GERMINATION
What Plants Need
Plants, like people and animals, need “food” to provide energy. People and animals get their food by eating it. Plants make their own food by using air, water and energy from the sun.
Energy from the sun heats the air and the ground. 
Different types of seeds need different temperatures to “start to grow” or “germinate.”
Germination – “begins to grow”
A seed might look dead, but it isn’t. Seeds rest quietly until all things are right for it to begin “germination”
which means “begins to grow.”
Timing is everything.
When conditions are right…
…the first step in a seed’s
growth can begin…
taking in water.
As water is taken in, the seed swells bigger and bigger until the coat splits apart.
Air can then get to the seed. The oxygen in the air helps the baby plant burn the food packed inside the seed.
Burning the food produces energy. The baby plant uses the energy to grow.
The root begins to grow downward and the baby stem begins to curl upward.
Soon the baby plant isn’t a baby anymore.