seed treatment

[Catwheazle]

Hi,
on Ontario Rock Garden & Hardy plant society i found lot of information for proven germination techniques.
(at ORG&HPS Seed Ecange 2012-2013)
there is something similar here in the forum or does anyone have a source of information?

regards
Bernd

[Maggi Young]

Yes, the  Ontario RGS site  has  good information :
http://www.onrockgarden.com/page/germination-guide-overview
http://www.onrockgarden.com/germination-guide/plants


A Forum search for Seed germination brings up quite a few threads with those words in the title.


http://www.srgc.net/forum/index.php?topic=5209.msg143588#msg143588    :

Seed Germination Theory and Practice- Norman Deno - thread contains links to Deno's papers online  as well as to the Ontario reorts you refer to.

These links to Dr Deno's "Seed Germination: Theory and Practice" and the two supplemental books are free downloads at the USDA National Agriculture Library online site. I know this book is out of print and nearly impossible to find. I hope this information is useful.

Title: Seed germination, theory and practice.

Title: First supplement to the second edition of Seed germination theory and practice.


Title: Second supplement to Seed germination theory and practice.

Edit by Maggi : my apologies : the links for these papers seem not to work any more I will see what  alternative I can find

National Agricultural Library Digital Collections
pdf s to download are linked to on each of these pages from the US site :


Seed germination, theory and practice
http://naldc.nal.usda.gov/catalog/41278


First supplement to the second edition of Seed germination theory and practice.
http://naldc.nal.usda.gov/catalog/41279


 Second supplement to Seed germination theory and practice.
  http://naldc.nal.usda.gov/catalog/41277

[Margaret]

On the subject of seed, does anyone have information on cleaning collected seed.

I have a sieve and do lots of tray tapping and the odd bit of controlled blowing but all in all it is very hit and miss and very time consuming. Any tips would be gratefully received.

[Maggi Young]

For the most part, cleaning seed is a process, as you suggest, of removing any debris from the seed to leave the finished seed as free from excess material as possible.

This site is a useful one for many seed related  reasons ( including germination!) : http://theseedsite.co.uk/harvesting.html

There are various posts throughout the forum on cleaning particularly messy or tricky  seed, such a arisaema and daphne.
Kristl Walek's wonderful series of threads on "My Bit of Heaven" give some amazing insight into the whole process of collecting and processing all sorts of seed.
http://www.srgc.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=1699.0
http://www.srgc.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=2984.0
http://www.srgc.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=5267.0
http://www.srgc.net/forum/index.php?topic=7614.0

There are other sites.....   http://homepage.tinet.ie/~merlyn/seedsaving.html for instance

[Margaret]

That's wonderful, Maggi, thank you very much.

[Catwheazle]

Great 
lot of thanks !
Bernd

[Garden Prince]

The books by Norman Deno are very informative but their is one flaw. He got a lot of seeds for free from seed sellers across the world. I think many sent him old packets of seeds that were lying around 

If there is one thing I like to stress in this context is that seed from certain species must be fresh and/or stored in the right way. Some species loose viability  very quickly  (Daphne for exemple) so must be sown straight away. Other species must be stored cold and moist (Magnolia and Acer palmatum for example) otherwise germination rates will be dramatically low. That some seed companies sell dried out seeds of species of which we know that this is detrimental to their viability, is a real shame, especially as this seed is usually not cheap to buy.

So it is good to know what the germination practices for different species are but if you get seed that is dead on arrival the germination guidelines will not be very helpful.


Does anyone know how you can harvest and clean very fine seeds? How do seed companies get clean seed (OK, sometimes a little chaff) from plants that have very fine seeds? I have some seed heads of Hydrangea heteromalla. If you try to blow away the chaff you also blow away the seeds.  Just sow chaff and seeds?

[Maggi Young]

The links initially given to the Deno downloads  on longer worked - Here are new links ( and they are in the edited post  from above also)

National Agricultural Library Digital Collections
pdf s to download are linked to on each of these pages from the US site :


Seed germination, theory and practice
http://naldc.nal.usda.gov/catalog/41278


First supplement to the second edition of Seed germination theory and practice.
http://naldc.nal.usda.gov/catalog/41279


 Second supplement to Seed germination theory and practice.
  http://naldc.nal.usda.gov/catalog/41277