Filing lupin seeds

I've been trying to start seeds for this year's garden/flower beds each weekend lately. It's still a bit early to start most of the veggie seeds I have that'll benefit from a headstart indoors, but many annuals and perennials actually need somewhere between 6 and 12 weeks advanced sprouting time. Needless to say, my seed starting space in the basement is quickly filling up!

A couple weeks ago I grabbed a pack of Morello Cherry Lupin seeds as I was rifling through seeds that needed to be started, and then set them down to deal with later after reading the packet.

"File each seed and then soak for two hours in warm water before planting. Alternatively, you may nick the outer husk with nail clippers."

You're kidding me, right? Each seed?

Ok, fine. A couple days later I decided I couldn't put them off any longer, and would try filing them.

First let it be known I HATE sandpaper, emory boards, fingernail files, etc - they make my SKIN CRAWL!!! I don't know why, they just do. It's like fingernails on a chalkboard. (Hey, SOME people can't handle the word "moist"! Don't make fun of me!)

Have you ever tried holding, much less filing, something this small and slippery!?!? Seriously, I'd try to hold a seed and get it with the fingernail file in the clippers, and they'd try to pop out of my fingers and go bouncing across the table. Not cool! And when I COULD hold it still and start filing, I found I was filing more of my flesh/thumbnail than the seed - they were just too small.

I finally decided to try nicking each with the fingernail clippers, while hopefully not killing any future plant waiting inside. Some were easy to clip off just a little of the husk without doing any interior damage, while others obviously exposed some green on the inside, or even had a piece of the green get clipped out. Nuts. Well...tough love bitches...let's see how this goes.

And then I was wondering, just for future times I might consider going through this, if it would realllly make a difference. Most seeds will sprout without this extra little work, right? Sure, experts put down instructions for me, but what if I didn't nick open ALL of the seeds? So most got the clippers and put in one bowl of warm water, and the others were left as-is - put into their own bowl of warm water without having their husks damaged.

Two hours later, here's what the non-clipped seeds looked like (note: I DID manage to file a few of these before getting frustrated):


And the ones that DID get the clipper treatment?


Ok, big difference! I can see now that they might appreciate a little help getting out of their tough shells, so I clipped the remaining seeds, gave 'em another soak, and planted them all.

Just a week later, and almost all of the seeds had sprouted quite nicely. A few were duds (maybe I killed them?), but I think the majority are going to make it. I don't have any pics yet of those - I'm guessing they're maybe a half inch tall now?

Trust me, there'll be more pictures of growies before you know it!