Germinate - by Joseph Tychonievich (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

A friendly and thorough guide to everything gardeners need to know to successfully germinate seeds and raise healthy seedlings.

This book offers what no other seed-starting guide on the market does: condensed germination and seed saving information for 500 kinds of edible and ornamental plants, from arugula to yucca and achillea to zinnia. This encyclopedia section will be a dream come true even for experienced seed starters.

Author Joseph Tychonievich will leave no gardener behind, and thus he starts with two chapters on fundamental concepts of seed biology, function, and dormancy. After providing this solid basis for understanding the factors that influence seed germination, which will be especially important for those readers new to seed-starting, Joseph dives into chapters on specific techniques, offering clear, step-by-step instructions throughout for germinating and harvesting seeds of annuals, biennials, perennials, shrubs, and trees, including:

• Sowing outdoors--direct sowing
• Sowing indoors--greenhouses versus lights, container choices, soil mixes, light, temperature
• Sterile culture
• Seed saving
• Seed genetics

Whether you want to save seeds from heirloom vegetables in order to live a self-sufficient life, sow a bed full of cut flowers to fill vases in your house, collect seeds from local plants to grow a pollinator garden, grow a shade tree for the front yard, or germinate succulents for the windowsill, this book will show you how to do it.

About the Author

Joseph Tychonievich is the author of three gardening books (Plant Breeding for the Home Gardener, Rock Gardening: Reimagining a Classic Style, and The Comic Book Guide to Growing Food), all of which take complex, scientific topics and break them down in clear language that is accessible for every reader. 

His writing has appeared in Horticulture and Fine Gardening, where he was long-time editor of their Garden Photo of the Day feature and produced many of their e-learning courses. He has written for the print Sunday Magazine The New York Times for Kids, and is a frequent contributor to Better Homes & Gardens. Joseph has also been a repeated guest on NPR's wildly popular show "The Splendid Table" and a frequent guest on popular gardening podcasts such as Margaret Roach's "A Way to Garden", "The Joe Gardener Show", and "Washington Gardener". He serves as the editor for the journals of the North American Rock Garden Society and Magnolia Society International. 

Before starting his writing career, he grew plants from seed professionally in a research setting at Ohio State and Michigan State universities, then at specialty rare plant nurseries in Japan and Michigan. Joseph continues to grow hundreds of plants from seed at home every year, mostly for his own garden, but some for his small online store. 

Joseph is in demand as a speaker on gardening topics around the US and Canada, at garden clubs, plant societies, and keynoting Master Gardener conferences and botanical garden symposia.