Sometimes my mind wanders into the waters of "what if?", and sometimes when that happens, I get pretty intrigued by some of the thoughts that occur. That happened this morning. Keep in mind I'm not limiting my thoughts just to pepper plants here, although peppers are certainly included.
If we ignore immature seeds - such as seeds which were gathered from an unripe pod - it is generally understood that some will still not be viable for one reason or another.Even if we exclude seeds that are not viable due to undetected disease (and such), and focus entirely on seeds that, in theory, are perfectly healthy, we still recognize some will not germinate. (One could argue that we don't technically REALLY know this - how can we tell if a seed is truly unaffected by any factors while it is still a seed - but stick with me for a few...... this is just mental pondering.) Let's also ignore other external factors, such as those we create when germinating our seeds, such as not keeping them moist enough or within the proper temperature range.
So I started wondering about the possibility that some seeds are not intended to germinate under "ideal" conditions, that possibly some are produced to only germinate in what I'm going to call "scorched earth" conditions - conditions which occur after some kind of disaster which otherwise wipes out all the foliage in the area. This could be fire, volcanic erruption, etc. - something that wipes out more than just, say, the immediate area surrounding a single house or even farm. Now yes, I am not disregarding things such as birds and other animals picking up seeds from one area and dropping them onto a scorched earth area - we know that happens. And I am also not disregarding things such as deeply-buried roots that survived underground and start new growth from there, as we also know that happens. Still, doesn't it seem that the possibility at least exists that some seeds would get into the ground and just lay there, dormant, until such a situation arose, at which point they would germinate and grow? That it's possible some seeds are viable, even if they're not "viable" when we want them to be?
Of course, there would likely be a difficulty in testing this hypothesis. Short of going to a scorched-earth area and digging around until you found a collection of seeds, I'm not sure how you could test for this. ie - Even if you could find and collect such seeds, would there be conditions which must exist immediately following the event which caused the scorched-earth in order for the seeds to sprout? Would there be a way to imitate a scorched-earth scenario in a laboratory which was sufficient enough to "trick" the seeds into sprouting - would simply moving the seeds along with the dirt they were found in be sufficient? I can see the possibility that a certain chemical reaction might occur following such an event that might trigger such germination. For example, if we think of a forest fire, possibility the combination of elements within rain following the fire (which may contain residual chemicals from the fire itself, such as those from smoke) plus chemical reactions that happened in the soil because of the heat of the fire, doesn't the possibility exist that an additional chemical reaction would occur, that would not otherwise occur, which would trigger germination?
Enough of my thoughts - what are yours? Possible? Not possible? Why? What other difficulties can you think of in testing this? Can you think of something that would help testing it? Has anyone tested for this type of thing before and I just don't know about it? If you enjoy pondering and discussing this type of thing, please join in!
If we ignore immature seeds - such as seeds which were gathered from an unripe pod - it is generally understood that some will still not be viable for one reason or another.Even if we exclude seeds that are not viable due to undetected disease (and such), and focus entirely on seeds that, in theory, are perfectly healthy, we still recognize some will not germinate. (One could argue that we don't technically REALLY know this - how can we tell if a seed is truly unaffected by any factors while it is still a seed - but stick with me for a few...... this is just mental pondering.) Let's also ignore other external factors, such as those we create when germinating our seeds, such as not keeping them moist enough or within the proper temperature range.
So I started wondering about the possibility that some seeds are not intended to germinate under "ideal" conditions, that possibly some are produced to only germinate in what I'm going to call "scorched earth" conditions - conditions which occur after some kind of disaster which otherwise wipes out all the foliage in the area. This could be fire, volcanic erruption, etc. - something that wipes out more than just, say, the immediate area surrounding a single house or even farm. Now yes, I am not disregarding things such as birds and other animals picking up seeds from one area and dropping them onto a scorched earth area - we know that happens. And I am also not disregarding things such as deeply-buried roots that survived underground and start new growth from there, as we also know that happens. Still, doesn't it seem that the possibility at least exists that some seeds would get into the ground and just lay there, dormant, until such a situation arose, at which point they would germinate and grow? That it's possible some seeds are viable, even if they're not "viable" when we want them to be?
Of course, there would likely be a difficulty in testing this hypothesis. Short of going to a scorched-earth area and digging around until you found a collection of seeds, I'm not sure how you could test for this. ie - Even if you could find and collect such seeds, would there be conditions which must exist immediately following the event which caused the scorched-earth in order for the seeds to sprout? Would there be a way to imitate a scorched-earth scenario in a laboratory which was sufficient enough to "trick" the seeds into sprouting - would simply moving the seeds along with the dirt they were found in be sufficient? I can see the possibility that a certain chemical reaction might occur following such an event that might trigger such germination. For example, if we think of a forest fire, possibility the combination of elements within rain following the fire (which may contain residual chemicals from the fire itself, such as those from smoke) plus chemical reactions that happened in the soil because of the heat of the fire, doesn't the possibility exist that an additional chemical reaction would occur, that would not otherwise occur, which would trigger germination?
Enough of my thoughts - what are yours? Possible? Not possible? Why? What other difficulties can you think of in testing this? Can you think of something that would help testing it? Has anyone tested for this type of thing before and I just don't know about it? If you enjoy pondering and discussing this type of thing, please join in!
