Acantholimon caryophyllaceum-how to germinate

[maggiepie]

That's great, Helen.  I just realized/remembered the other day that I'd requested and received Acantholimon caryophyllaceum ssp. caryophyllaceum from the NARGS seedex too (or at least I'm guessing that might be where you got yours?), and planted them on Feb. 17th.  Nothing up yet, but based on your trial here and my previous limited experience with the genus, I'll expect to see them in a few days.

Yep, that's where I got them, Lori.

Seeds were baggied on 9th Feb. No sign of other germinations as yet.

Good luck with yours.

[Lesley Cox]

Helen, do you put all your larger seeds in little bags? (of what, damp vermiculite or?) I have never thought to do such a thing but I guess our winters are a lot milder than yours. Do you lose many when you put them into pots and at what stage do you do that? That would be my worry if I sowed that way, losing them I mean at the transplant stage. Is your new Acantholimon sdlg ready for a pot yet?

[maggiepie]

Lesley, I put ALL my seeds into sandwich sized ziploc baggies with damp vermiculite.
Even do the tiny seeds as well as all my veggie seeds.
Just planted up a few pots of baby hostas from baggies.

The Acantholimon is in a pot already, I wasnt sure if I should wait until it shed the seedcoat.
In the past few weeks I have potted up heaps of geranium seedlings, 3 types of delphiniums, filipendulas, aquilegias, asarina Victoria Falls (only had 2 germinations so far), Maurandya barclayana and some origanums as well as lots of clematis.
For me, I find that picking even tiny seedlings out of vermiculite and potting them up, works best. The tiny roots don't suffer any shock as you pick them out of the vermiculite and they are much tougher than I would have ever believed.
I tend to pot up the seedlings from the tiny seeds when roots are half an inch or more. My losses are mostly because I over/under water them or leave the trays in the sun too long and cook them.

[Lori S.]

If you don't mind me commenting, Helen, your method seems to be a variation on a method that is generally attributed to Dr. Norman Deno, an American Professor Emeritus of Chemistry who undertook scientific study of seed germination, and self-published his results with thousands of species in 3 volumes (the first in 1993).  His method, more specifically, is to start seeds on moistened, folded paper towel that is enclosed inside a Baggie.  This was done in order to save effort, expense and especially, space, while experimenting with seed germination to see what conditions (cold, warm, repeated cycles thereof, etc.) removed germination inhibitors.

[maggiepie]

If you don't mind me commenting, Helen, your method seems to be a variation on a method that is generally attributed to Dr. Norman Deno, an American Professor Emeritus of Chemistry who undertook scientific study of seed germination, and self-published his results with thousands of species in 3 volumes (the first in 1993).  His method, more specifically, is to start seeds on moistened, folded paper towel that is enclosed inside a Baggie.  This was done in order to save effort, expense and especially, space, while experimenting with seed germination to see what conditions (cold, warm, repeated cycles thereof, etc.) removed germination inhibitors.

Don't mind at all, Lori, I started using baggies after reading about the method on GB when I first started playing with clematis seeds.
I got the idea from Alison, who I think got it from Kristl.
It certainly saves space, can fit a lot of baggies into a shoebox, biggest problem comes when those baggies all start to germinate at the same time and you have to pot them up.
Am hoping most of mine will keep until I can use the greenhouse.

[Lesley Cox]

So you would even do something like Shortia or Rhododendron seed that way? or tinier still, orchid seed - just dust really? It must give each variety quite a small window of opportunity to get them out of the bags (sorry, the word baggie is not used here and isn't natural to me) and into pots. At least with potted seed there is a long time in which to "get round to it" and some of mine germinate, grow on and even flower before I get to pot them. Usually they're at least a cm high and with up to 5cms of root. I often have crocuses as an example, flower in their original seed pot.

[maggiepie]

So you would even do something like Shortia or Rhododendron seed that way? or tinier still, orchid seed - just dust really? It must give each variety quite a small window of opportunity to get them out of the bags (sorry, the word baggie is not used here and isn't natural to me) and into pots. At least with potted seed there is a long time in which to "get round to it" and some of mine germinate, grow on and even flower before I get to pot them. Usually they're at least a cm high and with up to 5cms of root. I often have crocuses as an example, flower in their original seed pot.

Lesley, I have not seen shortia seed or orchid seed.
I think you're right about the smaller window of time to get them out of the bag, at least with very delicate seedlings but I tend to check those almost every day.
If you don't get them out once they start to leaf up they tend to rot of just fizzle up.
Have had some clematis seeds stay in bags for months after germination and have stems 6 inches long.
One of the best things for me is you can usually find out in a fairly short time if the seeds are viable, in a pot you could tend to it for years hoping that one day something will happen.

[Lori S.]

The Acantholimon caryophyllaceum seeds have started to germinate now after 4 days at room temp.

Edit:  And with respect to the Bukiniczia cabulica (2 seed packets each containing different a type of seed), the non-
Acantholimon-looking ones have started to sprout after 9 days at room temperature.

[maggiepie]

Good news, Lori.

My one and only croaked a week or so after I potted it up.
Nothing else from the baggie.