Paeonia from seed

[Catwheazle]

Today I Paeonia obovata seeds sown, which I got from Phedar nurserys (UK).
First scratched with a file, then swell in water for 2 days. Today in the pot. 3 months warm, 3 months in the refrigerator and then should show what:-)
If not .... I still have to wait a year to first sheet comes:-(

does anyone have an better (faster) method?

Greetings
Bernd

[Leena]

I'm afraid there is no faster method for peonies.
I don't scratch the seeds, but soak them overnight, then sow and keep warm until the root emerges (3 months or more)  and grows to about two cm (if in vermiculite in ziplog bag you can see when this happens).
Then I place the seeds in cold and after three months or more when the spring comes the first shoot shows.
Peony seeds need first warm period for the root to start growing (summer and early autumn) and then cold temperatures (winter), before they start to grow. Sometimes dry seeds are slow to wake up, if your seeds don't grow root in warm this winter, I would plant them outside and then they get natural warm and cold and will germinate in spring 2016.

[Catwheazle]

(if in vermiculite in ziplog bag you can see when this happens). .... thats a really good idea :-)

I scratch the seeds when tey are dry, and i let them soak till they are sunk.

Bernd

[Leon]

I have soaked some Paeonia tenuifolia seeds for two days.  They still float very high in the water.  When I put them in the water I saw they were very dry so I have them weighted down to keep them below water. Hopefully that will make them soak up water faster.  A friend told me that if he tries to scarify peony seeds they are likely to mold.   My best luck with peony seed has been to plant them in the ground as soon as the seeds are mature, but these seeds came from a donor just this week.  It is much to cold outside now to get initial germination.

[Maggi Young]

When we soak any seed to rehydrate it, we generally add just a tiny amount of soap to the water to help break the surface tension. We just smear a touch of washing up liquid on a finger-tip and swish it in the water- only a tiny amount is needed.

[Catwheazle]

Good idea :-)

[Leon]

Thank you,
I will try that

[GordonT]

I was ready to give up on the Paeonia seed from the 2013-14 exchange (soaked, scarified and placed between layers of moist paper towel in zip lock bags at room temperature for several months). In spite of no sign of pre-germination, all were sown in pots, and moved to the unheated greenhouse for the remainder of the summer.

I examined them all yesterday, as the smaller pots would need to be potted on into larger containers for the winter. Paeonia emodi, Paeonia mlokosewitschii, Paeonia obovata alba, and Paeonia suffruticosa alba have all germinated below soil level. Cool to cold temperatures over winter should trigger above ground growth by early to mid spring. Now I am looking forward to adding to the collection.

[Leena]

For me also most peony seeds from last winter's seed exchange had grown root by this autumn  . The first started to show root growth  in May (kept warm and moist in vermiculite) but most in late summer. I planted the seeds with roots in the ground and hope to see germination in the spring.

I have also heard that scratching may increase mold in seeds, but have no experience of scratching myself. I have thought that if the seeds are not fully developed and viable then they will get mold, and sometimes some seeds get moldy  but this usually happens in the first months in warm, I remove them at once and throw away. I have had seeds which look good and hard, but don't germinate until several cycles of warm and cold, it may have been even three years before they start to grow root, so I never throw away good looking seeds.

[Robert Pavlis]

I have never tried to scarify (scratch) Paeonia seed, but I have done that to Kentucky Coffee Tree (Gymnocladus dioica) seed and it rots. Unscarified seed germinates just fine. Since then I rarely scarify seed.

I have been germinating Paeonia for a few years and this is how I do it. The seed forms the radicle at room temperatures, and the leaf at cool temps (I use about 7C in a fridge). I soak the seeds overnight (but I am not sure this is needed). I then put the seeds into a plastic sandwich bag (we call them baggies), add some Promix (soiless seed starting mix) and a bit of water. I then sit them on my desk at room temperature.

Once the root starts I leave them sitting on my desk. Hopefully this happens during winter so that I can time leaf growth with spring. You can leave the plants in this condition for many months. The root just gets bigger and bigger and starts to make side branches. I've read they can sit like this for 6 months with no harm.

Once you have a good root, move them to the cold. A leaf will start to grow. Once this happens I like to pot them up and keep them in high humidify for a few days and slowly condition them to room humidity. After that treat them like any other seedling.

If I only have a few seeds, I take the ones that have a root developed and move them to the cold, and leave the unsprouted ones warm for them to sprout and form roots.

This process can be slow, or fairly fast. I am not sure if this is due to quality of seed, or species. Some seed never germinates, and some has taken 2 years. One of the reasons I like the baggy method is that they take no room or care during the long wait. I might add water every 3-4 weeks or so.

Any seed that is not germinated by spring will be put into cold storage even if the radicle has not developed. I don't know if this helps germination, but it might. Mostly I do this because I don't want them germinating in early summer, which means they won't make a leaf until fall--I don't want to handle seedlings in fall.

I received the following seed in early 2014 from SeedEx's:
Paeonia anomala-germinated in fall--lots of roots right now
Paeonia suffruiticosa--germinated a few at a time over a years period (since spring 2012)
Paeonia veitchii v. woodwardii--germinated in fall--lots of roots right now
paeonia obovata--very sporadic germination over a couple of years.
paeonia cambessedesii--2 out of 5 germinated in the last couple of weeks from spring 2014

I'll probably move these to the cold in mid  to late January so that I see leaves by March 1, at which time I will have my lights going and can handle the seedlings.

[Robert Pavlis]

Here are some pictures of my bag of P. anomala--probably 30 seedlings.