HYB: Coddling Seedlings

From: Sharon McAllister <73372.1745@compuserve.com>

Lowell Baumunk wrote:

>  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.

My babies get TLC.  Without enhanced germination techniques, many of my
introductions wouldn't have had a chance.  Before they're moved outside to
seedling beds, though, they have to toughen up -- so they stay for a while
in an unheated room or even outside in a sheltered nook.  Once lined out,
they get shadecloth.  If that qualifies as coddling, please note that it's
the care mature TBs need.

The shadecloth comes off during the winter before maiden bloom.  I do every
thing I can to give them the chance to bloom and impress me -- but once
they've been selected for further evaluation, the special treatment stops. 
I want to see how their performance compares to that of earlier
introductions, so they need to have the same growing conditions.

Sharon McAllister
73372.1745@compuserve.com




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