The seeds planted in 2010 gave me best germination percentage-wise I've
ever had. Germination essentially stopped in early April.
Unfortunately they didn't planted out so were still in the pots. So
when Sept. came around, new plants started coming up. In a lot of cases
the percentage was so high, the new plants surely pushed the rate really
high. But, as always, there were pots where only one or two or very few
germinated and some pots with nothing. It really amazes me still as
what the seeds have done. This pot is an example. The buried end of
the tag has the number of seeds planted in the pot recorded. When
germination shut down in April, this pot containing 42 seeds had only a
single plant. I think you can see which fan that was! When this photo
was taken week before last, I counted (several times to be sure) and
there were 37 seedlings in it, some just breaking the surface. Last
week it produced yet another. So now all but 4 seeds have produced a
seedling. And so it went. In the end, only 12 little pots of seeds
obtained from crosses using a parent with unbalanced had no germination
at all, but germination was better even on those types of crosses.

If you have a difficult cross or have one with poor germination the
first year, it can pay off to carry them another year. Some, as this
one did, actually will do better the 2nd year. My crosses were nearly
all AB crosses and those can be a bit fractious anyway. There are a
couple of cultivars where the germination is nearly always better the
2nd year or at least as good as the first year. I tend not to keep
crosses beyond the 2nd year because the return isn't good enough, but
they do germinate over a much longer period of time. When I constructed
the 'temporary' bed using the cinder blocks seen in this photo, I dumped
various pots of soil left after I planted out seedlings. That was 6-7
years ago. I dug out four seedling strays out of those blocks week
before last and potted them up. I've been doing it every year since I
dumped the pots. All kinds of crosses got dumped there, so they can be
most anything. Most of the string of fans behind the pot are seedlings
out of those blocks. The original seedlings are long since gone.

Donald Eaves
d*@txol.net
Texas Zone 7weird, Texas