Re: HYB: seeds germinating

hi Bruce
couldn't find the meaning of HEAVING in the dictionary, or in fact found so many entries, i don't know which one applies... 
Can you help me here?

Loic
----- Original Message ----- From: "John Bruce" <jbruce1@cinci.rr.com> 
To: <iris@hort.net>
Sent: Monday, December 18, 2006 4:30 PM
Subject: Re: [iris] HYB: seeds germinating
Betty--
John, you don't mention any type of mulch over the pots other than hardware cloth. Do you have any serious problem with seed surfacing in the spring due to beating rains or the heave from alternating freeze and thaw? Do you watch 
for these and punch them down?
I do not have much of a problem with freeze-thaw heaving with the light potting mix. Sometimes the seeds have surfaced, so I just dump another 1/2" of potting mix in the pot. I do not overly worry about some seed exposure--when seeds drop to the ground in nature they do not get buried very deeply if at all. My very first year of planting iris seeds (way back when) I did put them in a heavy soil mix and about an inch deep. Germination was poor, there were a lot of rotted seeds, and there was some damping off. I changed my methods to what I use now and have not 
had problems since. The only problems I had in subsequent years was when I
transplanted the seedlings straight into the ground. They grew, but I suffered some losses from heaving--seedlings don't seem to tolerate this as well as adults. That is when I started potting up the seedlings into 4" pots, letting them grow (and fertilizing them every couple of weeks) until they are nearly rootbound and then planting the soil ball early enough for the roots to take hold. That ended 
90% of the heaving issue.

John Bruce

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