Re:HYB: germination data-terms

Could you provide some info on when your seeds germinate. You say less then a month, so does that mean you see first seedling at the end of April, or that all seeds have germinated at that time? Personn ally I would have expected late May.
Typically I see seeds germinate over several weeks. That is between first seed and last seed that germinates in a tray there is usually a week or two.
Freezing seeds doesn't seem to do anything to help seeds germinate. The cumulated hours of chilling does. I'm sure this varies from seeds to seeds. I have had some seeds germinate within a week of going into fridge for chilling , in damp peat moss after going through soaking and rinsing for 5-7 days. Chilling temeratures are typically between 0-12C, with apparent best temp between 3-10C . Same results for "stratification" of seeds as for 'Vernalization" of plants. Lots of research on this.
There appears to be photoperiod dormant iris plants and cold period dornmant iris plants. Seeds from these two types may very well have different tempature chilling requirements. 

Chuck Chapman

Date: Sun, 21 Jun 2009 22:09:26 -0400
From: "Mike Greenfield" <mgreenfield@cinci.rr.com>
Subject: Re: [iris] 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

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