[pbs] good and bad allium seeds
Diane Whitehead
voltaire at islandnet.com
Sun Sep 30 16:02:14 EDT 2007
While I was cleaning my allium seeds I shook the sieve a bit too
vigourously and scattered seeds on the table. In picking them up, I
gripped one too hard and it disintegrated. It had looked perfectly
sound, so I tested more and my fingers pulverized them, too. Maybe
the lighter bad seeds had ended up at the top of the sieve, so they
were the ones that flew out.
I grabbed a pinch of seeds from further down in the sieve, and rubbed
them between my fingers. Most remained intact, but not all.
I have never done this before, either with seeds I have donated, or
seeds I have received or bought. I don't always have good success
germinating alliums, and perhaps this may be one reason why.
How common is it to have allium seeds that look perfectly sound, but
aren't?
Is there an easy way to test them? I don't want to rub each seed
before I donate it. Would putting them in water so that the bad ones
float be a good way?
Diane Whitehead
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
maritime zone 8, cool Mediterranean climate
mild rainy winters, mild dry summers
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