Germination tests are extremely important for seed collections because what is the point of storing a seed if one does not know how to make it germinate after it has been frozen? Once a seed lot has been processed it is put into a humidity controlled room. The seed lot is placed in such a room so the moisture content in the seed can be brought down to about a 5%. Once the seed lot reaches this percentage it is ready to be stored in the freezer. We place seed lots into the freezer for at least one month before performing any germination (germ) tests on it.

I’ll use Trixis californica as an example. When we pull it out of the freezer, we take 100 seeds to use for the germ tests. The seeds are put in a weigh boat with deionized water for 24 hours, which is called the imbibe step. The imbibe step is important because it allows the seed to uptake water, thus increasing its moisture content. The next step is to pick the proper germ test for the seed. I am still learning this part. More, once I’ve got it down!