Scarification that mimics digestion?

[Shane]

I've been reading about some of the seeds I purchased and plan to sow soon. At least one of them germinates better after it's been digested. I'm trying to figure out how I can mimic that to get higher germination. The obvious thing would be acid, but this is only part of digestion. Soaking the seeds in spit also comes to mind (for digestive enzymes). Not sure if that would really work though

Any ideas or tips on what I should try?

[DaveW]

You could always feed them to the Budgie and tell it not to chew, then wait for the end product!

[Edwindwianto]

You could always feed them to the Budgie and tell it not to chew, then wait for the end product!

Or just put them inside a medicinal capsule...swallow them...
The next morning...you know what to do

(This is just a joke )

[Shane]

I found an an answer in this paper

The summery is there are two main types of scarification that occur in animals. One is mechanical (chewing). The other is chemical, in the stomach and intestines. They simulated intestinal digestion by soaking the seeds in intestinal matter from recently killed birds. They simulated stomach digestion with acid and pepsin (an enzime). Pepsin is readily available, so if you wanted to simulate digestion you could make your own mix

I also reread the paper that said one of my seeds germinates better after digestion. It turns out it ACTUALLY said the seeds germinate WORSE after digestion . So I probably won't be doing any digestion experiments soon...

[7george]

Maybe it depends on the species.
This article insists acid promotes germinating:

[Shane]

Maybe it depends on the species

I'm sure it does. The study I looked at (which I've lost the link to) looked at several plants and did conclude some germinate better after being eaten (and I think also one was unaffected)

The Mammillaria study is pretty interesting. I wonder why acid treatment leads to germination in the dark

[7george]

Maybe it depends on the species

I'm sure it does. The study I looked at (which I've lost the link to) looked at several plants and did conclude some germinate better after being eaten (and I think also one was unaffected)

The Mammillaria study is pretty interesting. I wonder why acid treatment leads to germination in the dark

Who knows? Maybe because the acid does what the light should be doing for germinating? Or because the excrements of the rodents lay in dark places? Does everything have a purpose?