The soaking is to remove inhibitory chemical. Usually a soak for a week with daily change will remove inhibitors.
The time in refrigerator, while damp is stratification. This process requires seeds to be damp, but also requires air. So in damp peat moss, or a damp paper towel, inside a plastic bag works well. Having it too wet will rot bearded iris seeds.
Water iris will handle being wet during this time. I suspect setoa seeds will work more like bearded iris then water iris.
Chuck Chapman
-----Original Message-----
From: Kathleen Sayce kathleen.sayce@gmail.com [iris-species] <iris-species@yahoogroups.com>
To: iris-species@yahoogroups.com <iris-species@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Sun, Apr 5, 2020 1:53 pm
Subject: Re: [iris-species] Re: old Iris setosa seed
Any idea how long to soak I. setosa seeds?
I usually soak PCI seeds for 30 days, in the refrigerator. I can do the same for these, if it might help.As for kinds, I have regular black tea, not chamomile. Does it matter? The former has far more tannins in it.
On Apr 5, 2020, at 7:49 AM, Diane voltaire@islandnet.com [iris-species] <iris-species@yahoogroups.com> wrote:
Yes, I will soak them in tea. I usually use tea to soak tricky seeds, and many different species of iris have been tricky for me.
'aclyburn17@frontier.com' wrote:
soaked their long-stored seeds in tea from spent tea bags or in tea made from chamomile and having good results from it.
Supposedly it's the tannin's in these teas that are helping.Diane, do you have enough older seeds to give this a test to see if there's really something to this?:^)
