RE: Cult: Seed Germination

Cross post from iris photos

akene. A dry, one-seeded indehiscent fruit, with the pericarp fitting closely around the seed. GardenWeb Glossary of Botanical Terms. ...
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This describes what we have with the iris seeds. The attached article describes some research on germination of rose seed, very relevent to iris seeds, at least in my mind.

The idea of leaving seed  soak for two weeks before vernalization seems very relevent. The photo I posted a few weeks ago of the seeds under lights had exactly those type of conditions. The seeds hadn't germinated over winter in the garage, but hadn't had a warm period first. They were kept watered in the spring and the seeds without germination (about 150 pods) went into the fridge for the summer, about 3.5 months. Germination was spectacular.

The article also has some ideas on scarification of seseds to enhance germination. All of these ideas had been tried with iris seeds at differnt times and some moderate imporvment had been noted.

The best idea seems period of warmer temperature before vernalization.

Chuck Chapman

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