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Bethlehem CT

I planted ten (sinkers) that sunk to the bottom of the bucket and ten "floaters" from seeds that floated on the surface. Some of the floater seeds were undeveloped, I did not plant those as it was obvious they would not sprout. I germinated at cool temps., so overall the germination was very poor.

I got 1 out of ten to germinate from the sinkers and;

4 of ten from the floaters.
I was very surprised about this. SO an early conclusion would be that floating seeds are fine as long as the seeds look developed.

2/1/2018 4:04:05 PM

Bethlehem CT

Based on my trial you could say that the floaters were better. I hesitate to say that though.

2/1/2018 4:05:15 PM

Chapel Hill, NC

Every melon seed I've ever had from my melons are floaters. They seem to germinate fine.

2/1/2018 4:10:56 PM

East Tennessee

I would say the majority of seeds I have soaked prior to starting floated

2/1/2018 4:16:56 PM

Omaha, Nebraska

In my trial in December, paper towel method on a germination warming pad with no pre-soaking or clipping, I had 6/10 floaters and 8/10 sinkers germinate within a week. I don't think there's much difference. (Note the "sinker" seeds also float when they've dried out. I noticed some sink when being washed right out of the melon.)

I also saved the "weird" shaped seeds(dimpled, spoon-shaped, etc.) from the same melon to test. Started a couple a few weeks ago. Germinated OK, but the seed-leaves are weird shaped. One plant isn't doing so well, but the other is starting its true leaves. My verdict there is that given a choice I'd take a normal-looking seed. But if my only chance at a super-melon seed was a weird-looking one I'd take it and give it a shot.

2/1/2018 4:24:22 PM

Gays Mills, Wisconsin

if one is in a testing mode.............
testing naked (hull-less) against the others
I've used this method in other categories succesfully

2/1/2018 7:06:29 PM

Omaha, Nebraska

There's a link to an article in the "Discussion of scientific literature" message board I posted in April 2017 that discusses germination in hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) solutions, seed clipping, and seed coat removal for a commercially available watermelon seeds. H2O2 helps up to a 2% concentration. Clipping and seed coat removal both help.

2/7/2018 1:18:43 PM