Germination race

Introduction

Sometimes you might plant seeds and wait for a few days, but don’t see any seedlings coming up. Why? Well it may be because some seeds are naturally slower than others to germinate. Let's see.

Seeds on damp paper towel. Each different type labelled and dated using pencil.

Preparation:

• Thoroughly clean used plastic meat trays with hot soapy water.
• Cut two pieces of paper towel to fit each tray.

What You Will Need:

• A selection of different seeds, e.g. corn, wheat, cabbage
• Used plastic meat trays
• Paper towels
• Soft 4B pencil for writing on the paper towels
• Water
• Plastic bags big enough to fit the trays
• A magnifying glass.

What to do

Setting up:

1. Label a piece of paper towel with 3 types of seeds you have chosen, plus the date.
2. Place the labelled paper towel in the tray, make it damp and pour off any excess water.
3. Sprinkle the seeds on the paper towel alongside their labels.
4. Cover the seeds with the other paper towel and make it damp too.
5. Slip the tray into a plastic bag, fold its end under and place in a warm part of the classroom.

Observations:

1. Check the seeds daily.
2. For each type of seed: a) count the number that have started to germinate, b) divide by the total number of that seed type, then c) multiply the result by 100 to find the percentage germinated.
3. Use this evidence to suggest which seed type germinates fastest and which germinates slowest.
4. Journal the changes you observe, noting the order that things happen. A magnifying glass will help for looking at the detail.
5. Do the main steps of germination occur in the same way for each type of seed?
   

Going further

Use this set-up to carry out other germination experiments, for example:

• Investigate how temperature changes germination time.
• Find out if darkness is needed for germination.
• Create a database of vegetable germination times.

Related resources

Five seed race

Germination trials

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