RE: SIGNA seed (sort of)

 

Dennis,

                I have grown Siberians, and a few species, indoor under lights.  It works, and I think you can get earlier bloom this way, but there can be some issues.  For one, you can’t start very many seeds , and raise them to a foot high, unless you have lots of room and lots of lights.  I tried to time it so that I had seedlings just about to outgrow a pot about 3” square at just about the time it was OK to plant them out.  But, for me, the method tended to break down because I always had too much to do in spring and I wasn’t often ready to plant them out when they should have been.  Having recently moved, I find I don’t have room for the light stand even though I have more house than before.  Does anyone want a light stand with four tiers, big enough to hold two flats end-to-end on each tier? 

                Ken

 

From: iris-species@yahoogroups.com [mailto:iris-species@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Dennis Kramb
Sent: Sunday, April 24, 2011 12:19 PM
To: iris-species@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [iris-species] SIGNA seed (sort of)

 

 

The seeds I would have donated to SIGNA I kept instead to experiment with... all Louisianas.  I sowed the seeds in pots on my living room windowsill.  They stratified nicely there through the winter and began germinating in February.  (Not a high percentage, though.)

These guys (attached photo) were the first to germinate.  After about a month I potted them up individually and placed them in front of my terrarium so they could get supplemental fluorescent light.  I also started feeding them regularly.  Now they're 8 to10 weeks old (roughly) and they are well over a foot tall.  Normally I would have kept the seeds potted up outside, and they'd still be stratifying.  Clearly this indoor technique has given them a head start.  With refinement this technique could bring them to bloom a year or two sooner than normal.

Does anyone else germinate their irises indoors?  under lights?

Last year I got into carnivorous plants when I learned Sarracenia pitcher plants are cold hardy in Ohio.  They are strikingly similar to irises in the way they grow:  leaf production, rhizomatous, vegetative increases, bloom time, seed stratification requirements, years to reach maturity, etc.  And I've been reading the various techniques Sarracenia hybridizers use to reduce the maturation time of young seedlings.  One technique is to grow them under fluorescent lights 24/7/365, and it works!  Once they're mature though, they need the day/night winter/summer cycles to retain their vigor.

I'm not ready to try that with Louisianas, but it is awful compelling!  If I could get LAs to bloom within 18 months of sowing the seeds, well, that would be incredible.

Dennis in Cincy

PS: Happy Easter!

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