Germination of Native Grass Seed (Maine, Zone 5A)

Hello, I run a small native plant nursery and have always had great success germinating tree, shrub & wildflower seeds outdoors. This year I am trying to grow many more native grasses which according to Prairie Moon and other sources, don't need stratification or other pretreatment. On December 9th I performed an initial germination experiment, by filling a 72 cell tray with compost based potting soil, and sowing the following seeds: Side Oats Gramma, Rattlesnake Grass, Big Bluestem, Virginia Wild Rye, Bottlebrush Grass, Prairie Dropseed, Culver's Root, and Shrubby St Johnswort.  The flat is indoors in my grow room and I have kept the top layer of the soil moist and the soil temperature hovers around 62-65 degrees Fahrenheit.

It has now been almost two weeks and so far only one Virginia Wild Rye seed has germinated, no other species. 1/72 cells is very poor especially considering multiple seeds were sown into each cell.

Do you have any suggestions to improve my germination rate? Is the soil temperature too cold, should I put a heat mat underneath?

Thanks.

I'm definitely no expert on grass seed germination but I'd pay attention to the humidity. Possibly add a cover to the trays if you already don't have one. Or control the humidity in the environment that you're growing in if possible.

Hi!

I just planted some big bluestem seeds that I harvested locally in some pots inside in zone 4.

I don't really have any advice beyond patience. I just read that big bluestem takes about three weeks to germinate. Maybe after a month I would start to worry and plant more seeds. My instincts are that a heat mat seems unnecessary for these.

Good planting!

Welcome to Permies!

A good question—just Saturday I was gathering some Indiangrass, bluestem and switchgrass from a roadside erosion planting. They are rare here in western New England, but are nice grasses…

My best success has been throwing them around and waiting. I got one indiangrass flower last summer/fall for the first time! The area was partly shaded, bare-ish soil but covered with nearby daylilies and other perennial flowers. So it makes me think they want a bit of shade and nursing.

My experience is that wild plants don’t germinate when we want them to but on their own time, and trying to work with that has been my approach. It may “waste” a lot of seeds but much is learned about their germination habits. I have also mostly stopped buying seeds because it has turned out to be a waste of money for me—maybe not for you but I can only seem to grow what already grows wild! So finding a hardy plant, or getting one started, might help you much more despite the extra cost of getting a plant versus a seed packet.

I don't know if it helps grass-specific plants, but I have had good results from the utilization of heat mats to benefit general seed germination. I would not think it would hurt?

The warm season grasses may need the soil temp to be 70 rather than low 60's.  I've been successful with side-oats grama and bottlebrush grass, growing them outside in WI (zone 4b) after it warmed up.  The rye is a cool season grass and shouldn't be bothered.   Prairie Nursery lists a cold dry stratification for prairie dropseed rather than the no treatment suggestion from Prairie Moon.  I had scant germination on that, but my seed was wild-collected, so I don't know the quality.  I have grown Culver's root (again, outside) and it did nothing for a long time, and then all those tiny seeds geminated at once and I had a lot of babies to separate.  

There is what is known as temporary dormancy. Prairie seeds are programed not to germinate when they shatter in the fall because they will not survive the winter. They are temporarily dormant for this reason, same with heirloom sunflowers I have found. The more days from the harvest the higher the germination rate of the sunflowers, also related to temperature as others have said. Also, prairie seeds have a certain percentage of dormant seed that ensures some seed will be viable in the next season due to drought or other weather related happenings.