Re: HYB: germination data-terms

The germination of a seed and the plant that results is the only thing that really matters. A seed that tried to germinate and failed is what it is, a failure. It only tried.
My goal is to germinate seedlings, not collect data of no use. For the last few years I have been burying my pots in the ground. This has giving me lots better averages. I believe the pots above ground had seeds try to germinate early and were frozen. The ground kept the temperatures from varying as much. I found may seeds that were mushy.
The point I tried to make about the ones planted in late March was they had less than a month to chill.
A couple years ago I froze a bunch of seeds for 3 months and planted in March. They did not germinate very well, less than 10%. The next year they did a lot better. Now I get enough I don't save any of the pots for a second year.
( A few stalwart souls who are planting their seeds directly outside) My guess is about 95% of the hybredizers. 

Mike Greenfield
----- Original Message ----- From: "christian foster" <flatnflashy@yahoo.com> 
To: <iris@hort.net>
Sent: Sunday, June 21, 2009 2:33 PM
Subject: [iris] HYB: germination data-terms
I've been following the recent thread about germination processes. This year is no different from any other year I can remember.
I feel I must stamp my foot and scowl for a moment. We are not being specific with our terminology, and as a result some of the data that is being offered is corrupted.
A few stalwart souls who are planting their seeds directly outside are reporting "germination" rates, but this is inaccurate. If the germination rate is being calculated based upon the number of green seedlings detected at the soil surface this is not technically a germination rate. Rather this is the number of seedlings which both germinated AND survived to that level of maturity.
If we are comparing that data to data on burrito germination, which is presumably a count of the number of seeds that actually produced a root sprout, then we are comparing apples to oranges. Arguably, if they don't emerge above ground there is no value in the seed 
either way, but I'm only arguing that it is a different data set.
I think there is value in both sets of data. I just want to note that there is a difference between a seed that has not germinated (yet) and a seed that germinated but failed before the plant was detected above ground. 

christian

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