Tried it, only once tho...used 100 grit. rolled it into a cone and shook that thing for 10min....nothing happened..should i keep trying with what i have or use another grit??
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GERMINATING OLD SEEDS!
- Thread starter uptosumpn
- Start date
Tried it, only once tho...used 100 grit. rolled it into a cone and shook that thing for 10min....nothing happened..should i keep trying with what i have or use another grit??
wicked info...gonna check it all out...THANKS!
BigBozat
Member
LMAO, yeah, all that... I do stranger things, too (like Florel/ethephon).
They work for me, in the sense that I get decent germination rates, and those that do sprout seem to have decent vigor starting out... but I've never done side by side or blind trials to try to measure for statistically significant improvement, or anything like that (a) I'm lazy; b) no room)...
And I don't expect miracles... they can help break seed dormancy & stimulate a germination response, but dead is dead... if the embryo in the seed ist kaput, then nothing you throw at 'em will make the seeds germinate.
Coconut water has all sorts of good stuff...
In addition to the usual phytohormones used for rooting & cloning compounds like auxins (IAA), cytokinins (zeatin, kinetin), gibberellins (GA1, GA3), it has ABA, salicylic acid (systemic defense hormone), complex oligo / polysaccharides, vitamins, minerals, & amino acids... long history in tissue culturing... see here: http://www.researchgate.net/publication/40768354_The_chemical_composition_and_biological_properties_of_coconut_(Cocos_nucifera_L.)_water/links/0912f50ad7aa729a37000000
If it penetrates the seed coat & imbibes the embryo, if the embryo isn't totally dead it will get the germination machinery started.
Sorta the same for kelp extract: all sorts of auxins & ctyokinins, etc. [albeit different than what coconut water provides].
Gibberellic acid is THE standard seed germination treatment in horticulture. Too many cites to reference... Google it.
Karrakinins are a relatively recent discovery... basically, compounds in smoke (esp. of woody plants/cellulose) which have been demonstrated to promote seed germination & break dormancy (theorized to be a plant survival response to environmental smoke signalling threat). See, e.g., here: http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/jf1041728
The Wright's Liquid Smoke contains these karrakinins (aka butenolide)... Honestly, the effect has been difficult to see, but I figure every little bit helps. In any event, it certainly hasn't hurt.
All the other stuff, who knows whether it's really helping or ??? The l-aminos all supposedly have some beneficial impact on seed germination (e.g., synergy w/ the karrakinins) or some other early seedling development benefit (cold, disease, stress tolerance). The sugars are food in case of really old, poorly stored seeds' stores being depleted. The vitamins are purportedly growth cofactors.
I haven't achieved 100% germ rates or anything like that... but I have rescued 6+ year old bagseed that was really poorly stored (exposed to all kinds of temp/humidity changes). Had half a dozen that we all thought were beyond reach, and got 3/4ths of em to pop.
YMMV.
what about this....
Or you could try Coots seed start recipe for old or difficult to germinate seeds:
12 oz. pure coconut water
1 oz. BioAg Ful-Power (pure Fulvic acid)
1 oz. Aloe vera juice
Fill to 1 gallon with the cleanest, purest water you can get your hands on.
Soak your seeds for 24 - 36 hours and then strain.
also read up on that Initiate......found this.....
http://www.advancingecoag.com/files/7914/0677/1155/Product_Briefs-initiatePDF.pdf
Or you could try Coots seed start recipe for old or difficult to germinate seeds:
12 oz. pure coconut water
1 oz. BioAg Ful-Power (pure Fulvic acid)
1 oz. Aloe vera juice
Fill to 1 gallon with the cleanest, purest water you can get your hands on.
Soak your seeds for 24 - 36 hours and then strain.
also read up on that Initiate......found this.....
http://www.advancingecoag.com/files/7914/0677/1155/Product_Briefs-initiatePDF.pdf
I had some seeds that would not pop. I read on another thread that someone suggested using small vice grips. That made sense to me, because when I tried using my teeth, I was able to crack some, but others I bit right through. Also the seeds were slippery and hard to get lined up right in my mouth to crack correctly. The other poster who mentioned small vice grips said they used a mini-pair that were only three inches long. As it happened, I had a pair of long nose 3" vice grips in the tool box, so I decided to give them a try. They work great!
The nice thing about vice grips is that you can adjust the opening so that even when fully closed there is still a gap so that the seed is not crushed. I also found it useful to use the adjustable turn screw so that the seed was held firmly in the serrated jaws of the pliers, but not so tightly as to crack the shell on the seam. Once the seed was held in the jaws of the pliers (I found that putting the seed sideways in the jaws so that the top and bottom seam fit into the small serrations in the jaws gave the most secure grip on the seed) I then carefully and gradually turned the adjustable knob on the end of the mini-vice-grip until the seam cracked open. Then I backed off on the screw and opened up the jaws and removed the now cracked seed. Using the screw to slowly increase the pressure on the seed until the seed cracked open allowed me to use the minimum pressure necessary to crack the shell so that the tap root could emerge. This works good because the seed shell I was cracking was tough and required a good deal of pressure before it would crack, but once it cracked it lost all its strength and if were not for the stop of the vice grip the same pressure that would crack the seed would also crush the insides of the now cracked seed.
I had a batch of fresh seeds that had a very hard seed coat and they were not cracking open by themselves even after prolonged soaking in warm water and being placed in damp paper towels in warm locations. But after I cracked the seed coat using the mini vice grips, they all put out a tap root and grew well.
I am very thankful for the person who first suggested using the mini-vice grips to crack the shell of tough seeds, so I thought I would pass along my own experience in the hope that others could benefit from that person's insightful idea, because I know that I would not have thought of it myself but after thinking about the idea, I could recognize that it had some advantages over using my teeth.
The seeds that I cracked using this method had already soaked for a day or so, so they were already softer than if they had been dry so I don't know how well the method would work with dry seeds that have not been soaked.
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BigBozat
Member
Try it (Coot's recipe)... and let us know.
Maybe try all different approaches and see which works best for you? Yah, I know, ideally you'd like to use the best method on all of the seeds to get best germination rate possible... but you may not find out what's best without experimenting...
IntelliGeneS
Member
Good info, thanks.
