nick v. scarify?

I usually scarify hard seeds with sandpaper, but some have suggested I "nick" super hard yucca seeds. What exactly is the difference? Where do I place the nick?


Thx.

If you nick, (which I"ve never been able to do) you just take a knife or something and cut a nick out of it. Kinda like you would nick wood. ^_^

I've only been able to do sandpaper too.

I file the edge of a seed with small files I had picked up at a flea market. I found it much quicker than sandpaper.

If you have apaper of dog nail clippers. They work good too, just hold your seed and rub it several times over the clipper blade.

I used to use sand paper and cememt bricks and got tired of taking of the ends of my fingers. Sanded more flesh than seeds. LOL

Think dremel tool. It works well on biggger seeds. On smaller seeds I've had luck using a very small tipped dremel ???/ Think it's meant for engraving on metal. ??? I hold the smal ones in a chip clip so as not to crush it and use the small tip to nick it. On the bigger seeds you can use the sand paper wheel.

If you have a dremel tool handy try that out.

Ya'll must have been peeking in and saw me sanding my fingers. Lots of good ideas. Gonna try them all.

I curl the sandpaper and put it in a garlic peeler and 'roll' the seeds. Works like a charm.

I use a foam block nail file and roll the seed around on the sidewalk.

2nd good idea. Hmmmmm I might try that on some small seeds. That's the only problem with the dremel "method", hard not to get your fingers when the seeds get small.

I recently purchased the Pedi-Paws to file down my dogs nails and found it to be a very useful tool to file down hard seeds. BTW...it works great on the dogs nails too. LOL! The best twenty bucks I've ever spent. If you get your fingers near the wheel it wont hurt them but if you have long nails I would wear rubber gloves if you dont want to kiss your nails/manicure good bye.

An alternative to nicking or scratching with sandpaper is a overnight soak in tepid water with a very small (10%) of hydrogen peroxide mix. edit to add. Some of the larger seeds, I germinate in a damp paper towel in a plastic baggy and then plant them.

This message was edited Dec 15, 2008 7:39 AM

Joanna, when you soak the seeds like you said, do you then nick them, or just plant.

I put some Pride of barbados in water and peroxide and they softened up. I nicked a couple (They were really easy to cut) and left a couple to soak longer and planted a couple. (Figured that'd be one way to find out what to do., lol) But it would be better to knowflor sure what to do. ^_^
Should I have left in the water to root?
I'm afraid I usually soak or nick if they are really hard seeds.

On some hard seeds you can soak for weeks and never soften the seed. I nick then always soak nicked seeds. The whole point of nicking the seed to allow water to get in the seed.

I've nicked them with the water/papertowel method. With the peroxide dilution, no nicks