I will venture to say you are most likely correct in that assumption. I would plant them all and give them the 'sprout test'. :-)

Now I hope someone can come a long with some educated information on this subject.

I'm hoping I'm right too, Bill lol. After about 36 hours there's still quite a few floating. I soaked many different species of Tsuga seeds two years ago with excellent germination rates, but I don't remember if the majority floated or sunk!

I personally wouldn't waste my time floating them. Germination rate isn't that high to start with so I would give every one a chance even though it may not appear to be viable. Otherwise you might be throwing good ones away.

I put T. canadensis seed collected last fall in a jar of water for 24 hrs before stratifying. After the 24 hrs. quite a few sunk to the bottom but not more than 20% I'm sure. But I may put these into a seed starter media and put them in the fridge for the 90 days recommended cold stratification. I have more seed so I'll soak and put them in the moist paper towel inside a baggie to cold stratify in the fridge.

bill.. did you isolate the sinkers.. so you can keep track of them for the ultimate test?

no... I had so many seeds in that first envelope that I chucked the floaters. There were enough that sank (75-100) that it filled a good sized seed starter container, so in the fridge it went! :-)

Funny, some sinkers were small and light colored and some that floated were nice sized and dark colored. I didn't de-wing them so maybe the wings held enough minute air bubbles to float them? I broke one floater open and it was nice and green inside so go figure.

I have another, smaller envelope, that I'm soaking now so we'll see tomorrow how many sink from that batch. I can put them in a separate baggie, then compare germination rates this spring.

I got 10-15% of the next batch to sink. Had the same variable of some floaters looking as good as sinkers. So put the floaters in sterilized baggie with wet paper towel to keep them wet. The sinkers went into a container on a bed of pure perlite, covered lightly, wet and both went in the fridge. Stay tuned.

Update:

It appears that none of my Tsuga seeds, that were put in the fridge will germinate. This is most likely because they need much longer stratification time. I was a little late putting them in so my fault. The 'sinkers' are still in the baggie and haven't shown any progress. I'll watch them for a while yet.

I did have some T. canadensis seeds out in the cold frame that germinated as soon as I brought them into the warmth of the house. None of these were float tested so can't say anything there but a high percentage of seeds were viable and germinated nicely.

Looked at the 'floaters' today. There was one seed in the moist paper towel with a short radicle emerging from the seed coating. The seed coat looked 'split' and the radicle took a right angle turn as it cleared the coating and pointed downward. I'll keep an eye on the rest but evidently not all floaters are duds.

I put the germinated seed into a small pot, 3/4 filled with 511 with a half inch layer of coir seed starting mix on top of the bark. I'm hoping if it sends a root down, I won't have to disturb it for a while and can wait until it out grows the pot. ;-)

edit: 'floaters' not 'sinkers'.

There was another seed germinated in the 'floaters' bag and the paper towel is almost dry. This one had >1/2" radicle with small stem curled all around like it was confused. Put it in a cup with coir mix in the bottom. I'll wet the paper towel and check it again. :-)

I think we can close this one up. Do Not discard the floaters! Stratify them all!

These seeds were cold stratified for only ~35 days in the fridge. This baggie was taken out of the fridge and has been sitting on the bench in my workshop for a month, 65-75 d F ambient temps. There has been no mold and there's been minimal moister in the bag. I'd say just moist enough. Now the seeds are sprouting like a kettle full of pop corn.

I opened the baggie to moisten the paper towel, thought I saw another radicle. So I started digging through the seeds which were laid on quite thickly. Found 9 more and some were penetrating into the paper towel already.

I never noticed the little red tip on the radicle before.

Not wanting to just throw these, I packed a pot with a mix of leftover soils I have here and planted these 9, very shallow in a top coating of coir mix.

fwiw: potted nine more, newly sprouted, tonight.

Found one all moldy and surrounded by mold on the paper towel. Might be nearing the end of the opportunity.

Just a final update on these.

I moved as many as I thought were viable, strong sprouting seeds. The rest were slow in getting more sprouts, so I chucked them and ended up with more than 20 germinated seeds that I put into the starting mix.

Today, my patience ended and I potted up all but the helmet heads and the very slow to come up. Ended up with 19, 3" starter pots with one plant each, most of them filled with 511 and with needles opening up.

I'll have to thank ken for the suggestion of me keeping the floaters for a test. Turns out, they're the only ones I may be getting plants from. I have nothing at all from the other previously germinated seeds. :)

I suppose the next thread will be 'How do I grow Tsuga seedlings up?'. I've heard that's the 'hard part'. {:o|

Here’s mine from this year, Bill. Had excellent germination rates.

This year i actually had them outside, just on my carport ever since they first germinated. Still had a few that seemed to damp off, but had good results overall. But yeah, it hardly gets more humid in a temperate area than here in the mountains on east tn.

I collected the seed from 3 trees in my area that are of significance to me. Yes, I plan on planting them out on my property and surrounding areas more than likely.

Im gonna have to go back read your whole thread about growing Tsuga from cuttings, as there’s a specimen close by that has pretty yellow new growth.

This last time was my third attempt rooting cuttings and I can still see things I'll do different next time. I think the chamber in the first half of that last thread was all changed by about the middle of the thread.

Your climate might allow you to do things different (read easier) too, I don't know how cold it gets there but some people put cuttings in a cold frame, late winter and find roots by mid summer.