When we know better, we do better. I've made plenty of mistakes (and expect I'll make more) and hope they remind me to show grace to others

There's been a volunteer calendula coming up in a pot in the sunroom. The only reason I knew it was a calendula was because the seed coat was still stuck to a cotyledon. It makes me think a germination test of all the various shapes and sizes of calendula seeds wouldn't be a bad idea at all!

MrsBinWY said:

Awesome close-up, Michelle.

Thank you Diana! I especially like how I included the cat or dog hair

I missed that until now.

@mrsbinwy. That's proof the ones with the "bumps" germinate!

I'm going to have to pull my collected calendula and see if I have any that I did not clean already. When I collected mine they were a bunch of hook-shaped but they were light-colored and when you pressed on them they just collapsed. in the video or article that I found on them it said that those were no good and they were a protective covering for the actual seeds inside.It did say only the small dark ones in the center were the actual seeds but you have just proved that wrong with one simple photo..

God only knows how many oopsy Daisy viable seeds I threw away when cleaning my collected seeds.

ishareflowers said:
God only knows how many oopsy Daisy viable seeds I threw away when cleaning my collected seeds.

I dump all the chaff and duds in my garden, if they come up I move them to a better spot.

Great info from all of you!!! Love this discussion and absolutely, the more we share with each other the more informed we'll all be.

I wonder if that calendula you pictured Michelle, if that part isn't the actual seed, but did contain what we are now thinking IS the seed, it is in fact just the protective coat on the seed and it just decided to hang around a bit. Is it possible if we split those larger chaff pieces we'll find the seed inside and that they may germinate either way? With or without the shell?


*Off to check my calendula seeds...

That's what I was wondering. Maybe the trick is just to make sure those "shells" aren't empty.

ishareflowers said:@janinililu
Did you notice how soft some of those light ones were when pressed on?

Yes...

rockpile1369 said:Great info from all of you!!! Love this discussion and absolutely, the more we share with each other the more informed we'll all be.

I wonder if that calendula you pictured Michelle, if that part isn't the actual seed, but did contain what we are now thinking IS the seed, it is in fact just the protective coat on the seed and it just decided to hang around a bit. Is it possible if we split those larger chaff pieces we'll find the seed inside and that they may germinate either way? With or without the shell?


*Off to check my calendula seeds...

I think we're talking about the same thing Karen. The outer seed coat (believe its called the "pericarp") is what sometimes gets stuck on cotyledons. Below are pics of various sizes of seeds from my 2019 garden and what I found inside of them (maybe think in terms of a "kernel," like a sunflower seed). It was a little tough to get these "kernels" out of the smallest seeds without breaking them. For the larger sizes, it was easy to peel the periparp off with my fingernails. For the smallest seeds, I ended up nibbling the pericarp off with nail clippers.



I went ahead and sowed six test pots. Two for each size of seed -- one pot with the seed coat removed and one pot with the seed coat intact. Five seeds in each test pot.



I'll leave the pots at room temp (~55 degrees at night 65-70 during the day) unless someone suggests I put them in the bathroom (warmest room in the house in the winter, probably ~55 at night, might get up to 75 during the day). I'll be interested to see what happens

@mrsb.

In your photo #2 . The discs are dark brown. Did you remove that coating to expose the smaller hooks? I'm pretty sure you did and I read it right. When I found mini discs like that, I threw them away too.

Thank you for potting them up. I can't wait to see what your findings are!

If all of those germinate, I'm in big trouble. I've been telling people for the last year only the dark brown discs are viable.

@janinilulu, did you notice that you would have poor germination on calendula sometimes?

I went and pulled packs from burpee, seed savers, bakers Creek, select and Chiltern. select and children were the only two that had anything other than the doc Brown small discs.

@mrsb.

In your photo #2 . The discs are dark brown. Did you remove that coating to expose the smaller hooks? I'm pretty sure you did and I read it right. When I found mini discs like that, I threw them away too.

Thank you for potting them up. I can't wait to see what your findings are!

If all of those germinate, I'm in big trouble. I've been telling people for the last year only the dark brown discs are viable.

@janinilulu, did you notice that you would have poor germination on calendula sometimes?

I went and pulled packs from burpee, seed savers, bakers Creek, select and Chiltern. select and children were the only two that had anything other than the dark brown small discs.

@MrsBinWY
for running the experiment. Eagerly looking forward to the results!

ishareflowers said:In your photo #2 . The discs are dark brown. Did you remove that coating to expose the smaller hooks?

@ishareflowers - Yes, I removed the seed coat from the small, dark-brown seeds, too. In the 4th pic I tried to show a comparison of how the "kernels" from the three general seed types I had looked.

I'm curious @rockpile1369 if your calendula seeds have similar sizes and forms. I'm guessing the small, dark ones are from the disk flowers; but do the ray flowers make the big, "puffy" seeds or do they make the medium-sized seeds that look like rib bones or something else completely

@mrsb. I'm going to guess that the "seeds" in the first photo were sort of squishy when you pressed on them... Those I believe are what is the outer layer when the bloom fades away. Then is a layer of the hooks with bumps, then the brown hooks? I can't remember.. I am so looking forward to your findings.

Me too!

MrsBinWY said:

I'm curious @rockpile1369 if your calendula seeds have similar sizes and forms. I'm guessing the small, dark ones are from the disk flowers; but do the ray flowers make the big, "puffy" seeds or do they make the medium-sized seeds that look like rib bones or something else completely

Ooohhh, another fun test! I'll try this one. No pics yet. Try to get some tonight.

The first seedling to begin making an appearance is from one of the big, "puffy," "squishy" ray-flower seeds that had its seed coat removed.


The first seedlings from seeds that didn't have their seed coats removed are from the big, "puffy," "squishy" ray-flower seeds. Not at all what I hypothesized.


Score keeping:
Large, seed coat removed
12-12-19, p.m. - 1 emerging
12-13-19, p.m. - 1 emerging
12-14-19, a.m. - 1 emerging
12-14-19, late p.m. - 1 emerging
12-15-19, p.m. - 1 emerging
Total = 5

Large, seed coat left intact
12-15-19, a.m. - 3 emerging
12-15-19, p.m. - 1 emerging
12-16-19, a.m. - 1 emerging
Total = 5

Medium, seed coat removed
12-14-19, early p.m. - 1 emerging
12-15-19, a.m. - 2 emerging
12-16-19, a.m. - 2 emerging
Total = 5

Medium, seed coat left intact
12-15-19, p.m. - 2 emerging
12-16-19, a.m. - 1 emerging
12-16-19, p.m. - 1 emerging
Total = 4

Small, seed coat removed
12-13-19, p.m. - 1 emerging
12-14-19, a.m. - 1 emerging
12-14-19, late p.m. - 1 emerging
12-15-19, p.m. - 1 emerging
12-16-19, a.m. - 1 emerging
Total = 5

Small, seed coat left intact
12-15-19, p.m. - 1 emerging
12-16-19, a.m. - 2 emerging
12-19-19, a.m. - 1 emerging
12-22-19, a.m. - 1 emerging
Total = 5

MrsBinWY said:The first seedling to begin making an appearance is from one of the big, "puffy," "squishy" ray-flower seeds that had its seed coat removed.

In barely 24 hrs?! wow

I'm in trouble.... Lol

I guess you can't believe everything you read.

The local dumps are going to have a sh@$ ton of oopsy Daisy calendula growing. 😄