Re: potting mix for juno, scorpio

 

Hi Alice and Kyrill,


Welcome to iris-species! Although I don't post much, I try to read everything, learning more about  the genus Iris. Living in an alpine climate, just about  on the opposite side of the globe from Australia, we are limited to what Iris can be grown. My garden is at 1300 m altitude and we have a  short growing season. with 4 - 6 months of snow cover and cool summers, most moisture loving iris will do well. Unfortunately I. Louisiana will survive the winters , but never blooms. I. ensata and I. laevigata do o.k. but the voles seem to prefer to munch on their rhizomes before anything else. Where non are available, the critters will hit on I. sibirica, the easiest to grow along with I. versicolor, I. virginica var. shrevei and I. setosa. For some strange reason, I do have some success ! with PCNI.

Liselotte

On Feb 13, 2012, at 6:36 AM, Kyrill Harding wrote:

 

Hi Alice, 

I'm new to the group too - another Aussie from the foothills east of Melbourne. Last year I started a few Juno species from seed and have some Arils to try this year. My advice is from this limited experience. 
Advice re mix from Marcus is sure to be accurate, as he is clearly an excellent grower. An open mix is vital. Regarding germination, all Junos I tried germinate ei! ther in the fridge or shortly after, following removal to warm! er conditions. At least 3 months (and 4 won't hurt) cold stratification was needed; I didn't remove any seed batch from the fridge until at least 1 had sprouted. GA3 (gibberellic acid) is very helpful for most, and resulted in 100% percent germination for some species. I used it at 1000ppm, applied as recommended in Deno's paper on seed germination (available online if you don't have it). 
My research indicates that Aril seed will need similar treatment to Juno, and I will certainly be trying the same method this year. Hope that helps, good luck with your seeds. 

cheers,
Kyrill Harding

To: i*@yahoogroups.com
From: a*@harboursat.com.au
Date: Mon, 13 Feb 2012 14:48:01 +1100
Subject: Re: [iris-species] potting mix for juno, scorpio

 !
hi mark, no, I'm not in tasmania, but the conditions are similar to parts of, I'm in southern New South Wales, between the "snowy mountains" and the coast, in the hinterland, on the top of a decomposing granite hill (altitude 250 m.) temp 45 to -1 or 2 degrees celsius in winter, lovely sun most of the time, even when looking at the snow in the distance, it's meant to snow here every 7 years haven't seen it yet, maybe this winter. At the moment I'm expecting floods down in the valley some time in the next month, everything is totally saturated, and next summer we'll all be trying to dodge fires from hell (even the oxygen in the air burns now with the bigger fires), with all the re-growth from these last two seasons, but I'm going off in a tangent, whatabout potting mixes and culture? thanks alice


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