Re: HYB: seed preparation

Robin -- I've noticed in Virginia, Maryland and Indiana that adult irises planted against a south-facing wall come into bloom earlier than those planted in other parts of the property. I attribute this to warmth from reflection of the sun off the wall plus the protection from chilling winds that the wall provides. If you can do it, I'd suggest finding a spot on the property where you could sink a couple of 2 x 4 uprights in the ground aligned east and west, nail (or, better, screw) a 3 or 4-foot tall plywood board painted white to them, and line your pots up at the board's south-facing base. If you can partially sink them in a shallow trench, so much the better.

Deer usually bed on the south side of a hill in winter in order to absorb the heat of the sun.

Unlike you, my problem here is getting germination too early, so that the shoots are ready for transplanting before I'm ready to do it. -- Griff

----- Original Message ----- From: "Robin Shadlow" <rshadlow@wildmail.com>
To: <iris@hort.net>
Sent: Saturday, November 04, 2006 12:28 PM
Subject: [iris] HYB: seed preparation


Working on getting those last seeds potted up before it gets too
cold to work. This year I am changing what I have done for the
last three years. I had used different sized pots depending on
how many seeds I had in a cross, 4b? pots for very small crosses,
and up to 10b? hanging baskets for the larger crosses.

The first year, I got very good germintation. Then the second
year it was much reduced, and again reduced the third year. I
determined that the crosses in larger pots were the ones that
failed to germinate in general. The last two years we have had
very warm spells up into the 90s during April. Germination nearly
stopped both times.

Not sure what is going on, maybe the larger pots take longer to
warm through when the conditions that trigger germination start
here. Its also possible that the larger pots donb?Tt leach as well.
The mix has been the same for all three years. Now only using
the mum pots or smaller.

The pots overwinter in a colder area, and I am hoping that moving
them to the front drive in March may get germination started so
that more are up before temps get too high. I should be able to
protect them easily enough against the late storms.

Any one have any opinions what the critical air (or soil temps)
are to stop germination? Also any ideas about other things to try
would be welcome. We have some seeds that would be fine
candidates for experimentation.

Robin Shadlow

zone 5 NE

where if we can't get enough seeds set, better get the ones we
got to germinate : )

Care2 make the world greener!

----------------------------------------------------------------

Stop the Forest Service from killing more wolves, bears, cougars,
and other animals in the wild:
http://go.care2.com/99055

http://www.Care2.com Free e-mail. 100MB storage. Helps
nonprofits.

---------------------------------------------------------------------
To sign-off this list, send email to majordomo@hort.net with the
message text UNSUBSCRIBE IRIS

---------------------------------------------------------------------
To sign-off this list, send email to majordomo@hort.net with the
message text UNSUBSCRIBE IRIS

Other Mailing lists | Author Index | Date Index | Subject Index | Thread Index