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Lake Elmo, Minnesota

I have a lot of obvious hollow seeds that have been tossed. I also have many seeds that are not hollow, but not as plump as most I've used in the past. Any way to know their viability without planting and losing time in the spring?

11/10/2005 3:35:07 PM

Syracuse, NY

if you can find one or borrow one,
get your mitts on a laser pointer.
any businees office or Radio Shack
in general should have one to buy or borrow.
in a sort-of darkened room, or like under
a desk or similar, shine the laser THROUGH the seed, right UP AGAINST IT, AWAY from your face/eyes,
but use it to determine, from the radicle, pointed tip
going toward the rounded end of the seed, just how far
from the tip the actual GERM of the seed extends.
in a few cases, the light will shine through even if the seed is totally full (801 Black offspring seeds are thin enough to allow this), but in most other cases, you can determine how full a seed is very easily...if it does not shine through for about 2/3 of the seed length, that seed is not gonna be a problem. 1/2 the seed, set it aside for later pondering. anything less full than half
might be useable for if you almost run out of the other,
more-obviously-viable seeds. even a full, plump and

11/10/2005 5:42:06 PM

Syracuse, NY

thoroughly dry seed could be non-viable and not sprout
or be a dud cross, but i am sure it is rare.
ADDITIONALLY, if you can squeeze a seed enough to basically flatten it out or if it squirts a lot of water out of it when harvesting it from the pumpkin, it is a lost cause unless it is only one of 15 total seeds in that pumpkin.
whereas, if you like that cross THAT much, you may wanna try it. if you snip the rounded end of a seed with TOENAIL clippers and break away the seed coat from that end for a ways, you can determine how full the seed is also; it just cosmetically wrecks the seed a little, lol...

lastly, you can check a seed for plumpness and
fullness by squeezing it between your thumb and first finger as hard as, and i know it sounds weird, but, as hard as you can squeeze one of your ear lobes before it actually starts to hurt. no need to squeeze it any harder, and if you do not squeeze it hard enough, well, what's the sense...
i do not use the "drop test", although a lot of other growers do. each to his own.
maybe Mr. Whipple is an ancestor of mine? eric

11/10/2005 5:42:18 PM