The Madman And His Box of Seeds

The madman is still walking around with his box of seeds. Maybe he’s afraid Coyote will come in and steal them, but that Native American legend comes from the west, not Connecticut. The Coyotes here give him a wide berth.

It’s the last day of May – some seeds are planted; some are still soaking, and some are slated for later planting. I’m still amazed when the plants appear. I think of seeds as being magical. But the madman approaches seeds from a scientific background – “definitely no magic here,” he insists. While I think of a seed as a genie in a bottle, his background makes him look at seeds in a different way. He insists that the purpose of a seed is to extend the plant’s lineage into the future by making more plants.

Fifth Grade Science

As he liked to say to the fifth graders during our planting presentations, “This seed contains everything necessary to produce a full-size plant – you just need to add water.” At this point, he was holding a bean seed. For the fifth graders, using a bean seed made the discussion very easy because of its size. He also added that beans produce seeds not to feed us, but to make more bean plants.

Gardeners dutifully collect vegetable and flower seeds to save for next year’s garden. But, to keep the lineage going in the wild, a plant needs to be able to disperse its seeds – the farther the better. To do this, plants have become very clever at dispersal.

Riding The Wind

Some seeds are carried by the wind. We’ve all watched with annoyance as the dandelion puffs catch a breeze and scatter over the lawn. These seeds have feathery bristles that get carried by the wind. Other seeds have wings that make air travel easy – just look at the Maple helicopters as they spiral to the ground. A strong wind can blow these airborne seeds a far distance from the parent.

Floating Away

Some seeds can float on water. Plants that live along a stream, like harebell, have buoyant seeds that can be carried a long distance by flowing water. Then there’s the Coconut Palm whose fruit, the lovely coconut, is capable of floating hundreds or thousands of miles before being washed up on a beach and sending down roots. That’s why we have Coconut Palms on every frost-free beach in the world.

Outside Help

Birds, animals and even the madman can be pressed into service to disperse seeds. Seeds can easily stick to feathers, fur and clothing to hitch a ride to another part of the landscape. As birds and animals consume fruits, the seeds pass through their digestive systems and you all know what happens then – again, a very efficient way of moving seeds around. Then there are the squirrels and blue jays who stash away seeds for later snacks. If lost or forgotten, these stashes will sprout. We see this with sunflowers and oak seedlings all over our yard.

The Poppers

Once in a while, you come across a plant that doesn’t rely on external sources to spread its seeds. The madman calls these plants the poppers. When these seeds ripen, the seed pods simply explode. If you have ever tried to gather Impatiens seeds, you know exactly what we are talking about. Plants with this dispersal system can quickly rise to the status of greenhouse weed. I can remember the madman’s first Dorstenia crispa. He was so excited when it bloomed. And, even more excited when the bloom produced seed. And he laughed like anything when the seed shot out from the flower. What he didn’t realize was that seeds kept shooting out. Before he knew it, he had baby D. crispas growing in everything, even his prize-winning Euphorbias. I even have to check any plant he overwinters for me.

The Last Resort

And, then there’s the last resort method of lineage preservation. Some species of pine trees produce cones that will only open when exposed to the high temperatures of a forest fire. The madman thinks that this method is not for species dispersal as much as species survival. The burned out forest will be repopulated with the same pine trees that were torched.

With the problem of dispersal solved, it’s time to consider the seed. The seed has three main parts: the embryo, the endosperm and the seed coat. The embryo is the young plant before it emerges. At this point, it is just a collection of cells containing plant DNA. The endosperm is food that will nourish the plant until it can make its own. The seed coat is a covering that will protect all of this until growth begins. For the madman, this is the most important part of the seed.

Basic Seed Growth

In quick basic terms, the seed coat breaks, a radicle or root emerges and heads down (this is called geotropism if you are interested). The root is quickly followed by a shoot that heads up towards the light. As it grows, cotyledons form to nourish the seedling until it can produce its own food. Similar to leaves, they will be replaced by true leaves when the plant grows.

Too Simple For Mother Nature

As we all know, Mother Nature likes to make things a little more complicated than this, so she messed around with the requirements each individual seed needs to germinate. In her defense, this messing around ensures that seeds in the wild germinate when conditions are right for growth. Water is often the medium that breaks the seed coat, but sometimes water can’t do the job by itself.

Scarification And Stratification

Some seeds need to go through a winter where freezing temperatures and microbial soil activity work to weaken the seed coat. Anything that alters the seed coat is referred to as scarification. The madman has learned to replicate this process by scraping the seeds with a file or sand paper.

If that’s not enough, remember when we told you about how some fruit trees need to be cold for a certain number of hours before they can set fruit? Well, guess what? Some seeds won’t germinate unless they experience cold temperatures. For seeds, this is called stratification. Once the cold requirement is met, the seed can germinate. Again, the madman has a work around. He places the seeds in moist sand in the refrigerator until planting time. Or he just buys the plant, a much easier solution because he doesn’t have to remember he has seeds in the fridge. If you are growing native plants from seed, Prairie Moon Nursery is an excellent source for seeds as well as a good reference for germinating difficult seeds.

Back To The Magic

Lucky for us vegetable gardeners, none of the seeds we plant require heroic efforts to germinate. The most difficult thing we have to worry about is how deep to plant the seed. Some like to be set on the surface, some like to be just under the surface, and some like to be an inch or two below. A quick peek at the seed packet or seed catalog will tell you what each seed needs. The madman says if you follow directions, you should have a productive garden, just like magic!

Time to make the switch to lemonade and watch the magic show.