20 years for chickweed?? Oh my! I think that grows abundantly as a weed on Dave's property!
I have a question. A very generous member here shared some great seeds (crosses) with me recently. I received them in the Christmas mail in a bubble envie. They came from up north so not sure how many days they were in the mail. When they arrived, I noted that one was sprouting a root. When I looked closer at the different baggies of crosses that I was sent, I noticed many of the seeds were cracked. I believe they may have gotten crushed in all the Christmas mail. I was disappointed, but knew that some were probably okay. So I used the hydrogen peroxide and water in each baggie. I figured maybe I'd get a few of them to germinate and the crushed ones would just eventually rot (and then I would know for sure they were damaged/dead).
Well, after 1 day in the water, all but 2 germinated roots. Seriously! I have never had this happen before. When I looked closely at all the cracked seeds, I could see this gray matter inside the cracks. I know what a germinating seed looks like and it is usually a white tip poking through. That was NOT the case with the cracked seeds. So I am thinking I was able to salvage the seeds by putting them in water right away before the embryo dried out and died. My question .... is there a lining "inside" the seed coat? Could that have been the gray matter I was seeing? With the seeds cracked, the lining was able to absorb the moisture from the H2O2 water and was able to germinate rapidly. (1 day in the water!)
I am so glad I decided I had nothing to lose by trying this to perhaps save some of the seeds, not realizing that I managed to save ALL except the 2 that have not done anything yet. I will keep those 2 in the water for a while longer in hopes that they too will germinate. Those 2 were damaged the worst. One seed has 2 cracks in the coat, the other has 1 crack.
To say that I am surprised by my good fortune is an understatement!!! I can't believe they still germinated after being damaged in the mail!!!
