Fruits & Vegetable Seeds in India are being viewed as a high growth Industry. Most of the seeds normally remain viable for 2 or 3 years when stored under good conditions. Therefore, only buy seeds from seed firms of known integrity. High-yielding and high price seeds should have 90% germination potential. For germination of seeds adequate moisture, temperature and aeration are essential. The temperature requirement for various fruits and vegetable seeds varies markedly which may vary from high to low depending on the optimum temperature requirement for that particular fruit or vegetable seed. The optimum temperature for germination varies between 4℃ and 40℃. The sown seeds absorb moisture and swells, after which the vital activities in the seeds start taking place. These vital activities include respiration in which the energy is supplied and oxygen is utilized thus, for oxygen supply aeration is essential. Excessive supply of water leads to poor aeration and hinders the seed germination.

The seed treatment is the very first step of seed sowing where in first treatment, the surface of seeds are disinfected using calcium hypochlorite, mercuric chloride and bromide water which helps in eliminating the harmful microorganisms disrupting the germination process.

The second seed treatment uses hot water, formaldehyde and mercuric chloride for elimination of harmful organisms present within the seeds. In the hot water treatment, the dry seeds are immersed in hot water at 45 to 55℃ for a time period of 10 to 15 minutes. In the third seed treatment, fungicides are used to protect the seeds from soil fungi.

After seed treatment, the nursery beds need to be prepared where at first the soil needs to be drenched before sowing. The vegetables seeds should be sown on nursery beds prepared in lines 1.5-2 cm below the surface and at a distance of 5-6 cm. The distance between the lines should be maintained at 10-15 cm and after sowing, the seeds need to be covered with sieved compost lightly.

The above distance between plants or rows can be changed according to the size of seed, kind of vegetables and the types of seedlings while the coverage depth of compost varies with the kind of seed sown. During the seed sowing process, the things that are required to be taken care of includes that very fine seeds may be dusted over the nursery bed while the other seeds may be covered one or two times their minimum diameter. Sprinkler irrigation is an efficient way of watering the seed bed as overwatering cause high humidity and poor aeration around the seeds leading to "damping off" disease.