Re: Re: RE: 2005 germinants

Thomas,
   
  As a matter of fact I think I may modify my technique in the coming season.  Although this year's germinants so far are a 3300% increase over previous crops, I think that some of my seed loss may be due to too much water being absorbed at the wrong stage.  I went through my notes on culled pods from this year and in every case I had made a note that I thought the burrito was too wet.  I think I will burrito the seeds directly out of the pod and refridgerate them for a few weeks in dry burritos.  Still musing over that one.
   
  However, while I have lost 25% of my pods/crosses to rot, half of the losses were LITTLE FREAK crosses and as such proabably infertile anyway.(I think that's one of those diploid/triploid/tetraploid incompatability things)  Several other culled crosses were harvested very early, one intentionally harvested at four weeks.  This may mean that four weeks old is too early, in my climate anyway to harvest seeds.

  hmmm, Thomas, maybe I should look and see if any of the crosses which are germinating have any notes about the oil coat....I'll have to get back to y'all on that.
  Anyway, my guess would be that the oil coat I'm refering to might be related to the cold stratification, because I have felt the oil shedding on seeds that were not shedding a stain anymore.
   
  funny that you should mention daylily seeds, I harvested some of those in '04 just for fun, stuck them in a wet burrito and forgot it for three months.  Ended up with about 100 germinants, but wasn't motivated enough to keep after them.
   
  Christian
  ky
  
thomas silvers <tesilvers@yahoo.com> wrote:
  Christian,
It's interesting that you mentioned an "oil coat".
I've also thought that the seed coat of iris seeds
seems very water-repellant, almost oily. Maybe you're
on to something there.

Do you ever have any problems with rotting by having
your seeds so very wet for so long? I kept daylily
seeds in very wet burritos in the fridge, and got
terrible rotting; so I've never tried it with iris
seeds.

Good luck with the upcoming season, Tom 

thomas,

Not sure how to answer your question about dormancy.
The theory that the age of a pod at harvest was
somehow related to the development of germination
inhibitors in the seed coat is one I am testing. I
have a good germination success with seeds that are
6-61/2 weeks old at harvest. These seeds are often
still white. The browning of the seeds seems to be
related to exposure to the air, not the age of the
seeds.

For the most part the earliest germinants this year
are from crosses involving 03-9-2 (JESSE'S SONG X
REBOUND) which bloomed out. So for those crosses at
least the hybridizers rule (seeds resulting from your
own seedlings germinate earlier than others) seems to
apply.

In reference to my bathroom, I keep the stratified
burritoes that have already germinated at least one
seed in the bathroom (with the door closed) because
the temperature is more stable. We finally started
having fall/winter temps a couple weeks ago and so the
heat was kicking regularly enough that the temp in the
bathroom is up a few degrees from the rest of the
house.

As far as leeching, I don't do the 'standard' dry
then soak then refrigerate. What has worked for me so
far has been burritos directly from pod. Fairly wet
burritos... straight into the fridge. By about four
weeks... maybe six, the seeds 'shed' an oil coat. 
There seems to be a connection between the oil coat
and aggressive germination, but I don't have enough
data yet. Regardless of the oil coat, if you use
white paper towels then you have a barometer of the
leeching of the brown stain onto the towels. That
stain is supposedly what the soaking is leeching out
anyway.

but what do I know 03-9-2 was the first seedling I got
to bloom. Still only one surviving from the eight
crosses that year. I can't hardly wait for May!





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