Seed Enhancements
We utilize a suite of techniques known as Seed Enhancement Technologies – SETs.
Key to SETs is the germination profile of the seed, which establishes the conditions and moisture needed to begin germination. The germination profile of every seed has three phases:
The germination profile we establish for each species becomes the blueprint for its priming protocol.
Priming works by starting seeds on their path toward germination, then pausing them just before sprouting – at the end of Phase II. In this state, the seeds are poised on the cusp of germination. They can be safely stored while awaiting favorable conditions. When rain and warmth arrive, they germinate rapidly and synchronously, taking immediate advantage of the window Nature provides.
The time they take to germinate matters because one of restoration’s greatest challenges is the length of that time. Seeds that do not germinate quickly remain on the soil surface. Exposed, they are vulnerable to drought, disease, and a host of predators. In most direct seeding efforts the seeds are lost before they ever have a chance to grow. With costly or hard-to-source seeds, this loss becomes a serious barrier to effective restoration.
As a result, practitioners often turn to planting plugs instead – a method that is labor-intensive, costly, and difficult to scale.
Our Seed Enhancements address this challenge directly.
SETs for Scalable Restoration
By improving early establishment, our enhancements help restoration practitioners achieve higher success rates with fewer inputs, making large-scale habitat recovery more feasible, economical, and effective.
Help Us Scale This Work
Developing protocols is only the first step. Dissemination is critical. To achieve real impact, these enhancements must reach the people restoring land on the ground—at scale.
Diversity of species is also critical. With the support of the California Wildlife Conservation Board, we have so far been able to fund the development of priming protocols for eight key species.
Please help us fund more.
We are seeking partners, sponsors, and donations to help:
If you are a land manager, researcher, organization, or funder interested in collaborating—or helping carry these tools further—we invite you to connect with us.
Together, we can turn proven science into living landscapes.
Our current focus is narrowleaf milkweed (Asclepius fascicularis), including observations to enable large-scale generation of monarch and pollinator habitat. We also profile other keystone species including native California grasses for rapid post-fire restoration (Stipa pulchra, Danthonia californica, and Festuca california), and longleaf pine (Pinus palustris).
Narrowleaf milkweed is a Sonoma-native host plant for monarch caterpillars and our primary research flower. In much of North America narrowleaf used to be common, but extensive eradication campaigns have made her rare. She is drought-tolerant but vulnerable while young. After establishment she is hardy. She produces seeds but is also rhizomatous, sprouting new growth from her roots. With favorable conditions she can be prolific. She is a perennial and lives 10-20 years, dying back every fall and resurfacing in mid-spring.
Phase 1:
Phase 1 of this lot of seeds is completed in ~5 hours: the moisture content has stabilized and the seed has stopped imbibing.
Phase 2:
Phase 2 stabilizes at ~48% moisture content: the seed has imbibed nearly half its weight in water and has now entered Phase 2.
Fascicularis germination trials:
Field Capacity (FC) trials test the amount of moisture in the substrate:
Cold stratification is a priming strategy that simulates winter to break seed dormancy. Here we test 10-day and 20-day stratification. FC = amount of substrate moisture.
We optimize seed moisture content in storage to keep seeds viable over time.
We test pod formulae with varying ingredients, ratios, moisture contents, conditions, etc. These trials test germination rates in seedpods with varying amounts of nutrients. Here are the high-performing formulas we have trialed for narrowleaf milkweed.
Compilation of fascicularis trials:
Other species:
Longleaf Pine (Pinus palustris)
Testing Predator Deterrent: Cayenne
Purple Needlegrass (Stipa pulchra):
Testing cayenne as a predator deterrent
Showy milkweed (Asclepius speciosa)
Testing seedpod materials for moisture retention:
