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Old March 24, 2017   #12
Starlight
Tomatovillian™
 
Join Date: Jan 2015
Location: AL
Posts: 1,993
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The sink method works not only with peppers, but tomatoes and ornamental seeds too.

When saving seed from peppers we have a tendency to scrape all the seeds out on the same plate to dry. Most of those seeds are immature and why the sink method works.

If you don't use the sink method but want to try and get better germination, cut around the top core of the pepper where the stem is. Then when you have the core out, cut it in half, actually saving only the top 1/3 is better.

Those are the first seeds that develop. They grow bigger and receive more nutrients than those further on down the core. Yes, ones down the core will develop an embryo if pollinated, but it will be weak. Most of the embryos die during the drying out process and over time.

If you cut and dry just the seeds from the top core part on one plate and then the bottom half on another, or if you do it in thirds you can really see the difference, then when dry you can see the difference in size and plumpness of the top third seeds.

If you use this cut method and then take the bottom section of seeds, you'll see that they floaters and not worth trying to germinate.

If I have bought package seed, I lay them out on a plate and pick through them looking for the biggest and ones I can see have a little bump showing an embryo in it. I got 25 seeds in this 6 buck package of seed I just bought and only ten have what looks like viable embryos. The rest are small and totally flat. Those will hit the trash.

Just another method you might try. Oh and CR... I don't know about using the Oxy Clean, but I do spray my seed with hydrogen peroxide to help kill off any possible pathogens before letting dry.
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