RE: Re: HYB: Germination!!

Linda,
	Last year we modified the routine we have been using for several years
(rolling them into damp paper towels) by adding a 10 day soak in the toilet
tank.  I intended to do the same thing this year but forgot until too late.
So, into the fridge they went without benefit of soaking.  The crosses that
have germinated individuals so far include: 5 rebloomers, 1 pink, 3 space
agers, 4 blacks, 2 aril breds, and 1 broken color.  Talk about a grab bag
<VBG>.

Dana Brown
Region 17 Judges Training Chairperson
AIS, MIS, ASI, RIS, TBIS
MALEVIL IRIS GARDENS
Lubbock, TX
Zone 7 USDA, Zone 10 Sunset
 <d*@malevil-iris.com>


-----Original Message-----
From: Linda Mann [l*@volfirst.net]
Sent: Monday, November 04, 2002 3:55 PM
To: iris-talk@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [iris-talk] Re: HYB: Germination!!


Thanks for the info Francelle.  I did <not> soak the seeds I
refrigerated this fall - planted them fresh with nicked seed coats.

Drying a short while to let the seed do whatever it thinks it needs to
do to 'finish', then soaking before chilling may be important to get
good germination. I have borrowed two thick volumes on seed biology for
winter entertainment, so may be able to gain some insight this winter.
So far, a small percentage of mine have germinated, but seeds still look
ok.

Dana, did you soak yours before chilling?

John Jones very generously loaned me (ok, I bribed him with a pint of
east Tennessee molasses) his copy of Vallette's 1950s published
compilation of hybridizing robins.  I quickly skimmed it when it first
came in the door (you know how that goes, walk in the door, sit in the
chair, rip open the box and pour in the info as fast as it will go).
Lots of fascinating stuff in there that I will share as I re-read it.

The main thing that stuck in my mind at first read is that some crosses
(pinks for instance) germinate much more readily than others with less
chilling and fussing around.  Nearly all of the crosses that have
germinated for me from the unsoaked fresh seed are from pink crosses.

I don't know if all pinks germinate more readily, or if only certain
lines do.  I don't think the book clarified that.

So much to rediscover, so little time... <g>

Francelle Edwards   Glendale, AZ said:
<I made an experiment with one pod this summer.  I dried the seeds for
only about a week after harvesting, soaked  them for ten days, and
refrigerated them in late July.  The first of October I took them out
and found most of them germinating.  That's the first time that has
happened for me, and I have refrigerated them as long as four month over
winter.  They were only a few immature looking things anyway, so I
didn't expect much of them; I was really surprised to find them
growing.>

                       I planted them in a pot, and when I got back from
a trip I took, (After all the work I've done on irises this summer, I
decided I deserved a vacation.) they were two inches high.  On the 30th
of October I lined all eleven of them out into the garden and covered
them with a seed blanket about a foot high over them to keep them from
drying out and to moderate the temperatures now ranging from highs in
the 80s to lows in the 50s.  I will see how they get through the winter
like that.  They can't do worse than my seedlings did this summer when
the bed I call the nursery became the morgue.  I don't want to waste
another year's seedlings like that.  Out of 396, I have about 50 left.
At least those are the rot resistant ones.>

--
Linda Mann east Tennessee USA zone 7/8

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