Cleber Juliano Neves Chaves Routine seed germination test is made on paper, sand, or water agar. But, MS was used to germinate small seeds (like Arabidopsis) and provide them nutrients for initial growth of plantlets in vitro. If you need to compare your results with similar study done on MS - you must use it too.

Some references:

Li S, Li F, Wang J, Zhang WE, Meng Q, Chen TH, Murata N, Yang X. Glycinebetaine enhances the tolerance of tomato plants to high temperature during germination of seeds and growth of seedlings. Plant, cell & environment. 2011 Nov;34(11):1931-43.

González-Pérez, E., Ortega-Amaro, M.A., Salazar-Badillo, F.B. et al. The Arabidopsis-Trichoderma interaction reveals that the fungal growth medium is an important factor in plant growth induction. Sci Rep 8, 16427 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-34500-w

Bairu MW, Kulkarni MG, Street RA, Mulaudzi RB, Van Staden J. Studies on seed germination, seedling growth, and in vitro shoot induction of Aloe ferox Mill., a commercially important species. HortScience. 2009 Jun 1;44(3):751-6.

Yes :)

I am using 0.5 MS for germinating and seedling growth. Not on paper.

Thank you all for the answers! S. Wenkart do you use to test the germination in distinct conditions or just to grow seedlings?

Alex Ignatov, as far as I understood, the point is that if we want to grow the seedlings after the seed germination experiment. The MS medium doesn't affect the germination itself but helps the seedlings to grow. Am I right?

Cleber Juliano Neves Chaves I have not found in literature any direct comparison of seed germination rate on water agar/paper and MS, but plantlets survival rate on MS agar under different stress was higher comparing to hydroponics. In one work seeds germinated on paper were transferred to MS agar for NaCl stress study. It is reasonable, because seed viability is a complex trait affected by seed age, latent infection, maturing period and storage conditions.

Alginate-encapsulated vegetative buds have grown better on MS comparing to water.

Alex Ignatov, thank you a lot for the clarification. I was considering gathering plantlets for other studies after the germination test (now I'm also considering a test for seedling growth/survival under stress). On the other hand, transferring plantlets from paper to MS would be challenging, considering contamination and sterilization processes after seed germination. So, in my view, seed germination directly on MS would be more acceptable, right?

Cleber Juliano Neves Chaves I agree that any additional operation makes more infection. Seed sterilization is very important step and it depends on general seed quality. Usually, seeds produced in greenhouse / climatic chamber with good pathogen control are free of infection.

Alex Ignatov, good point!