I have noticed something similar: if I receive only a few seeds,
often I will get no germination.
I've been puzzling about it. I know that not all seeds will germinate
- that's why vegetable seed producers are required by law in some
countries to do germination tests and include that information with
the seeds. A farmer can not afford to have empty patches in his field.
So, given that even highly domesticated crops often germinate at only
80%, the two seeds in my seedex package are quite likely to be the
ones that wouldn't germinate even if I had been sent 50 seeds.
But I have another thought: if a plant only manages to produce a few
seeds, so that the seedex doles them out in twos, maybe that is a
plant that is not a good producer of viable seeds.
However, the same plant's seeds can vary from year to year. One year
the seeds from one of my iris plants did not germinate. The next year,
I considered not even collecting from it, but I did, and the seeds
germinated at the same time as those from my other plants. Then, a
few months later, the seeds from the previous year came up. There was
no obvious reason: the plants were all growing in the same area, I
collected the seeds as soon as they were ripe, and I sowed them all
under the same conditions.
Diane
On 10-Jan-10, , JamieV. wrote:
> I often over-sow seed in pots and typically get amazing
> germination. Whether this is a hormonal trigger or similar, I
> couldn't say.
