Re: Iris from Seed
- To: Multiple recipients of list <i*@rt66.com>
- Subject: Re: Iris from Seed
- From: z*@mindspring.com (L.Zurbrigg)
- Date: Tue, 2 Dec 1997 21:38:24 -0700 (MST)
>Hello happy iris folks...
>
>I am to give a short program this week on starting irises from seed, and
>growing them indoors. I use the method promoted by John Coble and Bob Bauer
>which involves a 10 day cycle of soaking and rinsing, and then 10 weeks in
>the veggie bin (by the way... we should take a poll on the contents of
>gardeners' vegetable bins... bet there are few with actual vegetables in
>them!)
>
>Anyway...
>
>That's the method I intend to offer... but it occurs to me that with all the
>folks on this list, there are probably other techniques, and I'd like to hear
>them. This does not include, BTW, "sticking the seed in the ground" <-:
>
>So, does anyone have any tricks, techniques, special potting medium, special
>lighting, optimum heat for germination, ANY information they'd like to pass
>along...
>
>it'll make us all better growers.... and hopefully, make me look smarter.
>
>Thank you
>Kathy Guest, E. Aurora, NY - who spent a glorious day raking, mulching,
>trimming and labeling
Dear Kathy: I really have nothing to say about techniques, except that I
always used flats. Two years in a row I got zero germination. So I resorted
to planting the seeds in the ground, but in clumplets, and got exc.
germination. I am back to using flats. I think it important in late winter
or early spring, to put the flats indoors for the last freezes of the
winter-spring, to avoid having the sprouting seedlings injured. I think
this is what happened those two years in a row, although it is vaguely
possible that there might have been seed-inhibitor in the soil I bought,
though I greatly doubt that. Ideal Thanksgiving, about 60 F, but froze
again last night. I have a seedling from LADY EMMA X LITTLE SHOWOFF that
has the pencil-thin stalks and branching of an MTB. Doubt if it will open,
but isn't it interesting to get the MTB from such a cross. So far all
seedlings of LADY EMMA have had poor flowers. Lloyd Zurbrigg in Durham NC
