Are cooked seeds viable?

So I'm wondering if fruit seeds that have been heated in the process of juicing are still viable to plant. In this case I steam juiced a gallon of chokecherries as it's the easiest way to extract the juice. So is it worth planting these?

Marc Dube wrote:So I'm wondering if fruit seeds that have been heated in the process of juicing are still viable to plant. In this case I steam juiced a gallon of chokecherries as it's the easiest way to extract the juice. So is it worth planting these?

I have found that CCs grow like weeds, Marc, so I wonder why you would need to do so. Supposedly composting with much lower temps than steaming would attain, kills weed seeds/all seeds.

Could you describe the steaming process you use in a little more detail, please?

Cooking kills seeds.

I agree totally with Joseph. It's been my own experience that cooked seeds do not germinate.

Thanks I just wanted confirmation that heat killed the seeds.

I have access to this contraption that sends steam through the fruit and the fruit juice drips down into a separate container while keeping the steam separate.

I sure hope so! Yesterday I found the first goathead thorn, aka puncturevine, at my new house, and since I don't want to throw it in the compost toilet or use it for mulch like I do all other biomass I can find here, I first toasted the seeds on an iron griddle, but they didn't turn to ash,  so I cooked them in the pressure cooker for a few minutes. Then into the composting loo. I hope that does the trick!

Note that about some particularly recalcitrant seeds, I've seen reputable people advise to poor boiling water over them and let sit till cool before planting. I've seen this advice for parsley, robinia, and maybe even carrots. So you could try planting your steamed seeds and report back here what happened.

Joseph is absolutely right on this.

Heat above 170 f for 10 minutes will kill any germ of any seed that isn't part of the fire resistant group of plants (those plant seeds that don't germinate until a fire even goes through)
This group of seeds, if laying on the forest floor surface will die as well, but those seeds in this group that subsoil level are triggered into germination by the buffered heat levels from the fire.

Since we rarely want to grow plants from this group of trees, shrubs and grasses, the point that they can survive is rather moot to the gardener, of them only the pines might have food value to humans.

Marc Dube wrote:I have access to this contraption that sends steam through the fruit and the fruit juice drips down into a separate container while keeping the steam separate.

Is your contraption a commercially available one or is it a home made deal, Marc?

They're fairly available and they work great.  Someone should do a Gear Review for theirs (Tutorial)...

Here's one on Amazon:
Steam Juicer

Weeds seeds in a compost pile are said to be killed. The temperature there is much lower than your steam. I'd guess 120-140° F. While some seeds may survive composting they would mostly be those that weren't in the center of the compost pile, or the pile wasn't large enough.

I'd say you choke cherry seeds are dead.

I have a tamarind plant growing right now, few days old, and it came from a tamarind sauce that was cooked,

I am hoping this is because it was a large seed, and its internal temp did not get too high. I have been watering my trees with Himalayan blackberry cast off water from my food mill. I really want those seeds to be dead.

In a German Facebook group (if I am not mixing things up!) somebody claimed they planted a tomato seed from a bought can of sterilized tomato pulp, and it grew. Probably the short sterilization process leaves somes seeds viable?
(Is a steam juicer not very common in the US? Here many many households have one. Most people need it for making jelly out of things like rhubarb and redcurrants).

Cooked pumpkin/squash seeds will grow.  Numerous volunteers in the compost pile.