Squeezing out the seed from a gooseberry.
7-1-23 Most of the berries from this spring’s crosses have been picked; the rest will be ready to pick in a few days.
When I first began breeding gooseberries I cleaned the seeds thoroughly before sowing. Later I skipped the thoroughness and sowed the “insides”, discarding the “hulls”—which has worked well. I have not tried sowing berries whole .
From left to right: the “hulls” or berry skins; wooden “pestle”; “insides” or seeds; and raw berries.
I begin by nipping off an end of the berry with a thumbnail and squeezing out the seeds into a plastic container. Once all the seeds from a cross have been extracted, I try gently to disperse them in a little water with a wooden “pestle”. (After sowing, some seedlings invariably emerge in a clump and can be difficult to disentangle without damaging their roots.)
The blue masking tape labels here are only temporary. (They were used to mark the flowers on plants that were crossed.) They will be replaced by plastic labels before the seed is covered with media.
Seeds are then poured onto a 1020 flat containing potting media, covered with a thin layer of same, and watered well. A single flat accommodates seeds from several crosses, each labelled with the names/numbers of the parents.
Most of these flats are carryover from last year. The flats have holes to drain excess water; a piece of capillary mat underneath the stack keeps the bottom flat from becoming saturated.
Flats of seed are stacked under a bench in the greenhouse over the summer; and watered occasionally to keep them moist. They will stay there until November, then spend winter in the seed cage outdoors (see From Flats to Plug Trays 4-6-23). There is enough rain/snow to keep the flats from drying out from then until spring when the seed germinates.
Dupont Weed Barrier
One last note: Between the flats is a sheet of Dupont Weed Barrier, a synthetic spun fabric. It is used to prevent media in one flat from sticking to the bottom of the flat above it and disturbing the seeds.