Re: Echinacea

Echinacea seed needs three months stratification (meaning cool and damp).  The traditional methods to achieve this are either to a) plant the seed in flats, water, and leave outdoors in the winter; or b) mix the seed with moist sand / potting mix / paper towels / whatever, put in a baggie,  and put in the fridge for three months.  Check once in a while to make sure they are still damp.   By the end of three months many of them will have sprouted in the fridge, and others will sprout after you bring the bag out.  You then pot up the little sprouts and grow them normally.

I don't use the outdoor method because of the huge snail population around here, and the baggie method seems like too much bother to me, what with potting up the little sprouts individually and handling them in loose soil...What I do is just plant them in a flat, put the entire flat in a plastic bag, and put that in the fridge.  Of course does mean I have a whole fridge shelf devoted to stacked trays of various stratification-requiring seeds.

Good luck :-)
-- Susannah


At 05:39 AM 7/21/2002 -0700, L Schmiege wrote:

Hello,

I have tried planting Echinaca from seed and have a terrible time getting them to come up.  Any suggestions?

Lorraine Schmiege

Just above Athens, Greece, hot, hot summers, no rain and a cold winter with a bit of snow and almost freezing weather.

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