Get Those Seeds Sprouting! All About Germination

Your gourd seeds are packed so full of potential! And the protective seed husk, that hard little envelope, is really quite…  protective. How will it ever sprout?

People and gourds, gourds and people…. we’ve been together for a long, long time. So long that the gourd plants now rely on us for a little help! Did you know that it’s rare to find gourds in the wild anymore? Back in the day, mastodons and other animals would eat gourds. The seeds would get roughed-up with acids and churning in the gut of the beast, and that would allow them to sprout more easily (so I’ve heard). 

You can put your seeds right in the soil in the garden, and eventually the husk will break down and the seed will sprout. But if you live in a place with a shorter growing season, you may want to hasten that process. 

Roughing the seeds up mimics what happens inside the mastodon. There’s a word for this process: scarification. It’s not scary, it just sounds that way! When you scarify seeds, you make it easier for water to get in, and the sprouting process to begin. We like to do this in 2 ways (just like in an animal’s gut): mechanically and chemically.

Scarify your seeds by sanding the surfaces, especially the edges, with sandpaper. 

Sand vigorously, all surfaces. This is mechanical scarification. Some people clip the seeds slightly with nail clippers; I prefer sanding. 

Soak your seeds in hydrogen peroxide for half an hour. In addition to helping to break down the seed husk, this step has the added benefit of killing fungi. A tablespoon or two of hydrogen peroxide, found inexpensively at a drug store, should do the trick.

Next, soak the seeds in plain water for a day or so. After 24-36 hours, they are ready to plant!

OR… you can let them germinate (sprout), and then plant them. That’s what we like to do. That way we know that the seed is viable (it will grow). Since we give each seed its own very big pot, we like to know that they will grow.

A seed needs warmth and moisture to sprout. Some people just put them between moist paper towels in a warm spot… that might work. We’ve had trouble controlling the temperature with that method, and sometimes mold develops. Here’s how we sprout seeds (after sanding, the brief hydrogen peroxide bath, and soaking in water): 

Set the seeds on top of damp potting soil in a tray (take good notes, if you have more than one variety). Cover them with a damp dish cloth, and put the tray on a warming mat. Cover the tray with a plastic lid. Aim to keep the tray at around 80 degrees. This can be tricky. Watch the temperature frequently until you get it steady. 

Gently lift the dish cloth (without disrupting the seeds) twice a day to check for germination. It can happen in just a day or 2, or may take 2 weeks. As soon as the seed has stuck its little white tongue out, it is ready to plant! Don’t delay, because if the sprout is long, it could break while planting.

We give every seed its own large (6”x 6”) pot. They will be in that pot for 4 weeks before transplanting into the garden. With smaller pots, there isn’t enough space for the roots. Members of the squash family are notorious for not wanting to have their roots disturbed. Large plastic pots allow for a nice smooth transition to the garden.

Use a good potting soil, not garden soil. Make a small depression in the soil, about ½” to 1” deep, and place your sprouted seed gently, pointy end up (Where the tongue, the root, sticks out). Cover it gently, water it, and wait!

What?!? Pointy end up? Yes! Or, just lay it sideways. Truthfully, it doesn’t matter much. The sprouted seed will grow, pointy side up or down. But if the seed is planted with the pointy end up, then the radicle (the main root, the little tongue) goes down and the cotyledons (first “leaves”) simply pull smoothly and gracefully out, leaving the seed husk in the soil. If you plant the pointy end down, the baby plant must maneuver, and more often ends up wearing its seed husk. Awkward. So, pointy-end-up is simple common courtesy. Like holding the door open for your baby plant. Plant politely in a particularly plentiful plastic pot.

Not all seeds will sprout. If the seed froze before it dried, or if it didn’t mature fully, it might not sprout. Don’t throw the “duds” away… throw them in the garden, or in a compost pile, and forget about them. Sometimes surprises happen!