What is Scarification?

I thoroughly enjoy talking to folks who love the soil. They do their best to do the right things, to protect and preserve the life that gives us life. Often these conversations are with beginner gardeners. They may have a couple chickens, and a very small place they can grow things, and one of the most common laments I hear is about terms, words, phrases that are relevant to gardening. They may look them up and still not have a useful, working understanding of the meaning. Unfortunately, when one has been working with earth-care for a long time, they/we often lose sight/remembrance of being completely new to the uniqueness of every aspect of gardening or working with the soil. This week I want to touch on a few of these, that have come up in these conversations.

Scarify has a word inside it, that I use to remember the meaning: scar. That’s what you’re doing to seed coats, when you scarify. The living part of a seed is enclosed in a protective shell. In Nature, this seed coating would be softened by being over wintered in wet soil. When the coating is soft enough, and conditions are right, the life will emerge. If the seed is buried down deep, away from sunlight and air, it may lie dormant for a long time. Some seeds lie dormant for years

There are a lot of seeds with thick outer coatings, such as okra, moonflower, nasturtiums, etc. The skin can be softened by soaking, or it can be nicked by using a file, sandpaper, or anything that can compromise the integrity of the coating. Another method of natural scarification, is the seed being eaten by birds or wildlife, passing through their digestive juices, and being pooped out. The seed coating has been softened, by that process, and now it’s sitting in a pile of fertilizer. When conditions are right, that seed will take off.

Why don’t you have to do this with commercially packaged seeds? Because they’re scarified before they’re packaged, often by being tumbled in an abrasive material, such as sand.

The Tennessee Dirtgirl