Re: HYB: seed germination
- Subject: Re: HYB: seed germination
- From: L* M*
- Date: Fri, 22 Feb 2002 06:20:49 -0500
Vicki Craig said:
<We see little germination until late March or early April>
Vicki, do you know what soil temperature is at that time? If not, what
garden vegetables or annuals is that the right time to plant? Is it
spinach/lettuce planting time, corn & bean time, summer squash time, or
cucumber time? I'm assuming it's after green pea planting time.
I've given up on any more of my first batch of toilet soaked/fridge
chilled seeds germinating and have put the rest back in the fridge for
awhile. Very low germination, similar to results I've been getting from
seeds planted outdoors over the winter. And like seeds outdoors,
they've been subjected to wild swings in temperature after they came out
of the fridge, but more even moisture supply. I wonder if some got too
warm & induced secondary dormancy? Or maybe they simply are duds.
The second batch of seeds (some are more of the same crosses) came out
of the fridge yesterday. Just for fun, I scraped the seed coat off half
the seeds to see if maybe that will improve germination. One cross was
showing signs of germinating already, the others looked fat and sassy,
but no signs of germination.
Of the individual seeds that looked healthy after the soak & chill,
scraping off the soft seed coat is a sure way to detect the few bad
ones. Only two out of about a hundred? normal looking seeds were
squishy. Reassuring that at least the seeds seem ok - just unwilling to
germinate.
Since most of my crosses are late bloomers, I am still wondering if they
need a longer chill period, but I didn't have enough seeds to put back
in the fridge for another few weeks. Or at least not enough to be able
to tell a difference.
Not nearly as much fun as torching my remnant prairie this week <g>
Linda Mann east Tennessee USA zone 7/8
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