Ami, not all methods for waking up old seeds are equally effective with all kinds of seed.
Speaking just to GA, it's something that Craig and I fooled around with many years re increasing the germination rate of tomato seeds.
We'd received some seeds from the USDA that had terrible germination rates.
We used several different concentrations as well as different concentrations of K nitrate which is also used to wake up old tomato seeds.
The problem with GA that I found was that first, I saw no significant increased germination as compared to seeds soaked just in water.
Second, the seedlings that had been exposed to GA at several different concentrations were beyond gangly, and really of no use b'c of that. Of course the GA being a hormone caused rapid excess growth.
We also tried microwave as well as the K nitrate and GA and used plain water as a control.
Nitrate is known to be involved in seed germination but the molecular explanation is not known.
Cutting to today, if I have dormant or stubbiorn seeds all I use is an o/n seed soak in plain water at room temp.
Sometimes I win, sometimes I don't, but I never was impressed enough with GA or K nitrate to go thru all the mixing of solutions to justify using them, as compared to water.
The experience of others, though, may be different.
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Carolyn
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