I had an illness and was not able to do much last year. Just about the only cross I made was just located in the refrigerator. These hips had remained in a plastic bag in the refrigerator crisper all winter
. Do you think these seeds will have been stratified enough to germinate (minus being in any kind of moist medium)? Or, should I remove the seeds and give them that treatment now? The hips are obviously cruddy looking at this point, but the seeds look good. This is not a particular important cross, but will be the only possible seedlings I’ll have this year. Thanks for any insight you might have on this.
In my experience, stratification requirements are not met when seeds are within the hip. I would recommend removing the seeds from the hips, put them in a moist paper towel in the fridge, and keep an eye on them.
Seems to me that logically, winter was had.
That’s as nature does it, and other threads have mentioned germination from years-old dried seed, seed from hips left on the bush all winter… I say try it! Personally, I’d be inclined to soak the seed in peroxide for at least a few hours, in hopes of breaking up any inhibitors that may have permeated the seed-coats, then plant as normal.
And maybe snag a few OP hips from around the neighbourhood for giggles.
Good to see you, Thomas! I hope you’re fully recovered without issues. You should probably plant the seeds to see if the germinate. I’ve long read that stratifying in the hip will delay germination. A germinating seed inside a rotting hip will probably fail due to the rotting material surrounding it, but once the hip flesh is gone, the seed will be safe to germinate. I’d clean the seeds and plant them however you usually planted. They’ve probably received enough chill but now they will need time out of the rotten hip flesh. Fingers crossed for you! Kim
I traditionally cleaned seeds by placing them in a small wire strainer then making a paste of Comet cleanser (contains bleach) and then grinding them into the wire strainer with the Comet paste until either my fingers were raw or hand was tired, then rinsed them well under running water to remove all of the Comet. That should have accomplished two things: cleaned the seeds and reduced the seed coat. I say “should” because I never did any comparisons between the same seeds cleaned and not cleaned. As for the Hydrogen Peroxide, I don’t see any reason why you’d need to dilute it. Rose achenes are small, dry one-seeded fruits that do not open to release the seed. Jack Harkness in “Roses”, his marvelous rose book (Dent, 1977) explained it means “I don’t gape”. The seed coat doesn’t open like a clam shell as we’re used to other seeds opening. It has to literally break down to release the embryo, so the Hydrogen Peroxide shouldn’t harm the embryo as long as it’s rinsed off before the seed coat breaks down to admit it inside.
3%H2O2 as it comes from the pharmacy, poured over til the seeds are just covered in their wee jar. I give it a couple swirls around to help abrade and dislodge any hip-remains sticking to the seed coat, then I leave it (It’s usually bubbling gently at that point) until I rinse them off in a fine sieve before bagging up and stratifying in the fridge.
One Addendum to the H2O2-soak: I added a couple drops to the baggie if mold or mildew was present (and it WAS. No more paper-toweling for me.) with no ill effect noticed. CAVEAT: I’m a noob and bound to eff it up.
I’ve stratified all my crossings in the hip this year. Some were clean, some were molded, some were rotting.
My seeds are germinating as planned. Maybe there is some delay, because they do not start germinating in the fridge as you would have with clean seeds in a moist medium.
A breeder I know recommended stratification in the hip.
I’m keeping close count on germination rates. I’ll let you know if any difference with previous years, when I did clean them before stratification.
