RE: CULT & HYB: Poppers and greenhouses

Good evening!
 
Okay, I guess I get to expound on my seedling story a bit!  :-)  Sorry I didn't clarify some things in the first place!
 
I live in North-east Michigan, and winter will settle in here about mid-November.  Right now, we're expecting the first frost to come in about 2 or 3 weeks.  My iris seed pods started splitting 3 weeks ago, and I harvested them all, starting with SDB's.  I took off the last 2 TB pods last week.  The seeds were still plump, but were already tan-brown in color.  I dried them in my home in Dixie cups on top of my piano.  They did not mold or mildew.  >>Last year, I planted my seeds in November, and watered them 'till it froze well.  Only FIVE seeds germinated out of 937.  I attributed it to lack of proper moisture previous to winter set-in.  Conclusively, This spring all seeds that I dug up to check on still had the coating on the seeds, and they DID NOT pop when I squeezed them.  I believed that I needed to keep watering the ungerminated seed pots all summer long, but in July I stopped watering them.  Now, it seems that those seeds from year 2004 have rotted in the pots.  
 
This year I have 817 seeds potted up.  I have heard of hybridizers soaking seeds in toilet bowl tanks for up to 10 weeks before planting or refridgerating.  If this is true, then in 10 weeks, It will be November 12, and frost will be quite regular by then. I hope to get the same results using the benefit of Fall and a good Mid-west winter.  My hope is that the anti-germination coating will be washed off before Christmas, which here in Michgian we'll have 2-4 inches of snow on the ground. (normally!)   
 
Now, regarding the greenhouse that you all so keenly spotted in the photo. :-)   It's a facade, plain and simple!  Hehehehe. It was built to be an actual greenhouse for me about 8-10 years ago, but the Michigan winds blew the doors (both of them) off it completely, as well as some of the vent windows.  The efforts to fix it were postponed, and now I just cleaned it up from the 9foot tall elm trees that were growing in it.  If  you look at the photo again, you'll see a great shadow on the left side of the plastic greenhouse material.  Those are 9-10 foot tall elm trees that are shading 80% of the sun from really penetrating or heating up the greenhouse.  Combined with the 2 missing doors and 1 missing window, it really doesn't hold heat in summer or winter.  In fact, every plant previously living and growing in it always went dormant for winter--just like all the plants did outside the greenhouse.  Heck, I even have SNOW drifts in that thing in January!
 
Now, I do plan on boarding up 1/2 of the greenhouse in March, 2006.  Maybe add a space heater and thaw out those pots from what will be their 3 1/2 month sub-zero freeze.  The weather here will be mostly cold yet, and the ground will still be frozen yet 'till about April 15. 
 
If anyone wants to see the photo of my seed in pots,(in the "greenhouse") it's on the iris photos website.  Click on the September link.
 
Thanks to everyone for your help.  I'm still open to more suggestions.  I felt I was doing things right this year, but maybe I really am jumping the gun on watering the seeds??  
 
Griff and "pharcher" -- thanks a bunch!  Please keep up your input!
Linda, thanks for the answer to the popping seeds!  I may just toss out the whole lot if more of them that are rotten like that.  I'll be searching through them next week for more "poppers."
 
Cheers!
Adam~
 

---------------------------------
Adam Cordes
President -- Mio Irisarians
Hillman, Michigan
Region 6
Zone 4 (and a half. . . )
<><

Linda Mann <lmann@volfirst.net> wrote:
Popping seeds be bad, Adam. They either never formed embryos or
rotted.

--
Linda Mann east Tennessee USA zone 7/8
East Tennessee Iris Society 
American Iris Society web site 
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