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Re: outdoor sowing of perennials

I start about 300-400 4-inch pots of seed outdoors every year.  Mostly,
these are wild or garden-collected seed of rock garden and shade-garden
perennials from various horticultural exchanges.

The seed is usually received in mid-winter [from early December to late
January].  I treat 90% of this seed in the same manner: the seed compost
is commercial peat-perlite [about 1:1], lightened with about 30-50%
additional sand, by volume.  Seed is surface-sowed [small seed] or covered
to about 1 seed diameter.  Then I cover the soil surface with chicken grit
[crushed quartz or quartzite].  The pots, in flats, are left exposed to
weather on my deck, but covered with scrap aluminum-frame window screens.
These keep out birds, etc, and break the force of raindrops.

Germination begins within a week or two in mild periods [like now], and
continues through mid-spring.  However, very little seed germinates after
May 15, that is after daytime temperatures reach the high 70s or low 80s
for a few days.

Germination, in some cases [eg, bulbs], would be better if seed was sown
in autumn.  But don't have the seeds then..

loren russell, Corvallis, oregon
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