I use nail clippers on flatter seeds and it works well. They don't work easily on hard round seeds like the canna seeds. The nice thing about the grinder on those was that it's almost instant. It's really hard to maintain a grip with the pliers on them and keep sanding or abrading the coat. I did only ten seeds in about 3 minutes and put them in a soak. Only eight have swollen. I'll plant them all, but once before when I planted seeds that didn't swell I didn't get any germination and finally gave up and tossed them. I have to plant some Caesalpinia gilliesii seeds which tend to have a hard coat. They are flat and the clippers worked great and after two days I see sprouts coming out the end of the seeds. Getting through the hard seed coats sure speeds up the sprouting process. It's a certainty I'm planting too many things. Then I hate to dump the extras, so I end up with a bunch of little plants that need care.
