Grape Seed Germination

Grape Seed Germination

Choosing Viable Seeds

You can usually tell a viable seed by the way it looks and feels. Healthy seeds are firm, with a pale white or gray endosperm inside. Any seeds that are squishy when you gently squeeze them between your fingers are not viable. To double-check this, you can drop the seeds in water and discard those that float to the top, as healthy seeds tend to sink.

Preparation

Before stratification, viable seeds need a thorough washing to remove the pulp. Soaking the grape seeds in distilled water for 24 hours before stratification increases the odds of germination. Because the seeds need to remain semi-moist during stratification, you'll need to prepare a proper bed for them, such as an air-tight bag or capsule filled with damp sand or wet paper towels. Damp peat moss is one of the best beds for grape seeds, as it has anti-fungal properties that can reduce the risk of mold that destroys the seeds during stratification.

Stratification

Once you prepare the bed, you can tuck the seeds inside it and refrigerate them at 40 degrees Fahrenheit for about three months. You can safely store seeds in the fridge for a year or more, as they will not sprout in these conditions. The smartest time to do this is in December, as March is the time for planting in a greenhouse.

Germination

After removing the seeds from stratification in early spring, you can plant them in small pots, or in larger pots with at least 1 1/2 inches of space between them. A greenhouse is the safest place for them until June, when you can transplant them to their permanent places outside. They need temperatures reaching at least 70 degrees Fahrenheit by day and approximately 60 degrees Fahrenheit at night during this germination period. The time it takes the seeds to germinate varies from approximately two weeks to two months; sometimes receiving 15 hours of sunlight per day encourages them to germinate sooner rather than later. If some seeds don't germinate, you can always pop them back in the fridge for stratification until next season and try again then.