THE JWP PROJECT

[shibui]

Soaking the seeds is a good way to get that process started in my experience. As of this morning only around 6 seeds have sunk from the batch yesterday, which to me indicated the water has penetrated. I'm not too surprised given how thick that shell is so I'll leave them to continue soaking longer.

Good to hear someone else discount the 'if it floats it is not viable' theory.
I've seen a number of people reporting that floaters have germinated. I know that unviable seeds do float in water but some good seeds seem to have enough air inside the shell to make the seeds float so I'm confident that some seeds that float in water are still good. I sow all seeds. If they are not viable they won't germinate but at least I'm giving them all a chance. Maybe if you're sowing 1 seed per pit it would make sense to sort viable and unviable but the floating V sinking does not seem to be an accurate ID method.

[Matt_W_NZ]

I'm confident that some seeds that float in water are still good. I sow all seeds. If they are not viable they won't germinate but at least I'm giving them all a chance

Off topic slightly, but of the 50 JBP seeds I got from you last year Neil, I had 50:50 float vs sink but stratified and sowed them all and got 84% germination.

[shibui]

That doesn't seem off topic. It confirms my assertion that some floaters are still viable. I'm confident that applies to all pines, including white pine so do not throw out seeds just because they float when you first soak them.

[Raniformis]

Maybe some of the cultivars suffer from inbred depression. The 'glauca' is already a slow growing dwarf, selfies might make super dwarfs with terminal vigour.

Pinus parviflora var Tasmania.... No offence intended my Tasmanian friends, just an outdated joke.

[Raniformis]

I collected my seed from different trees but they were grafted, I suspect they're all the same clone.

Screenshot_20240512-165144_Gallery.jpg

I think these are grafted to Pinus strobus. Left and right are the JWP and centre is strobus.

Screenshot_20240512-171714_Gallery.jpg

The gold on the strobus is very pretty, the needles aren't much longer than JWP but much softer (1st and 3rd pics are JWP).

Screenshot_20240512-172158_Gallery.jpg

Grabbed seeds from the strobus but unfortunately they get a bad rap for bonsai.

[Ryceman3]

Moving on to the next phase ... The seeds have been soaking for a week or so and all but 7 have sunk. Ideally I would've got to this a bit sooner, but that didn't happen. Over the last week I have changed the water several times though (adding hydrogen peroxide each time). Time to prep and bag them for stratification.

Seed 2 Strat_01.jpg

Rinsed the seeds off and laid them out on a mildly damp paper towel (hydrogen peroxide in the water to dampen the towel)

Seed 2 Strat_02.jpg

Fold so another layer of the paper towel is over the seeds...

Seed 2 Strat_03.jpg

Place damp (not wet/soaking, just damp) vermiculite over the top of that ... again soaked in water with hydrogen peroxide.

Seed 2 Strat_04.jpg

Fold all in and enclose in the paper towel, then label and bag the package.

Seed 2 Strat_05.jpg

This one above is going in the fridge now for a couple of months. I repeated this process with the other half of the soaked seeds and these are going into a dark, safe place at room temperature (warm stratification) probably for a month or so before I transition these into the fridge with the others.
I have picked a place where temperatures remain pretty constant around 20deg or so give or take...

Seed 2 Strat_06.jpg

That's it for today.