Re: Re: HYB: Germination!

Well, fortunately I did record the number of seeds for each cross that I had harvested.  These germinations were baffling to me so the data may not be useful and I'll explain.

My seeds from the total of 5 crosses were from directly related sib crosses the same year and the ones that I had planted last year were from what I considered to be the better seedling parents than this year's planted seeds.  

The germination on these crosses was very poor and I had noted that to myself back then.  One cross of 52 seeds only gave me 9 seedlings.  The other two crosses, one with 35 and the other with 28 seeds, I obtained absolutely no seedlings.  That was with the normal 12 week vernalization.  Since they weren't germinating I temperature cycled them for a while and still got nothing.  Then I used the cutting method and STILL got nothing.  I should redo these two crosses and try holding some of them for an extra year in a dry refridgerated state and see if that helps and go ahead and try to germinate some my usual way to see if I can repeat the lack of germination.

The cross that is germinating this year has approximately 200 seeds from different sibling parents than the other four crosses and on the surface they predominantly differ in aesthetic appearances.  All 6 parents appear similar in growth habits and flowering times and none with rebloom so far (although they have rebloom in their backround).

So, now that I  think about it these plants might be good candidates for an experiment just for the purpose of studying this phenomenon.  If nothing else just to get some more viable seedling material from a seemingly dead end family of crosses.

Paul Archer
Raleigh, NC  Zone 7



>Any comparison data for similarly bred seeds handled the "usual" way 
>(whatever that might be for you)?

---------------------------------------------------------------------
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