Re: RE: HYB: Germination

Mary Lou -- Actually, 50 of 55 lots germinated last year. It was the rate of germination in the individual lots that was poor (relative to other years). Other hybridizers in this area had similar results. Since some lots germinate later than others, it's a little early to predict what this year's rate will be, but, so far, it looks encouraging. I've done nothing differently this year.

I'm also heartened by the appearance of sprouts in several containers held over from last year. In order to salvage ungerminated seeds last year, I dumped the seedlings from their 1-gallon pots onto a table; then, after extracting the seedlings, I scraped the left-over dirt into small aluminum loaf pans, labeled them, and set them in the winter frame where they weathered through summer until I covered them with pine straw in fall as I did the new seed pots. Obviously, just dumping the dirt into the pans meant that some seeds were deep in the pans and some shallow, but some 2d-year germination is better than none. Since the loaf pans are shallow, however, the roots are going to be more constricted, probably less well-developed, and definitely more susceptible to damping-off than those of the seeds planted in pots. I'll try to alleviate their stressed conditions by transplanting them earlier than the pot-planted seedlings. -- Griff


----- Original Message ----- From: "Mary Swann-Young" <MryL1@msn.com>
To: "iris" <iris@hort.net>
Sent: Friday, March 24, 2006 5:32 PM
Subject: [iris] RE: HYB: Germination


Congratulations, Griff, on your excellent results this year!

What did you do differently? I remember your results were abysmal last year!

Mary Lou, near Indianapolis, Z5 - about 400 seedlings (broken ground) living
with me

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