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My mistakes sowing Frits... and how I fixed them

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Tristan_He:
This post is a bit of a confessional. Over the years, I have killed a lot of Fritillaria seed. Every year I order seed, mainly from the seed exchanges, and sow it in the normal way (shallow in gritty compost, layer of grit or perlite). Then it goes into the cold frame. And every year, if anything comes up at all, I end up with a pot like this. These were sown in January 2020 from the SRGC seed exchange.



However, last year, after quite a few goes, last year I managed to finally get some seed raised F. pyrenaica to flower, and got the bug.

This year I made quite a few changes to how I grow Frits from seed to try to improve my success rate. I haven't experimented so I don't know which is the most important, but here's what I did:

- Get fresh seed from good sources (I joined the Frit group)
- Sow Eurasian species in autumn only. Mine were sown between August and early December. I think August is a bit early - seed sown then germinated in November and then had to be coaxed through winter with some damping off issues. December is a bit late, but some seed arrived late and I split the batch, sowing half and storing half.
- Then, they were kept in pots at ambient temperature for a few weeks before being placed in the fridge.
- Pots were checked every week or so from mid November, watering if necessary, and removed if they had germinated.

The results are pictured below. Most of my pots sown have shown at least some germination, the only ones that have not are F. pontica substipetala and F. collina, and in the latter case I suspect this may be because the seed was sown rather late. Rather than a few straggly seedlings, I have hundreds of seedlings from more than 25 species.





Almost all of these are Frits, except for a couple of pots of Erythronium which were sown from the SRGC seedex in January 2020 and have germinated profusely this spring with no ill effects from being in the cold frame. However, I have removed these and all other bulb pots from there to the conservatory where I can keep an eye on them and give them a bit more light.

Now, you can of course sow your fritillary seed at any time of year, but it seems that it won't start to germinate until autumn and by sowing in early spring, I was just giving the seed an opportunity to rot. Additionally, the pots often got covered with moss and liverworts, making it more difficult for seedlings to penetrate. Finally, seed can germinate in midwinter when I was less likely to check the pots and when slugs or other pests may eat the seedlings. The result is a very low success rate.

Of course, as with any advice about growing bulbs from seed, Ian has got there first! (see bulblog no. 48, 2016). But I hope that my pictures and description help to reinforce his advice.



Germinating F. pyrenaica from my own seed.



These F. latifolia are a bit later than most but I'm really excited about getting a chance to grow this lovely plant.

Now that the weather has warmed up a bit I'm moving the seedlings into the sunshine outdoors where there is less risk of damping off and to toughen them up a bit. There is then just the small matter of growing these on to flowering!

I hope this will provide others with some pointers to growing these lovely plants from seed. I still have a lot to learn about this group but there is plenty to work with here.

Maggi Young:
Wow!  "If at first  you don't  succeed ..... "   8)

Tristan_He:
Well, yes, I am nothing if not stubborn Maggi!  ;D

But I do think my experience emphasises how important Ian's advice about a sowing window for Frits is. It's funny that this isn't mentioned more widely, but maybe for growers in drier climates it's not such an issue. I actually first read this about two weeks after sowing my 2019-20 SRGC seeds, unfortunately.

Ian Y:
A great post Tristan and good advice - the best way to learn anything is to find out for your self by trying and observing as you have done.
I share my experiences hoping to give people a head start but by my own rules I would not have believed me until I had tested it:-)

The time window varies slightly according to your climate and what I state is for cold areas similar to ours in warm climates it could be a month later.

Tristan_He:
Thanks Ian! I agree with you that it's key to find out for yourself. I like to take the advice and experience of others, turn it over in my mind to work out how it applies to my situation, and hopefully gain from it. Sometimes - as here - it works, other times it doesn't.

The fridge is also giving some promising results for gentians which I will post about if/when I get a bit more germination. I've also noticed (anecdotally) slightly better results in the fridge from seed sown at the wrong time, probably because moisture levels in the pots are better controlled and slugs are excluded.

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