# Germinating Syrah Seeds?



## Petti (Nov 16, 2015)

Hello everyone,

Ok, so I purchased some Syrah grape seeds on Amazon a few weeks back and I was curious if any of you had any tips on germination.. 

My purpose isn't to yield enough grapes to make wine, just have a couple vines on the go. I do have a "green thumb" and every thing I try to grow, grows fairly well. 

I did some reading and watched a few videos. 

Any help or tips very much welcome, cheers! 

Mike


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## grapeman (Nov 17, 2015)

There are ways to help grape seeds germinate if that is your only goal. That being said (and not giving the tips yet), why do you want to do it? The seeds will be a hybrid of unknown origin and definitely not Syrah. If you want to grow a vine or two with no hope of having a decent vine (extremely small amount of the seeds will ever develop into anything usable) then go ahead. If you want a vine that you know the history of, then get some hardwood cuttings of that vine and root them to grow.


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## salcoco (Nov 17, 2015)

plus if I remember correctly it will take seven years to develop a plant that can be harvested.


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## Petti (Nov 17, 2015)

@grapeman yeah I'm just looking to grow a couple vines, Nothing serious. 

Some of the info I found on the net stated to freeze the seeds for a couple months before trying to germinate. I guess to simulate winter. Any thoughts on this?

I'm mainly looking for germination help. Like timeframe, temperatures, soil types. 

Thanks

Mike


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## marquettematt (Nov 25, 2015)

You have to put them through stratification first. Stratification is basically simulating winter. I've stratified wild riparia seed by putting the seeds in moist, but not soaked, peat and peat moss. 1 to 3 months should be sufficient. After that, plant the seeds in smaller containers and put them on heating mat or use a grow light. Don't let the media dry. Syrah is vinifera and I've never germinated pure vinifera so I can't tell what percentage will germinate but I can tell you that it will take at least a month for germination to start and you should allow an extra month for complete germination. Any seeds that don't germinate can be restratified and the rest of the process repeated.

You can do scarification. You can use fine grain sand paper (I don't know if it matters if it's fine or not but I don't think you what to completely tear through the shell) to thin the seeds' shell. There is also a process using H2O2 and gibberlic acid but I don't know the proper purportions.

Grapeman is right. The chances of getting something usable are very small but you can space the seeds close together and select as opportunity arises. There is a process for speeding up flowering but you'd need a heated greenhouse so it might not be worth your time.

Hope this helps.


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## Petti (Nov 25, 2015)

@marquettematt thanks for the info. I'll try stratification, cheers


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## grapeman (Nov 26, 2015)

One of the easiest ways to stratify the seeds is to simply dampen a paper towel folded into quarters. Put your seeds in between a couple layers and place the whole thing into a ziplock baggie. Put the baggy into the refrigerator and leave it there for a few months.


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