[NAFEX] minor paw paw seed experiment

abb7 at Lehigh.EDU abb7 at Lehigh.EDU
Wed Apr 1 00:03:54 EDT 2009


Hello,

Typical advice for germinating acorns and nuts includes the tip to put  
them in a bucket of water, and throw away those that float, because  
they are inviable.  I wanted to see if this same test was useful for  
paw paw seeds.

Last fall I saved ~50 paw paw seeds.  I cleaned them and put them in a  
moist paper towel in the fridge as soon as I ate them.  Later I put  
them all through the float test, almost half of them were floaters,  
but saved them anyway, in a separate bag.

In late January, I took 5 floaters and 5 sinkers, put them in ziploc  
bags with a wet paper towel.  In 1 to 2 months, all 10 seeds  
germinated.  The first floater germinated a day or two after the first  
sinker, the last of each also germinated within a couple days of one  
another.

Anyhow, maybe the paw paw gurus already knew this, but I thought I'd  
share with the list: don't throw away floating paw paw seeds!

Alex

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