HYB: seed germination

Christian, how are your seeds that you are leaving in the fridge forever doing?
I was surprised to find ~50 more germinants this week in the one cross that I've left in the fridge, just to see what happened. ~50 had germinated off and on, half a dozen every few days for about a month, then a pause for several weeks, then all of a sudden, a huge flush of another 50 sprouts. 

I think that's sort of the pattern of germination you have seen too?
The cross is HARVEST OF MEMORIES X ABBONDANZA, 3 pods, 225 seeds. Unshelled pods went into baggies in the fridge in mid July, as pods were just barely starting to split. Seeds shelled & counted & rinsed & wrapped in damp paper towels rolled into burritos in Sept, first germinants... I'll have to dig out my notes, but I think the first ones were in November (4 months chilling), this most recent big flush of germinants in mid-Feb were chilled for 7 months!!
Which makes me think (as maybe you have already suggested?) that the second year germinants I see here where winters don't always last very long (certainly not 7 months) may not need two cycles of chilling, just more total time chilling.
That's still only about 50% germination, but that's sometimes about all that comes from some of the IMM & HoM crosses. 

--
Linda Mann east Tennessee USA zone 7/8
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