Seed Prep

[Mike Hennigan]

this is interesting to me right now, I've heard of hot water scarification before cold stratifying, but not priming the seeds after stratification this way. would it be redundant to do both?

 

[Orion_metalhead]

The warm water soak after stratification, it seems, helps kill fungus on the seeds (preventing damping off) as well as heats the seeds up to break dormancy faster, much like putting a heat mat under your seed tray.

 

[Shibui]

Note that stratification and scarification are 2 completely different seed treatments.
Stratification is cold treatment
Scarification is scratching or etching the hard seed coat - usually so that water can penetrate. Manual scarification can be rubbing with sandpaper, small cut with sharp blade, soak in acid, boiling water, etc.

 

[atlarsenal]

Note that stratification and scarification are 2 completely different seed treatments.
Stratification is cold treatment
Scarification is scratching or etching the hard seed coat - usually so that water can penetrate. Manual scarification can be rubbing with sandpaper, small cut with sharp blade, soak in acid, boiling water, etc.

Absolutely but I have never heard of scarification after stratification only before. Not sure about y’all but I sometimes get seeds sprouting during stratification, I’m not going to put those in boiling water, acid or peroxide!

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

Absolutely but I have never heard of scarification after stratification only before. Not sure about y’all but I sometimes get seeds sprouting during stratification, I’m not going to put those in boiling water, acid or peroxide!

You are correct, normally scarification is done BEFORE stratification. If you see seed has begun sprouting, no further scarification is needed.

However, peroxide is interesting, it can be used as part of scarification, it is also a general antiseptic that is not harmful to most healthy plant cells. Normal plant tissue can be exposed to up to 3 % active peroxide with little or no damage. At the same time peroxide over 1 % is usually lethal to bacteria and many fungi. So washing, or rinsing seed & seedlings coming out of stratification with peroxide, even if they have started growing is no problem. And you don't have to rinse off the peroxide from the seedlings, it breaks down completely to water & oxygen within an hour or two, the bulk breaking down in minutes.

 

[0soyoung]

I spray the planted sprouts occasionally with 2 tablespoons of 3% peroxide in a quart of water to nix 'damping off' fungi. Seems to work.

I also use this to sterilize the seeds (I just prefer it over a bleach solution) and I dampen the piece paper towel used to keep them moist in stratification. I've also stratified many with none of this and not had big problems. So, I guess, "it depends".