Freezing Seeds
- To: i*@rt66.com
- Subject: Freezing Seeds
- From: s*@meridianmktg.com
- Date: Thu, 3 Oct 1996 17:06:23 +0000
Well, here I go, un-lurking again. I've gotta stop this...
I can vouch for the fact that you CAN freeze DRIED iris seeds,
and successfully germinate them.
My usual method of germinating (mostly bearded) iris seeds is to
first air DRY them (when they are harvested, as the pods ripen),
and store them for a while in the fridge. I then plant them about
1/2inch apart (in all directions) in large pots (the number of
seeds per pot varies depending on the size of the pot and the
number of seeds to a cross - I'm trying to get all the seeds for
a single cross in a single pot for my own convenience), put
sphagnum moss into the tops of the pots, and sink the pots in the
garden under about a foot of mulch (salt marsh hay) in late
October or early November (when the leaves fall around here in
southern Massachusetts). I leave them that way, frozen like
everything else out there, during the winter, until mid-March,
when I either bring them in the house to germinate, or put a cold
frame over them to get them warm enough to germinate.
I have also store DRIED iris seed in the freezer and successfully
germinated it the following year with no ill effect.
I have a sneaking suspicion that freezing FRESH iris seed may be
hazardous to its health...
Stephanie Markham (smarkham@meridianmktg.com) - (from Norfolk,
Massachusetts, a tiny town that time forgot and the decades
cannot improve -- and where the first frost is only days away...)
------------------------------Reply Separator--------------------
Date: Wed, 02 Oct 1996 13:10:02 -0700
From: John I Jones <jijones@ix.netcom.com>
To: iris-l@rt66.com
Subject: Re: Freezing seeds
Message-ID: <3252CC1A.7B91@ix.netcom.com>
Laurent Tardif wrote:
>
> John your advice and that of Clarence is to not freeze the
seeds!!!
> What would be your opinion if you dealt with plants indigeneous
to my part
> of the
> freezing world (Quebec where it goes down to -35 far. degres).
> Luckely we did not get any frost yet and the garden is still in
bloom
> partially, but we are toying with nearby frost, we will get
it!too soon.
Laurent
I am out of my element concerning seeds. In the immortal words of
Sgt Schultz
-
"I know nothingk". I was just relaying something I had in
archive, and will
let
others respond to you about freezing. Sorry
John
--
---------------------------
Date: Wed, 2 Oct 1996 08:45:52 -0600
From: tlittle@lanl.gov (Tom Tadfor Little)
To: iris-l@rt66.com
Subject: Re: Freezing seeds
Message-ID: <v01520d00ae782eb993ee@[128.165.66.193]>
Laurent write
:John your advice and that of Clarence is to not freeze the
seeds!!!
:What would be your opinion if you dealt with plants indigeneous
to my part
:of the
:freezing world (Quebec where it goes down to -35 far. degres).
I just read in Currier McEwen's book _The Siberian Iris_ that
iris seeds
frozen in storage do not germinate. Dr. McEwen (and me too)
regards this
as somewhat mysterious, since iris seeds surely freeze when
planted
outdoors in many climates, and germinate just fine.
BTW, I highly recommend this book to all iris growers, not just
Siberian
fanciers. McEwen has a tremendous wealth of knowledge about
growing and
breeding irises, and it is very nicely presented in the book.
There's a
lot of just plain good gardening advice in this book!
===============================================================
Tom Tadfor Little tlittle@lanl.gov -or- telp@Rt66.com
technical writer/editor Los Alamos National Laboratory
---------------------------------------------------------------
Telperion Productions http://www.rt66.com/~telp/
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