RE: Jim's >smoke water

Interesting story....and to think all these years I was burning for the
wrong reason :)

Donna


> 
> "In the test group, 90% of the lettuce seeds germinated when the
chemical
> was added, compared to 40% in the control group... In the wild, less
than
> 5%
> of the seeds of some native Australian species germinate. With the
> chemical,
> this increased up to 80%....
> "When a fire goes through there is a lot of heat on the surface, but
that
> doesn't get down to the seed bank below...But when it rains, the
rainwater
> filters the smoke that has settled on the soil surface down below."
> Read more at:
> http://abc.net.au/science/news/enviro/EnviroRepublish_1147171.htm
> 
> Kitty
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "james singer" <jsinger@igc.org>
> To: <gardenchat@hort.net>
> Sent: Tuesday, July 13, 2004 3:40 PM
> Subject: Re: [CHAT] Jim's new picture links
> 
> 
> > This reminds me--did anyone else hear the report on NPR about the
> > effects of smoke on seed germination? Work was done in Perth and
> > published, I think, in "Science." Forever people have thought that
some
> > seeds [think, bristlecone pine, here] had to be subjected to fire
> > before they would germinate. Turns out not to be true. It's a
> > constituent of smoke, not heat, that pulls the trigger. Anyway the
> > Aussies identified it. They found that all seeds--lettuce, carrots,
> > tomatoes--germinate better when treated with "smoke water." You can
> > probably get a transcript of the story/interview at www.npr.org.
> >
> > Oh, yeah. And what the constituent of smoke does is activate dormant
> > gibberilic [sp?] acid crystals in the seed, so it even brings to
life
> > very old seeds.
> >
> >
> > On Tuesday, July 13, 2004, at 09:39 AM, Aplfgcnys@aol.com wrote:
> >
> > > In a message dated 07/13/2004 12:05:05 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
> > > kmrsy@comcast.net writes:
> > > fungicide, though I suppose the hormones might help.
> > > I'd love to have a set up like that.  Having it ready and waiting
> > > would make
> > > it so much easier to take cuttings whenever it occurs to you to do
so.
> > >
> > >
> > > Kitty, this might not be sufficient for your needs, but for a
number
> > > of years
> > > I kept a clear
> > > plastic "sweater box" - don't know what else it would be called -
> about
> > > 15"x6" by 5" deep
> > > with a cover - filled with about 3 or 4 inches of vermiculite on
my
> > > kitchen
> > > counter - protected
> > > spot by a sunny window.  The lid of the box was its tray, though
there
> > > were
> > > no drainage
> > > holes.  I can't begin to guess how many plants I rooted in that
box
> > > but there
> > > were many.
> > > Whenever I had a leaf or cutting or pruning, a piece of it went
into
> > > the box.
> > >  When the
> > > rootings began to get so big they overwhelmed other things, or
there
> > > was no
> > > room for
> > > new cuttings, I would pot them on.  Since it was on the kitchen
> > > counter, I
> > > was reminded
> > > to water it frequently, but never let it be soggy.  I theorized
-never
> > > read
> > > this anywhere -
> > > that the rooting plants produced their own hormones that helped
other
> > > things
> > > to root.
> > > Anyway, I kept the same vermiculite going - just topped it up when
it
> > > got low
> > > (some would
> > > cling to the roots of the cuttings when I removed them.)  When we
> > > remodeled
> > > the kitchen
> > > a few years back I promised myself a new box - that one had become
> > > pretty
> > > crummy
> > > looking after more than fifteen years - but somehow have never
> > > replaced it,
> > > though I think
> > > of it often.  I usually have something rooting somewhere at any
given
> > > time.
> > > Auralie
> > >
> > >
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> > >
> > Island Jim
> > Southwest Florida
> > 27.0 N, 82.4
> > Zone 10a
> > Minimum 30 F [-1 C]
> >
> >
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