Re: HYB: Coddling Seedlings
- Subject: Re: HYB: Coddling Seedlings
- From: I*@aol.com
- Date: Sat, 13 Feb 1999 21:04:35 EST
From: IRISROT@aol.com
In a message dated 2/13/99 4:13:47 PM Pacific Standard Time, Lbaumunk@aol.com
writes:
> From: Lbaumunk@aol.com
>
> I'm a big believer in coddling seedlings. I sometimes read hybridizers
> saying
> that they treat seedlings roughly, and that if they die, all the better
> because that cultivar wouldn't be sufficiently hardy.
>
> There are many things that can kill an iris. If a new seedling dies, we
> will
> never have a chance to truly determine its worth. I'm sure that the effort
> of
> doing every thing possible to keep seedlings will pay off with some good
> cultivars that might not otherwise have survived.
>
> It's easy to "test" your plants by neglecting them; not so easy to
> facilitate
> each one achieving its potential by working to grow them as well as
possible.
>
>
Hi Lowell,
This is why hybridizing is so much fun just like growing iris we all have our
own way of doing things. I don't baby my seedlings but I feel I do what I
should to help them survive. But I have never been one to coddle anything in
my garden I want plants that will survive even if I am not around for a time.
Reason I don't spray for leafspot I want to know which ones are resisitance to
that disease same goes for the iris borer.
Some of you may be interested in this....I picked my iris pods in 1997 while
still green just as the pod was turning white on the end and beginning to
shrivel. I then planted them immediately in two size of pots. I didn't worry
whether the seedling was an SDB or a TB when planting. I used a qt and a
gallon pot and lsome intersting things from this experiment. The ones planted
in the quart size containers were still very small plants in July while the
ones planted in the gallon containers were very large. About 1/4 of these will
bloom this coming spring if I had planted them in the spring as I should have
most of these would have bloomed. I also have info on how many seed I planted
of each variety and also germination times. If you would like I will post this
information. I plan on doing this experiment again this coming year to see if
I get the same results. But I did find that germination was very good better
than what I have had in the past.
Jim LOveland Fenton, Mo Zone 5
west of St. Louis
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