HYB: transplant success


Just wanted to thank you all for the earlier discussion of seedling
'strength', selection of the strongest seedlings to line out etc.  It's
really helped cut down on transplant failures.

The two things I changed - leaving them in the germination pot longer
and examining them more closely when I transplant.

Now, I leave seedlings in the germination pot until they are big enough
to be trying to live on their own (not just food from the seed) <and>
are exposed to several days of the kind of high temperatures and high
soil moisture levels they will experience in the garden.  I know not all
of you are doing this, but it fits my goal of getting rid of lines that
produce seedlings that are fussy at this stage.  In the past, I think I
was transplanting just before they reached this stage, so the first hot
day after transplanting, the weak ones all died.

When I get ready to transplant, I am discarding seedlings that show any
indication of weakness (floppy tops (starting to rot), few roots
compared to sibs, or original roots dead with new ones starting).  By
"few roots", I mean those that have almost no roots at all compared to
their sibs.  Abnormally few.  Some crosses are too variable to tell, but
some are obviously not doing well.  Now that I think to look!

Thanks again.  Still way too many seedlings this year, but early culling
has cut down on the work a little bit.
--
Linda Mann east Tennessee USA zone 7/8
East Tennessee Iris Society <http://www.korrnet.org/etis>
American Iris Society web site <http://www.irises.org>
talk archives: <http://www.hort.net/lists/iris-talk/>
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