Citric Acid Soak for Seeds - Anyone Heard of This?

11 years ago

A friend who is into germinating all kinds of seeds [trees, native plants] found some Citric Acid in a health food store which said on the label "For Sprouting" - vegetable seeds, tree seeds. He had some silky cameilla seeds which have a very low germination rate. He put in a water purification tablet [which he uses for many things - kills fungi] and some citric acid. In 24 hours, the seeds are swelling and some are starting to germinate. He gave me some CA and I already had the water purification tablets, so am trying this soak on some seeds I had from last year that look viable but just wont germinate. Also took some from this year and put in to soak to try. Has anyone heard of this method? It will be a fun experiment!

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Comments (5)

organic_kitten
11 years ago
Hadn't heard of it, but keep us informed on it.
kay
alameda/zone 8/East Texas
Original Author
11 years ago
Will do. Just put the seeds in to soak today. Anxious to see what will happen!
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silverkelt
11 years ago
Let us know,

What seeds are you having trouble with? Daylily ones?

I can see using something with a bit more bite on tougher shelled seeds (like those that suggest using a file or nick the coating ect..) but daylily seeds are fairly thin skinned and are fairly easy to germinate.

Silverkelt
alameda/zone 8/East Texas
Original Author
11 years ago
Having problem with daylily seeds. These were refrigerated seeds from either 2010 or 2011. I can understand if they turned to mush.....but they are fat, hard and look viable. Starting in March, I have soaked them in the peroxide mix, keeping it changed,then put back in fridge,then back out, then wrapped in damp paper towel. Nothing. Now, its almost like I am going to MAKE them germinate! I wont give up on them unless they turn to mush. So this is an experiment.....I also started soaking some 2012 seeds from Beautiful Edgings, but these looked pretty dried up so dont know how good they are. Anyway, it will be interesting......My friend is really into starting seeds of native plants - collects all kinds of things and is fascinated with learning better germinating techniques. I looked this up on the internet and found just a bit of info on it - nothing where its been tried on daylily seeds - mostly things like juniper, very hard seeds. Anyway, nothing lost if it doesnt work on these stubborn holdouts! I will post results - or lack thereof!
signet_gw(6b)
11 years ago
This is an interesting tidbit . I have never heard of using citric acid for germination . Not sure what would be in it that would help the process.

You do realize that some daylily seeds can take months to germinate right? Some will germinate in days , some in a week , some take longer and some take much longer .

Also, I have to wonder with all the in and out of the fridge if the seeds know if they are going or coming LOL! . Why not just plant some , keep them moist ( you can set them outside and just leave them even over winter and see what comes up in the spring.Unless of course you like doing all that labor to try to get the seeds to germinate. I find Mother Nature does just fine in that job.

Signet