2019 Seed Germination – Cold Stratification

Started my seed germination for the 2019 garden. Later than I had hoped, but still a bit earlier than last year’s effort, which was affected to some degree by recovery from heart bypass surgery (remainder was laziness/procrastination on my part!)

This year I’m making an effort to encourage higher germination of my Milkweed seeds by introducing a period of cold stratification before starting the seeds. Not all seeds need this additional step, but a fair amount of perennials do benefit from it. Basically, one is trying to simulate what a seed “in the wild” would experience, when Mother Nature drops it seeds onto the ground after a plant has completed its blooming cycle.

I am trying three different methods: (1) putting the seeds in 2-liter soda bottles and leaving them outside; (2) putting seeds in peat pots into covered plastic trays in basement fridge; and (3) putting seeds between damp paper towels then into baggies inside fridge. Some of the seeds need 30 days of stratification while the others need 60. It’ll therefore be April/May before we see the yield.