Re: HYB: germ. experiments (oops)

The pods used in experiment (1) were different from those used in (2) &
(3) below.  Pods in (1) were the last ones to ripen, 2 weeks to a month
after the others.

===New readers keep asking why I'm going to all this trouble - mostly
because my first year germination using <normal> outdoor planting has
often been 5% or less, presumably because the conditions Neil describes
are <normal> here.  Also because most of my seedlings are waay slower to
maturity than Walter's are.   ======

(1) I tried the suggestion in Vallette of freezing dried seeds for
several days, then soaking in 25% Clorox for 24 to 48 hrs (I chose 36
hrs) and have been eagerly waiting for 'instant' germination for the
last week.  Having a second bumper crop year of seeds made it possible
to use a sample of 5 seeds from 7 or 8 different crosses - some
rebloomers, some not, one IB type cross (TB X SDB), and a pink or two,
since some seeds from crosses involving pinks seemed to be the quickest
to germinate last year.

After 7 days, nothing.

(2)  I planted a subsample from the unsoaked, fresh (not dried) seeds
that have been in damp burritos in the fridge for a month.  Just got
these planted yesterday or the day before.  I planted 5 seeds from each
of 8 crosses.

(3) Oops - just discovered I forgot to put the rest of the seeds back in
the fridge!  So that experiment will now be - fridge for one month, room
temperature for one or two days, then fridge for two months.  They were
<supposed> to be in the fridge for continuous three months for
comparison to their <normal> dried, soaked, chilled podmates.

Oh well.....seems like I remember some posts waay back in the early
years of this discussion forum about intermittent chilling giving
faster/better germination than continuous.  Or maybe that was just
arilbreds....

--
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/>
photos archives: <http://www.hort.net/lists/iris-photos/>
online R&I <http://www.irisregister.com>

---------------------------------------------------------------------
To sign-off this list, send email to majordomo@hort.net with the
message text UNSUBSCRIBE IRIS
Other Mailing lists | Author Index | Date Index | Subject Index | Thread Index