Hello everyone!
After a few hours of soaking a freshly harvested achene in cold water, the radicle appeared as a sort of a dark wilted version, see macro shot. This radical is particularly long, sometimes there are only small spikes. From my observations, this stimulus happens sporadically every year, preferably in crosses or conditions, where the fusion of the genes didn’t really work anyway. I’m sure you’ve experienced this too.
It would be interesting for me to know what exactly is triggering this boost. I have not yet been able to find information on this matter. Thank you very much for your help!
That isn’t a radicle; it’s just the remnant of the pistil [I had previously thought it might be connective tissue that transported water and nutrients to the growing achene, but of course, that’s wrong]. You could easily remove that and the outer, fleshy aril with a fingernail without damaging the hard achene or the seed within. I like to remove and dry most of that anyway because it tends to promote undesirable mold growth. Fresh achenes are still full of moisture and shouldn’t need to be soaked anyway.
