CULT: seed management


Hey gang,

There has been some discussion before about the amount of cold time
that is required to stimulate germination, and I've some data to add.

This
year I shelled and burritoed 120 pods with known parentage.  I harvested July
2 and finished shelling on the fifth.  Since then the pods have remained in
the crisper drawer of my fridge except for the few hours every Friday I spend
potting germinants.  I count it as a germinant when root is visible emerging
from the seed, although sometimes this is the merest dot of root tip.

32 pods
germinated at least one seed in September.  Of these 8 pods were then dormant
until November, and 6 more until December, and 1 is still dormant.  The
remaining pods have remained active, germinating at least one seed every week
or two weeks.

19 pods germinated the first seed in October.   6 pods then
remained dormant until December and 6 pods have remained dormant since.   Here
again the others remained active on a weekly or bi-weekly basis.

19 more pods
germinated their first seed in November.  10 of these have not germinated any
more seeds.  Of those that remain 6 germinated one date in November and one
date four weeks later in December.  One pod germinated three weeks in a row in
November and then didn't germinate again until four weeks later in December.
21 pods have germinated their first seed so far this month, December.  Only
three of these have germinated a second date.

So that's about 75% active pods
from "cold" seeds.  The only pods that have been out of the crisper more than
2 hours at a time are those which had germination.

Not sure if that data
means anything to anyone... but hey, it's data.

Christian

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