the only one "Positive" thing i can tell you is when i opened 3 seeds from the tests all of them looked VERY healthy from the inside like they DO want to spread out !
Why not try that before soaking the seeds in (pure)water (just pressure the seeds with your fingers until they open slightly,no need to see inside...you can also re-soak the opened ones if you still have them...)and you can also pre-soak (for 24h)the seeds before pressuring them if you're afraid to harm them.
I've done it with mid old seeds which were badly conserved...i had mixed results but sometimes it worked very well (30% of the seeds popped last time)...
Yes,i have heard about seeds dormancy,though i never tried it...but i figured as the seeds sleeps in my fridge it was a kind of dormancy...still i'm not sure it's the case actually.I have to read more.
Once i thrown some landrace seeds in a flower pot in my living room,and after almost a year some did come out of the soil for no reason...the mystery of soil dormancy
They're gone my friend, no matter what you do. Lesson learned about storing seeds.
BC
rabid, did you tryied it with any old seeds ?
if so, how old was the seeds ?
I'm thinking there might be something to the dormancy thing. I tried to germinate 10 yr old seeds recently, that had been stored at both room temp. and in the fridge depending on where I was living at the time. (I know better now)
I scuffed them, did the seaweed soak and then paper towel. I gave up after 2 weeks, only two started out of 10 and they never came up after being planted.
I almost threw the seeds in the compost when I remembered reading something Tom Hill said about seeds germing weeks later in flats he had already emptied. So, I threw them in a pot and forgot about them till about 6 weeks into 12/12 when I noticed 3 little seedlings stretching like hell under the canopy. Another one popped up a week later and a 5th 2 days after harvest.
Not only did they take between 6 and 9 weeks to germ, they did it at 1300 ppm and are growing just fine now.
nice. Just read the whole thread Root. Glad to hear the naysayers were wrong. I was recently gifted 20 year old Acapulco gold seeds. These need to sprout. 10% germ rate? I would happily take that. So for you it was simply a #s game? Good to know.
Peace