00:00 [music]
00:11 So here we have what you will need to get started with cold stratification.
00:17 So we have a placket of lavender seeds, and water spray, some paper towels.
00:27 Now this paper towel is quite thin and probably likely to break to keep on.
00:33 So I leave that aside, and this is a thicker one that I have.
00:37 It's too big for the zip-lock bag, which is the fourth thing you're going to need.
00:42 So I'm going to cut this. Now you could always fold it over, but it's a little bit tricky when you add the seeds onto it.
00:55 So I'm just going to cut this to size first, just so it fits neatly inside the bag.
01:05 So make sure that's fine.
01:11 And then, it's a bit better, put it that way.
01:19 So now I'm just going to cut this around the side.
01:28 So there we have two sheets of kitchen roll, paper towels, and put the ends aside, use them for a hanky or something.
01:42 So now I'm going to take my lavender seeds and open them.
01:52 Actually I'll keep it on until they're ready to be planted out.
01:58 So lavender seeds are inside here.
02:01 And then firstly, before I open those actually, we'll just get started on wetting the first piece of kitchen roll.
02:11 Maybe use the flatter side.
02:14 So, one, two, three, four, five, six.
02:23 I'm just going to leave that for a minute.
02:26 It's probably not wet enough.
02:30 But you don't want to soak it, you want to let the water spread out towards the edges.
02:36 Just give it one more.
02:44 And you can see the edges start to absorb the water as well on that.
02:50 So, here are the lavender seeds.
02:57 The date on this packet is so by December 2027, so we've a good three years on these, which is great.
03:07 Most seeds you have to use, well they tell you to use within a year or two, but I have seeds that are years old.
03:17 So you might not get as good a germination rate, but you might get one or two.
03:22 So, with old seeds.
03:28 The lavender seeds are quite small, as you can see, and there's about 50 or so in this packet.
03:36 What I'm going to do is put some of them back into the packet, because there's probably too many in this for this one sheet.
03:47 And there we have about half the packet here now.
03:50 And what I'm just going to do is check this.
03:54 Yes, it's dumping up, I think.
03:56 And then just sprinkle the seeds over it.
04:08 Let's straighten this part a bit.
04:15 And just keep sprinkling.
04:25 Try and space them out. It's not an exact science, but they're too small to be totally accurate with.
04:33 So that's them now on the paper towel.
04:40 We're almost finished.
04:41 And then, so the next process is just placing this over the top of that one.
04:51 Press it down.
04:55 And you'll already see, you want the seeds to have good contact in between the two sheets.
05:01 And I'm just going to spritz this as well.
05:10 Four spritzes on that one.
05:14 So it's like a seed sandwich, basically.
05:17 Going into a sandwich bag. So here we go.
05:21 We have a Ziploc bag here.
05:24 These are just bags you could take, you know, for airport toiletries and things like that.
05:29 So one like that.
05:31 Or you could alternatively use a plastic container.
05:37 C3 ones are quite good because then you can see if there's any seeds germinating inside it.
05:43 And we'll put that inside.
05:45 Then we have this. See, carefully just lift it and try to lay it flat inside the bag.
05:53 I'm going to do this just with the spine of my hand.
05:57 And then just place it inside.
06:05 And this mimics the effects then of the seed lying on the ground in winter.
06:15 Going through that cold period, that cold damp period in the dark.
06:22 And then hopefully waking it up and germinating.
06:31 And once you see the little seeds come through, then you can get little tails, little roots.
06:41 And then once you see that happening, you can take them out, plant them in soil.
06:45 This is still quite... I'm going to give it another few spritzes in here.
06:53 There we go.
06:56 There we go. It's quite a rotten paper.
06:59 But that's it really now for the fridge.
07:02 I just want to make sure that there's some air out here.
07:06 You want it to be as flat as possible.
07:09 And you want the seeds to be in between those two paper toilets so that they're making contact with the damp paper.
07:21 So that's them.
07:23 I'll take you over now to the fridge and show you what I do then.
07:28 So I'll open the fridge here.
07:40 And as you can see, I'm just laying them flat on the shelf in the fridge.
07:47 So that's locked up.
07:54 Again, making sure there's no air.
07:58 Or as little air as possible inside it.
08:04 And that's it now. So we'll just leave it there for a few weeks.
08:08 And just above that one, you can see there's already one that I planted a few weeks ago, and that's lavender as well.
08:17 Lavender is a great plant to plant out. It's a great companion plant for all the vegetables and things like that, that the slugs and snails will eat.
08:28 They won't eat the lavender and they don't like strong smells.
08:31 So I'm hoping to create a row of these after germinating.
08:35 These have been on for about two weeks and I haven't really checked on them yet, like, but this last few days.
08:43 But I don't see any noticeable difference yet.
08:47 But they can take up to four weeks. I think it's usually around the three week mark that you might start seeing the little tiny tails.
08:53 They're such small seeds as well, so I probably need to give it a close inspection.
08:57 But that's the process there.
08:59 And see how you get on. There's quite a lot of seeds you can do this with.
09:03 But check just on the different websites and things like that, you know, Gardening Experts.
09:12 And they will tell you which seeds this process is good for.
09:18 And it increases the germination rate too, normally.
09:21 So if you were to plant these seeds straight in the soil, you might not get very many, you might not get any at all.
09:28 Because they haven't gone through that kind of wandering, full wandering as this is.
09:35 So there we go. That's cold stratifying. Thanks for watching.
09:39 [MUSIC PLAYING]
09:42 (upbeat music)
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