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Native Yardening

Is it too late to cold stratify native seeds? 🧐

Published 27 days ago • 1 min read

Hi friend,

Did you know that many North American native seeds need a cold stratification period before they’ll grow?

Spring is approaching and the weather is warming up, but don’t worry if you didn’t winter sow any seeds outdoors!

Seeds can be cold stratified in your refrigerator any time of year.

This is personally my preferred method because it gives me more leeway with timing and lets me keep growing new plants through the warm months!

Not sure how to properly cold stratify seeds in your fridge? It’s actually really simple!

Here are some instructions:

Items needed: paper towel, ziploc bag, seeds, water, marker

  1. Dampen a paper towel
  2. Place your seeds on the damp paper towel and fold it so they’re covered
  3. Put the paper towel with seeds in a ziploc bag and seal the bag
  4. Mark the bag with the seed species and the date
  5. Place the bag in the refrigerator
  6. Remove them once the recommended amount of time has passed - see the seed package for timeframe. (You can leave them in the fridge longer if needed)
  7. Your seeds are ready to germinate!

If you’re looking for native seeds to add to your garden this year, check out my seed shop here!

Each seed pack lists the recommended timeframe for cold stratifying, and I include these instructions with each order in case you forget.

Tory is an ecologist and landscape consultant.
He helps North American gardeners transition from using outdated and harmful but status-quo techniques to using their yards to improve the health of our planet.

Along with being a gardener for over 10 years, Tory has a Master of Science degree in Sustainable Design and is certified in Regenerative Soil Science.​

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Native Yardening

Tory Erpenbeck

Ecologist helping North American growers use their yards to help fight the climate crisis 🌻

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