Germination

Recently, Carol asked about germinating ensata seeds and received the 
standard reply about 10 weeks in the refrigerator, etc.  This same answer 
was also quoted some time ago from an Ensata Gardens report.  I just wonder 
if all that work is necessary.  

I became interested in irises a few years ago and decided to begin my 
collection almost entirely from seed.  One reason was the difficulty of 
getting plants across the Canadian border (now much easier) and the other 
was an apparent greater selection of species.  I tried a number of methods 
of germination, most of which gave poor results or required flitting back 
and forth between the refrigerator and the note book.  I finally settled on 
a very easy and simple method which seems to give me excellent results with 
almost all species that I have tried.

Germination Method

450 ml clear, round, plastic pots (plastic should be "rubbery" not "brittle" 
plastic) from the supermarket about two thirds filled with "good" soil - 
maybe a little peat.  About One third of a cup of water so soil is fairly 
moist but not wet (water will not pour off).

Each seed is held with a finger nail and nicked with a scappel (just enough 
to reveal the seed through the shell although the cut need not penetrate 
right through the shell.)  Seeds into pot with a little soil cover and wait!

As the pots are stacked 5 high, on a shelf indoors during the winter and 
outdoors during the summer, they can be examined weekly in a couple of 
minutes.  They tend to "mist up", so that each stack is tapped on the top 
before examination.  This clears the mist.  Watering is rarely required, 
about once every three months.

As the seeds germinate, the lids are taken off and watering increased to 
maintain a moist, but not wet soil.  When seedlings are to be transplanted, 
a spoon is used to take them out of the pot.  The lid is replaced and the 
pot returned to the stack.  This allows other seeds to germinate and the 
process repeated.

Computer labels (Avery) are placed on the lid of the pots with full details 
of the seeds.  When the seedlings are growning, the lids are placed under 
the pot.

This system appears to be efficient, successful, and removes much of the 
fiddling required with other methods.  It also appears to negate the need to 
refrigerate the seeds (despite Deno and others). 

Afer about 18 months, I assume most seeds have germinated (a record of seed 
numbers and germination and can be written in pencil on the label if 
required) and I put everything in the garbage and continue with the next 
year's batch, which is already underway.
 
I find the next stage more difficult.  Planting out in a seed bed has so far 
resulted in many losses to sparrows and drying out. Planting out to small 
pots (3 inches) seems more successful for me but is still a problem.

I also have to persuade my wife that I need space for 150 pots in front of a 
window each winter and space, in the bedroom, for a dozen 12 inch pots of 
African irises that take years from germination(I have waited 4 now) to 
flowering!

I hope that this method might make life easier for some of the beginners, 
like myself.

Ian E. Efford
Ottawa
avocet@worldlink.ca 
Zone 4 in the summer and 3 in the winter!
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