My floating seeds are germinating MORE than my sinkers

I am trying an experiment: a flat of one cross (Oso Easy Italian Ice x Rainbow’s End) in which I only put the floaters (The seeds that float in water) and another flat of the same cross with only sinkers. It’s early yet, but the floater flat has 14 germinations and the sinker one only has 6.

How long did they soak?

Good experiment - I recall doing this some years ago and had basically the same results, so after a 24 hour soak to clean them up I just plant them all.

Well l add very little value to these observations … none of my sinkers or floaters germinated from a test of 6 to 8 crosses and ops …. I have a more fundamental barrier to cross. Happy to hear you got germination.

The other observation l read was rugosa floaters, not sinkers, are the germinators …

I don’t pay it much heed. I definitely got germinations off some floaters last year. And yes, rugosa (a.k.a. “Beach roses”) have seeds that float for reasons the nickname might make clear.

I have had certain seed parents that have seeds that float that are viable, as well as seeds that sink that are viable; Wasagaming comes to mind, and I’ve wondered if it is due to pollen parents. Other Rugosa seeds have all sunk (these are hybrids), except one which had all of its seeds float.

With other seed parents I have only had one germination from seeds that floated. Perhaps much depends on variety.
Duane