Sulfuric acic

Any idea where I can buy some of this? I want to use it to soak some hard-coated seeds. I've already abraded some, and used boiling water on others. Are there any other alternatives to sulfuric acid? I've soaked one seed in vinegar but the vinegar is too weak. I have hydrogen peroxide ?? will that just kill the seed? Ditto for bleach?

What sort of seed cestrum?

Yikes!

Please tell more Cestrum.

soak overnight in warm water ...pile manure over it. HP works for some things too.

G'Day, Cestrum car battery acid is Sulphuric acid H2SO4. If you really have to use it either a battery supplier or the liquid out of an old car battery. Be carefull with it as it can eat holes through metals and clothes only take a splash. I always found the boiling water did the trick. Take BOILING water and pour over the seeds that are in a bowl or old cup and leave the seeds in the water until they swell. Some seeds needed two treatments so if not swollen with in 24 hrs give them another dose of boiling water. That's not hot water out of the HW service but boiling water from the kettle.
Did you repeat the little poem learned at the lab. science classes.
Alas poor James is dead
We'll see his face no more
for what he thought was H2O
Was H2SO4.

Brian

What a macabre poem, Brian! The last time I handled sulfuric acid (spelled 'sulphuric' in those days, before standardisation and SI units) was in a high school lab ...

Needless to say, I'm not touching a car battery! Was hoping I could buy a small bottle of the stuff from somewhere ... is it so hard to get? All the propagating books refer to it.

Surely I'm not the first person scarifying seeds LOL They are Mescal Bean (Sophora secundifolia) seeds. The flowers are supposed to be pleasantly scented *of course*. I've tried all the other methods (forgot to mention clipping the seed) and was hoping to try sulfuric acid on the last two, to round out my germination methods :-)

Forgot to ask: is HP hydrogen peroxide? Because I have that!

This message was edited Nov 21, 2009 9:31 AM

The poem was so we would remember the chemical symbol of Sulphuric acid.
Since the acid is to "Eat" through the seed case wouldn't any strong acid do?
Hydrochloric acid (HcL) is the Metal Workers "Spirits of Salts" and should be available at most hardware stores that carry soldering gear. Don't settle for Bakers Solution that is not the same although it does the same job.
HP in my language was always Hire Purchase but since joining DG I have found it does stand for Hydrogen Peroxide. Since you can put that on your skin I doubt that it is strong enough to eat through a tough seed case.
Brian

I've got only 3% hydrogen peroxide so I suspect you're right about it not being strong enough for this purpose. I might hold off doing anything to the remaining two seeds until I get a chance to ask for hydrochloric acid next time I visit my home-away-from-home shop. Clipping has had the most obvious effect on the seeds: they've both swelled and discoloured the water. But I'd like to try this extra germination method if I can ...

Yep, 30% hydrogen peroxide is required; don't know if that's available to the home user.
According to the website below, an alternative method that works particularly well for Robinia species is 'percussion'. I kid you not!
https://wiki.umn.edu/view/FR_3104_5104/ScarifiCation

After reading all that I must make a note to try coca cola ...remember what happened to the nasty tarnished old penny overnight ...and what about the tooth that dissolved overnight too (never drunk that stuff after seeing that) I would not try it on a rare seed but it may work on some common old hard coated seed. I mainly do the boiling water for the difficult hard coats ...and hot water for many things.
Then there is the peat moss in the baggie left in the heat.