I don’t remember for sure, but I think the way your using the milestones was why the two were created in the first place. Personally, if I germinate without soil I just wait unit it’s planted and sprouted to mark the ‘sprouting’ milestone, but your method makes perfect sense to me.

The only problem I can see with a “germinated” event is that you won’t know how long it took to germinate if you sow directly into the soil. But that also means that if the “germination days” is based off of “Sprouting” the numbers are probably off. I guess to be more accurate we’d also need a “days until sprouting”.

It is a difficult one, but language and usage sees many terms as duplicates when common usage takes over from the older specific, or technical use.
Germinating, sprouting and even chitting are all sprouting events but I believe I can see where and why they’d fit best.

As I see it; If you’re germinating something then you’re checking to see if it’s actually viable – as in germination test – but that doesn’t mean that it’s the end of their life as the baggy method shows. That method has its benefits (thinking of my difficult chilli seeds here) which is just germinating in ideal conditions with a view to then growing them on.
Chitting is a valid term but is interchangeable with sprouting, except we are pre -sprouting the material and then planting it out. So it really is a distinct method.

So, they are all sprouting techniques or methods and they are probably all deserving of their own name or description. Would it confuse the database too much if they were just lumped together as sprouting events? I assume you apply some sort of best fit to the results anyway so if there are only a few germinating records then they wouldn’t skew the results too much, or may even be excluded if too far off base – out of band?

Germination would be slightly earlier than most of us record sprouting events, if not from just the fact that germinating means we’d be watching them like a hawk and sprouting would be more a whatever, whenever – “close enough if I round off a few days” type observation :) Chitting is also a looser term as they may have actually been sprouting for a week or more before we actually plant them.
Perhaps from a database point of view – if a planting out event followed a chitting or germinating event then the planting out event becomes the sprouting event…. _pauses … everyone caught up yet? (my brain hurts too, if it’s any consolation :) Yeah, I know you wanted a simple answer but we’re free wheeling here aren’t we? ;)

Incidentally, looking at the milestone list, wouldn’t Showing Roots be just Germinating by another name? Hmm, but not if it was a bulb I guess. ?

Speaking of milestone events, but not a sprouting one – pricking out.
Is it only me that uses it? I think I used the Showing True Leaves milestone as a substitute for it.

I would love a germination designation!

I go along with ceae’s explanation, as I believe that it is what happens to seeds/bulbs.
First germination and than sprouting, with germination usually unnoticed as it is hidden by the growing medium.