How much should I nick seeds?

I am wanting to plant ome lupine and morning glory seeds and the package says I am supposed to "nick" them and soak them in water. Someone suggested sandpaper, which worked well for the lupine seeds, only on most of them it worked too well and split the seeds in half. On the MG seeds it barely did anything at all but scratch them. I soaked them, some of them sprouted and the split ones not at all.



So, my question is, How MUCH should I nick a seed? Do I have to remove the entire outer casing or just open it a bit?

How much should I nick seeds?
I use a fingernail file to "breech" (another name for sanding,filing or nicking) the seed coat. All you want to do is let water enter the seed, without removing the coat. This can be a lot of fiddly finger work. If you soak you "un-nicked" seed over night some will swell on there own. These can be planted, those that don't need to be nicked.
Reply:I planted morning glories last year and they were easy to grow. I just split the casing and that did it. Plant them in full sun, they'll grow in shade but not as hardy. I also planted lupines, they were a little harder to grow though. I didn't split them just soaked them. Out of all the lupine seeds though I only had one, but its still there this spring and has sprouted leaves, which I hope this year will have flowers, eventually.
Reply:Here's an easy way to nick seeds. Find a small box, like the boxes that wooden matches come in. Glue some sandpaper to the inside walls of the box, with the rough, sandy side facing out. Then place your seeds in your sandpaper-lined box and shake, shake, shake! The sandpaper will rough up the seed coating enough to allow moisture to enter the seed and stimulate germination.
Reply:I have never nicked morning glory seeds despite this very common practice. I have never had a problem getting mine to sprout quickly and easily.



An interesting experiment would be to nick half your seeds, and leave half your seeds un-nicked as a control group. Plant both at the same time and see which come up first and what the success rate in germination is with both groups.



My guess is that you'll quit nicking your seeds after this experiment. Soaking overnight is good enough.