If I only had a few seeds of something I treasured, i would do my germination test at the right time to put any germinated seeds into the ground, or under lights indoors for later transplant.
1. cold-moist stratification on wet coffee filter if needed: - - - S weeks
2. attempted germination on wet coffee filter - - - G weeks
3. grow indoors under lights until big enough to plant out - - -L weeks
Therefore I'd start the germination test S + G + M weeks before i expect warm enough weather to harden them off or plant them out (if necessary, plant them out under plastic or in a cold frame.
This way, you only waste the space for a baggie with a coffee fitler until you see a sprout.
By the way, I don;t use baggies. I have some nesting glass bowls that stack up, and I add water a few times per week. Also, I imagine that root hairs don't cling to coffee filters as tightly as they do to paper towels.
I think it was Dr. Deno who popularized the paper-towel-baggie method.
Persistent URLs for Dr. Deno's book
"Seed Germination, Theory And Practice"
and supplements:
http://hdl.handle.net/10113/41... (1993)
http://hdl.handle.net/10113/41... (1996)
http://hdl.handle.net/10113/41... (1998)
Those are permanent links to reach specific documents at this website:
http://agspace.nal.usda.gov/
National Agricultural Library (NAL)
NAL Digital Repository
Digital Documents Repository (DDR)
"AgSpace": a centralized location for USDA publications
under:
Other Agricultural Collections
Other Agricultural Research and Information
