General Question

Anatelostaxus's avatar

How do I make seeds sprout?

Asked by Anatelostaxus (1418 points ) June 25th, 2011

I’ve found that by putting certain species of seeds in generous amounts of water helps them sprout.
When I do this I then plant them into the soil. (watermelon, cantaloupe, for instance..)
What about harder seeds such as olive, cherry, peach, apricot, lichy, etc..

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7 Answers

jrpowell's avatar

Have you tried putting them in damp paper towels to get them to germinate?

lucillelucillelucille's avatar

Scoring them with a knife,then soaking them might work.

downtide's avatar

Olive seeds won’t grow if they’re from olives you’ve bought for eating. Olives are naturally very bitter and to make them edible they’re fermented and cured in lye or brine, either of which will kill the seed.

incendiary_dan's avatar

Try to immitate the natural environment in which they tend to sprout and grow.

Anemone's avatar

Big seeds often just need time. Put them in some soil, water them, and wait. They’ll do their thing (or not), but it might take a few weeks or months.

BTW, some trees don’t grow reliably from seeds. I mean, they will usually grow into a tree, but the fruits might not be as good as the fruit the seed came from. You might want to research the particular plants you’re interested in to see whether they can be grown from seeds or not.

incendiary_dan's avatar

@Anemone Very true about the trees! Apples won’t grow right from the seeds in them, and need to be grafted. I guess seed saving is most important with annuals, biennials, and a few select perrennials.

Anatelostaxus's avatar

thanks guys!

any sites I could use as reference to the specific types of trees, seeds and to whether they grow or not?

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