This is a really great site! Here is a link that might be useful: Seed guide

Hi, Well, a few weeks ago I was rooting around my frozen pollen for something interesting to put on Mylan and this time I got to the bottom of the plastic container containing my frozen pollens and believe it or not I found another packet of frozen seeds that I missed the first time!! This time they were aulicum (Telos) x papilio ( gifted pollen) and there were 9 seeds. So, once again I just put them all in water and today, about 2 weeks later 8 of 9 seeds are germinating with clean white roots. Who knew this was something we all could be doing!! This particular cross was the first cross I made from last year's season as my aulicum bloomed for Halloween last year. These seeds are even older than my Exotica x Rio Negro (which are growing on nicely by the way) by probably 4 to 6 months! So, for those of you who might like to try this, don't hesitate.. Both of these packets of seeds hung around on my fireplace mantel for a month or more before finally being stashed with my pollen in the refrigerator for several months and then finally into the freezer. There aren't any more. So if you have a glut of special seeds, freeze some incase you run into a disaster with fungus gnats or the like! Donnaâºâºâº

Long post warning here, but just my 2 cents worth! Here is what I usually do to germinate passie seeds. I soak them in wet paper towels (placed inside of a plastic shoebox) for a long time (3 to 4 weeks). Change the paper towels as needed, usually once a week. Check them every day to make sure the paper towels dont dry out. Once the soak is done, I rub the seeds between my fingers to remove any slimy stuff, and then rinse them. I plant them in 72 cell trays (sometimes 2 per cell). I fill the cells with screened Miracle Gro potting mix (screened using an old window screen). The trays are covered with a humidity dome so they donÂt dry out, and then placed on a heat mat with a thermostat set to 80 degrees. I have had my best success with this method, and the longer pre-soak times in particular seem to help. That said, I think what happens when the seeds are harvested may be as important (or maybe more important) than how they are germinated. Most people are anxious to see the seeds when they harvest a fruit (its human nature), so they open it up right away and remove the arils/seeds. Then they either remove the arils right away or quickly dry the seeds. My opinion is that drying the seeds too fast may be detrimental. Remember there is a live plant embryo in the seed, and it may not be in a dormant state when it is harvested. So what I do with the fruits is to let them fall naturally from the vine, and then let them ripen further inside (in a cool dry place) for about a month. Then I open them up and remove the arils (they often are still intact with pulp). The arils are placed on a plate and allowed to dry without being mashed. This can take up to a week. Once the arils are completely dry, I remove them, and rub the seeds with a dry paper towel. I do not rinse them until I am ready to plant them (letting the dried dormant seed absorb water may prompt it to break dormancy). I suspect that for a seed to ultimately germinate successfully, the embryo inside the seed has to fully develop (indicated by the seed turning black), and then go into dormancy before (or just after) falling from the vine, and finally encounter the right conditions the following season (soil, moisture, temperature, etc). If I am right about this, then it may be that many passie seeds offered for sale or trade may not have been harvested properly, and may not have been able to go into a dormant state before drying out. If this is correct, then no amount or type of soaking or other treatment will be successful. Maybe this is why passie seeds are so hard to germinate. I think we must try to emulate what happens to the seeds in natureÂthis would be letting them fall naturally from the vine, and then slowly drying. One thing I havenÂt tried is a brief soak in warm (acidic) water just after harvesting (to emulate passage through an animalÂs intestinal tract). That may happen with many passie seeds naturally. A brief period of warm acidic conditions may disable any germination inhibitors that are in the seed coat. However, not all passie fruits are consumed by animals in the wild, so this may only work for some species. And this is something that would have to be done fairly soon after harvesting (for example, incarnata fruits seem to ripen maximally within a few days after falling from the vineÂas indicated by their fragrance). The last thing that I would mention has to do with genetics. In the wild, flowers are most likely to be pollinated with pollen from other nearby flowers. However, the closer the other flowers are, the more closely related they probably are (genetically speaking). So I suspect that pollinations that occur from flowers at greater distances produce more genetically diverse and viable seeds. As an example of this, I have collected incarnata fruits from a location in south Louisiana that has a good number of vines along a ten mile stretch of road. Despite the vines being loaded with fruit, the seeds germinate poorly. However, when I used pollen from a Louisiana vine to pollenate a Pennsylvania incarnata, the resulting seeds gave me a 100% germination rate within one week (using my standard method above). So I think that seeds that come from genetically diverse parents are much more viable than those from genetically similar parents. If you pollenate 2 vines that you both grew from seeds that originated from the same fruit, then they are probably genetically very similar, and perhaps not very viable. So my advice is to let those fruits fall naturally, then let them further ripen inside, then let the arils dry naturally (without mashing them). When pollinating species (non-hybrids), if possible use 2 vines from different geographical locations. I hope this helps! Mark

All the seeds fresh for the season. I bought some more seeds this spring with the same results. No germination in 4 attempts. very frustrating