Does someone have info on a quick way to overcome dormancy and germinate Hop-hornbeam seeds? I have some seeds that have been dry and in a refrigerator for about 17 months, and I wonder if there is a scarification treatment I can do to start growing these. Thanks.
A long period of cold stratification seems to be the key with expected germination rates rising dramatically with length of time. Try 4-5 months. Recently I have found soaking seeds in warm water with a dash of dish soap prior to stratification has helped improve the germination of many things. It is thought that the soap pierces any oily residue on the surface of the seed allowing water to be imbibed. Perhaps you might wish to try this. I just checked The Reference Manual of Woody Plant Propagation: From Seed to Tissue Culture (Dirr and Heuser), and it notes that seed is more viable if harvested in an immature state.
I just realized that part of my earlier message mysteriously disappeared. In answer to your question about a "quick" way to germinate Ostrya, the answer is not really. By using the fridge, you can quicken the time, but it will still be lengthy.
Thanks. Maybe I'll wait until later in the year to start the process then, and maybe get some seeds in August or so. Interesting tip about the dish soap.
I had always thought the soap was pretty much to get rid of pulp on seeds. I then saw (somewhere now long forgotten) an article about seed growing in which the author stated that he routinely used water and soap on all seeds with hard coats. I noted a curious thing recently when doing this. I had put some seed (hellebores) to soak, but being in a hurry, I did not bother at that point with soap. I looked at them a day later and noted that they were all floaters. I'm not sure why, but I changed the water, added a dash of soap, and within an hour, I no longer had floaters---not one of the 25 seeds. So my guess is that this really does help water permeate the seed coating. I also suspect that it may help get rid of any bacterial contamination on the seeds. This is also a lesson---do not discard floaters. Good luck.
If you're collecting immature seeds, they need to be sown immediately (and will germinate in a few days) - if they dry out, they'll go as obstinately dormant as mature seeds. Not sure what the best degree of immaturity is, try collecting some seed at weekly intervals throughout the late summer, and see how each batch does successively.
