HYB: germination & weather

After 3 weeks in the fridge, when brought to 50 to 60oF, about 1 to 3%
of seeds germinated in crosses that germinated at all.

After that, we had 2 or 3 weeks or however long that cold spell in
December lasted, seed flats were in temperatures on the 'sun' porch that
were below 50oF most of the time, occasionally below 40oF.

In the last few weeks, temperatures on the sun porch have been reaching
nearly 70oF on the warmest sunniest days, triggering another flush of
seed germination.  Germination in crosses that have germinated at all is
now up to between 10 and 20% for most.

The good news on the seeds planted outdoors last fall in the 'normal'
way - only one seed out of more than thirty crosses (around 1000 seeds?)
germinated during this warm spell outdoors.  Looks like they didn't get
enough chilling yet to germinate.  It's now getting below freezing again
at night, so I'm pretending they are all going to be fine.

Maybe with this cycling between cold and warm, they will think it's the
second year and there will be more germination than usual when spring
comes!
--
Linda Mann east Tennessee USA zone 7/8
East Tennessee Iris Society <http://www.korrnet.org/etis>
American Iris Society web site <http://www.irises.org>
talk archives: <http://www.hort.net/lists/iris-talk/>
photos archives: <http://www.hort.net/lists/iris-photos/>
online R&I <http://www.irisregister.com>

---------------------------------------------------------------------
To sign-off this list, send email to majordomo@hort.net with the
message text UNSUBSCRIBE IRIS
Other Mailing lists | Author Index | Date Index | Subject Index | Thread Index