hardy hibiscus seed germination

How to best start hardy hibiscus seeds?

Winter-sow them in January and let mother nature do the job for you.

Kay,
That sounds easy enough and am winter sowing this season for the first time.
Thank you.

If you wait until spring, nick and soak the seeds. Some might not be viable as a little bug lays eggs which eat the seed from the inside out. You can see a tiny little hole in the seeds that have been eaten. So sow them a little thickly if you are not sure whether they are all good or not.

I read about nicking, but they are so small. How one does it?

Nicking them and sandpapering them serves the same purpose. Lay your sandpaper down on a flat surface, hold with one hand, pick up the seed and hold it with a tweezer or pliers in the other hand and rub the seed on the sandpaper until you see 'white' on the seed. Plant as usual.

Kay,
Thank you for the info. That's a bit trickier than anything I've done so far, but I have to tools and the method now!

You might want to try the H2O2 method in the thread "Stolen Idea". A method I use to sprout Texas Star hibiscus is similar. I put my seeds in a small bottle and pour boiling water over the seeds. Allow the water to cool and then add maybe a quarter teaspoon of H2O2. Seeds will spout at room temperature in 2-3 days. I fish out the ones that spout, plant in 6 packs and discard the others.
Digs

Digs,
Thank you for your post. 2-3 days. WOW! That is lightning fast.
Boiling water sounds a bit scary, but I can try a few seeds that way first.

I was kind of reading about hydroperoxide method, but it's hard to get the gist of it
in a 100+ posts with original links broken. So I bookmarked the thread to read it over
again at some point. Though sounds very reasonable as hydroperoxide is an aniseptic.

There's so much to learn. I wish there was a stick thread listing steps to major methods
and links to threads discussing variations, test results etc., for people like me with
no experience in seed starting.

The first time I did this, it made me unconfortable, too. I got the idea from Parks Seeds, however. Had ordered some Southern Disco Belle hibiscus seeds and the instructions were to pour boiling water on the seeds before planting. I add the H2O2 and sprout them right in the water. I guess the water and H2O2 breaks domancy and softens the seed coat so they sprout quicker. Works for me.
Digs

I'm so glad I saw this post: I bought some disco belle seeds, but didn't note the boiling water trick!

DigsGardening,
WOW! I tried 3 types of hardy hibiscus seeds with your method of
boiling water and baggy. 100% germination in 2 days!

Now I need to find a sure fire way to germinate tropical hibiscus.
I have seeds for one type, but not that many to experiment with :(

enya_34
You go girl!
Digs