My invention

catjac1975

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As some of you know I am a daylily hybridizer. I did an experiment with nicking seed, something that is suggested, and got near 100% germination. It is a tedious task with great risk of cutting yourself if you use a blade and the hours to do thousands of seeds would be misery. Some people suggest putting your dried seeds into sand and shaking them. Then fishing them out seems like another time consuming task. I have decided to hot glue sand paper inside of a coffee can to see if this will nick them efficiently and quickly. I feel hopeful. Many types of seeds would benefit from the seed coat being nicked. I am going to chill my artichoke seeds for indoor sowing. I going to try out my seed coat nicking machine.
nicking seeds.jpg
 

flowerbug

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As some of you know I am a daylily hybridizer. I did an experiment with nicking seed, something that is suggested, and got near 100% germination. It is a tedious task with great risk of cutting yourself if you use a blade and the hours to do thousands of seeds would be misery. Some people suggest putting your dried seeds into sand and shaking them. Then fishing them out seems like another time consuming task. I have decided to hot glue sand paper inside of a coffee can to see if this will nick them efficiently and quickly. I feel hopeful. Many types of seeds would benefit from the seed coat being nicked. I am going to chill my artichoke seeds for indoor sowing. I going to try out my seed coat nicking machine.View attachment 30189

did you ever try pre-soaking in very warm water? i'm not much into seed starting these days, but i heard about it, so i'm curious if you'd tried... :)
 

catjac1975

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did you ever try pre-soaking in very warm water? i'm not much into seed starting these days, but i heard about it, so i'm curious if you'd tried... :)
Yes-that is really the only way to get daylily seeds to germination. Chilling with moisture for 4 weeks. or cold stratification. The nicking increases germination.
 

Dirtmechanic

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Have you ever used a hormone in the seed water such as giberillic acid or a rooting hormone like indole acetic acid? Being acids they also tend to prevent fungus while promoting germination.
 

SprigOfTheLivingDead

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Scarification can be so time consuming. I stapled some sandpaper to two hand-held boards and rub those against a seed. It works, but sometimes the seed fires off somewhere :)
 
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