North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Brian Pearson <bjpearson@centurytel.net>]

The seeds are adapted to passage through a bird's digestive system, so
they're pretty durable.  Just put the fruits in a bucket, mash and rub them
with your hands, add some cool water, stir it around, and pour off the
suspended and floating material, leaving the viable seeds sitting happily
at the bottom.  Repeat the washing process until nothing remains but the
seeds.  Pour them onto a cookie sheet, allow to dry at room temperature
enough so they don't stick together or to your hands, and plant them about
their thickness deep, remembering to protect them from rodents. Enough
should germinate next spring to satisfy your needs.
     Some Prunus apparently can remain dormant in woods duff for years
until conditions satisfy their germination requirements (I remember reading
a journal article concerning Pin Cherry, Prunus pensylvanica, where the
authors concluded that the seeds had remained dormant for decades until a
fire promoted their germination).  Cheers,  Brian Pearson

>"Clean the seeds" how ?    What's a fairly expedient process which won't do
>much damage to the germination potential ?
>
>tc, s.WI
>
>
>----Original Message Follows----
>From: Brian Pearson <bjpearson@centurytel.net>
>Reply-To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
>To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
>Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Prunus serotina germination
>Date: Fri, 22 Aug 2003 21:47:01 -0500
>
>Clean the seeds as soon as the fruits are ripe and sow them outside ASAP
>with protection from rodents.  Many Prunus have much better germination with
>a combination of warm stratification followed by cold stratification.  If
>you plant the seeds as fruits ripen in summer or early in the fall, you
>should have good germination next spring.
>Cheers,  Brian Pearson, northeastern WI, USDA Z4.
>
>
>>  > I'm hoping to propagate a fairly nice P.serotina.  I've collected about
>>a  pint of fruit, and want to grow the seeds.   Found some good info via
>>internet searches, but wonder if anyone has some helpful tips-- I've never
>>intentionally grown this before.
>>
>>
>
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