Question

What are the three conditions necessary for the germination of seeds? How would you demonstrate this?

Answer 1

For successful germination of any viable seed, three external conditions are necessary:

1. Water or moisture
2. Warmth or temperature
3. Air or oxygen.

We can demonstrate this with the “Three seed experiment”. This is a simple experiment to demonstrate the necessity of these factors for proper germination.

Experiment: Three mature dried bean seeds are taken and tied on a wooden strip at three different positions (above the figure). This strip is placed in a beaker containing water in such a way that the lower seed is completely submerged in water, the middle seed is partially submerged inside the water and the top seed is kept above water. This set-up is left in a warm place for a few days.
It is observed that the middle seed shows germination and gives out radicle and shoot leaves. The top seed shows no growth and the bottom one shows negligible growth. The middle seed gets fully germinated due to the fact that this seed has all the favourable conditions required for germination i.e., air (oxygen), moisture, and warmth (favourable temperature), which are necessary for germination.