces to break dormancy. They are scarification, stratification, and soaking.

Scarification is simply breaking the seed coat by nicking, cutting, filing, or sanding. A nick is usually enough. Be careful not to damage the embryo.

Cold stratification means subjecting a seed to cold, moist conditions, mimicking the cold cycle of the winter season. Some seeds will sprout merely after a winter in their moisture-proof packet in an unheated garage. Others require more careful treatment. A preferred technique is to fill a clean, sterilized flat with soil free potting mix. Plant seeds to the proper depth, water lightly, wrap the whole flat in clean plastic, and stick it out in the shade between the house and garage. It's even more natural if the snow is permitted to rest on the flat.

Another technique involves chilling in the refrigerator. Thoroughly moisten a large handful of peat-based potting mix and a paper towel. Put half the wet medium into a zip-lock plastic bag. Sprinkle your seeds onto the moist paper towel, fold it up, and put it in the bag followed by the second half of the moist potting mix. Seal up the bag and put it in the refrigerator, but don't forget it. Cold stratification includes most wildflowers.

There are two basic types of seeds, dicot and monocots. A dicot is characterized by a pair of embryonic leaves called cotelydons. Most garden plants are dicots. Monocots like corn, grasses, iris, lilies, have only one embryonic leaf.

There are five basic steps in the development of a seed.

First, the seed finds a suitable environment and needs moisture. This is called imbibing where the enzymatic process begins within the plant and the seeds swell.

The second step is where the embryonic root emerges. The seed coat wrinkles and shrinks.

Step three is the hypocotyl, essentially the line between what will grow up and what will grow down. The root begins to elongate and the cotelydons swell and are pulled above ground. Some plants like the pea, germinate with their cotelydons beneath the ground.

The next step is where the hypocotyl continues to elongate, becoming the stem of the plant. Also, the first true leaves or foliage emerges and secondary roots begin to develop.

The fifth and last step is where the first internode or the space along the stem between sets of leaves emerges. These true leaves continue to develop, as does the root system. From now on, at least in part, the health and maturing of the plant is up to you.

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