Sinkers and Floaters

While in some isolated cases it might be true that floaters indicate a
seed without embryo, it has not been my experience over the years
testing many thousands of species,  that this old "rule of thumb" has
much basis in reality and I would never reject the floaters for this
reason alone. 

It is perhaps the case that many of these notions are simply accepted
without thought, on the basis of common sense and further investigation
is deemed unnecessary. However there are other reasons, aside from the
lack of an embryo that would cause a seed to float. 

And the only way one ever finally does answer the question is to take
the experiment through to its logical conclusion- and that is to sprout
both floater and sinker. Doing this will lead to surprising results. 

Unfortunately, often the myth, rather than the science is what remains. 

Norm Deno has the following to say:
"The notion that all good seed sinks in water and bad seed floats is
just not always true. All Iris setosa seed floats even after a month in
water. In fact, it starts to germinate after a couple of weeks floating.
Iris pseudoacorus seed floats for a few days and then all sinks. Large
sample seed of Cornus amomum were collected from our own colonies and
after thorough washing and cleaning, about half the seed floats and half
sinks. Both types gave about the same germination both in percent
germination and in the rates and other germination characters."

Cheers.
-- 
Kristl Walek
Gardens North Seed
5984 Third Line Road, N.
North Gower, Ontario
Canada K0A 2T0

Phone: (613) 489-0065
Fax: (613) 489-1208

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