RE: Re: CULT: Late Frosts
- Subject: RE: [iris-talk] Re: CULT: Late Frosts
- From: J* R*
- Date: Fri, 16 Mar 2001 11:32:24 -0800
Getting iris crosses to "take" isn't hard (except for certain relatively
infertile cultivars). Success rates vary from 15% to 80%; early morning
pollinization works best for me, when newly opened flowers are still moist
inside. Germination can be inconsistent; 0% to 100% for any given cross.
Survival rates depend on care, but should be 70% to 100%.
Finally the day arrives when your children are ready to show themselves.
Each new stalk leaves you eager, anticipating. Sadly, most of the results
(though interesting) are ultimately disappointing. Until THAT ONE opens.
Makes it all worthwhile. So you go out and waste even more mony on the
latest and greatest introduction to improve your broodstock. The start of a
vicious cycle, spiralling ever downward into a hopeless addiction from which
there is no recovery. Are we having fun yet?
John Reeds
jreeds@microsensors.com
> ----------
> From:
> patriciabrooks@coupeville.net[SMTP:patriciabrooks@coupeville.net]
> Reply To: iris-talk@yahoogroups.com
> Sent: Friday, March 16, 2001 11:19 AM
> To: iris-talk@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: [iris-talk] Re: CULT: Late Frosts
>
> Donald et. al.,
>
> This suggestion is made in complete ignorance, since I haven't had
> iris crosses to process yet. But this island is subject to serious
> wind as well, so I made a crude coldframe using discarded broken
> cement blocks (I have to rely on ingenuity, having so little $),
> which shelter pots carrying sprouts, and top them with warped, so
> discarded, window screens. This has worked well on other types of
> seedlings, shielding from wind but open to rain. I set the (usually
> peat-potted) seedlings on something that drains, so they won't sit in
> water, once they've gotten too big for the windowsills, allowing them
> to harden outside before being subjected to winds and floods.
>
> Thought I'd try it this year with iris crosses -- assuming I get some
> that 'take,' since I've now invested all my money in irises for the
> hybridizing project I have in mine. It'll be throat-cutting time if
> I find myself totally inept at making crosses!
>
> Patricia, on Whidbey Island, WA.
>
>
> --- In iris-talk@y..., "Donald Eaves" <donald@e...> wrote:
> > Thanks Foley,
> >
> > I appreciate the input. I believe it's probably true. But along
> with the
> > freeze we are having winds gusting to forty mph. Our usual in
> March and
> > April. I gone to to great lengths in the past to protect the buds
> from
> > freezing. Only to have the predicted freeze fail to materialize
> followed by
> > an unpredicted freeze that wiped everything out. I have too many
> to cover
> > and the track record is not good. I'll be gathering up things not
> anchored
> > down for the next few days. You'd think I'd learn, but there's
> always
> > something left the wind can grab and move a few hundred yards. I
> call it
> > iris bloom weather.
> >
> > Donald Eaves
> > donald@e...
> > Texas Zone 7, USA
>
>
>
>
>
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