HYB: Seeds sprouting
- Subject: HYB: Seeds sprouting
- From: R* M*
- Date: Sun, 16 Dec 2001 09:57:30 -0500
I remember reading someone's ideas on how plants and tiny animals can
survive freezing temperatures. They went like this:
At freezing temperatures, water begins to separate from the liquids inside
each cell and freeze. The ice is normally shaped so that it becomes long
and thin, and grows mainly at the ends. If this ice pierces the wall of the
cell, the cell dies. One method of avoiding this is to have so much of
some chemical that attracts water that the temperature has to be much
below freezing to allow much water to separate and freeze. Another uses
a chemical that slows the growth at the long ends but allow the sides to
grow, so that much more water can freeze before the crystal gets large
enough in any direction to pierce the cell wall. A third method requires
that removing the heat so fast that the water cannot move around much
before it freezes; this method normally requires human help.
This could mean that irises are good at producing some chemical of the
second type.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Donald Eaves" <donald@eastland.net>
To: <iris-talk@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Saturday, December 15, 2001 8:13 PM
Subject: Re: [iris-talk] Re: HYB: Seeds sprouting
> Linda,
>
> I'm still having the occasional seed sprout, both from those I planted
green
> and stored in the fridge and from seeds that didn't sprout last spring.
> More than 50 seedlings up now. Don't know why they are doing this, but
they
> are. So far they look pretty healthy. Only 4 have died but there are
> always a few that just don't make it anyway. They have now managed to
> survive several nights in the mid to upper 20s (not sure just how cold it
> got on them) and didn't seem to suffer except for one of two that came up
in
> the seedling bed. The one is frost bitten, but the bottom 1/4" of the fan
> is still green. The other in the seed bed is just a bit older and just a
> bit larger, with three leaves on the fan and doesn't show any damage. The
> others (in pots) had that 'frozen' look in the morning, but looked okay
when
> the they thawed out and have done well since.
>
> Donald Eaves
> donald@eastland.net
> Texas Zone 7b, USA
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