Germination is defined as, "The development of a plant from a seed or spore after a period of dormancy." Farmers place the seed in the ground and after that, there is nothing more than a farmer can do except wait. His whole livelihood now rests on whether that seed will grow beyond the soil level or not. He has done what he can to create a suitable environment for the seed to succeed and grow, but eventually there is nothing he can physically do to make that seed actually grow and sprout.

One of the ways that he can increase his success in having a harvestable crop, is by planting a seed that has a high chance of growing and emerging past the soil level. How does a farmer ensure that a seed has this chance? One such way of predicting the ability of the seed is by conducting a germination test. A germination test is very simple in concept and can either be conducted in a lab or on the farmers kitchen table.

If a farmer has a seed-lot in his grain bin or storage facility that he would like to use for planting in the spring, he can grab a handful and conduct this test with nothing more than a wet paper towel and ziploc bag. The wet paper towel provides moisture for the seed to swell and start the germination process. The moisture will allow the seed to swell and triggers the seed that growth is imminent. The seed will then send out the root first, in order to locate more water and nutrients. The shoot (or above ground) portion will start to grow next and will push towards the soil surface. There are specialized cells in the shoot that make emergence possible for the plant by allowing it to push through the packed soil. The seed remains mostly intact in between the root and shoot providing a food source for the young plant until the plant can start the process of photosynthesis.

When a farmer is conducting a germination test, he is looking for seeds that hold the potential to grow both a root and shoot. He can determine this by taking a sub-sample and extrapolating the results to the remaining seed lot. For example, a farmer make take a sample size of 100 seeds and then count the number of seeds that have a root and shoot after a weeks' worth of time wrapped in the moistened paper towel.

The result of the germination will help the farmer determine the correct number of seeds to plant in order to achieve his goal of a successfully emerged crop. For example, if a desired seed rate is 100,000 seeds per acre and the germination test shows that he has a seed lot with 90% success then he needs to adjust his seeding rate in order to truly achieve 100,000 emerged plants per acre. In this scenario he will need to add an additional 10% to his seeding rate. In theory he will plant 110,000 seeds per acre in order to hopefully accomplish 100,000 emerged plants per acre.

The germination test is also a way of determining whether a new seed lot is needed, or not. If a germination test is less than 70% (depending on the crop) a new seed source may be more economic than the use of the stored seed.