Scottish Rock Garden Club Forum
Seedy Subjects! => Grow From Seed => Topic started by: daveyp1970 on November 28, 2009, 11:59:33 AM
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After seeing Johns C hederifolium and there different leaf forms i sent away for some(seed) my self from Jan and Mieke Braveboer i would like to know when i get them how to go with them.when to sow ect?these will be the first Cyclamen i have grown from seed.
cheers Dave
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Dave, I believe you will find all sorts of useful information on this subject in this Forum thread:
http://www.srgc.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=192.0 8)
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Hi Dave
I use the "Reading method" which the Cyclamen society promote following research by Reading University. It works very well for Cyclamen hederifolium, graecum, africanuma and persicum and is worth trying for most of the other species (purpurascens and repandum don't usually respond to this treatment)
You first need to soak the seed overnight in warm water with a drop of washing up liquid, this will wash off the sticky substance that attracts ants to disperse the seed and acts as a germination inhibitor.
Then fill your pots with a mixture of JI and grit. Wash the seeds then sow them on the surface of the compost, then cover with at least 1cm of grit. Then put them in a box or tin or something that excludes the light, which is important for germination. The other important factor is to keep them warm - between 13C and 18C is best. At this time of year, I find the best way to do that is to keep them indoors in an unheated room.
Here's some pictures originally posted on my blog:
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And for more of the germination story on my blog:
Sowing here:
http://www.alpinegardensociety.net/diaries/Midland/+January+/161/ (http://www.alpinegardensociety.net/diaries/Midland/+January+/161/)
Germination here:
http://www.alpinegardensociety.net/diaries/Midland/+January+/166/ (http://www.alpinegardensociety.net/diaries/Midland/+January+/166/)
Some pictures from underground :
http://www.alpinegardensociety.net/diaries/Midland/+February+/171/ (http://www.alpinegardensociety.net/diaries/Midland/+February+/171/)
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Agree with Diane. I just used the 'Reading method' with graecum seeds from Kurt Vickery and the surplus seed of various species I picked up at the SRGC discussion weekend in early october. All have been very successful. Otherwise i'd have had to wait until next summer to sow them and lose a years growth.
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I didn't even bother to soak my seed from the Discussionn Weekend but if I were getting any seed now I would soak them overnight.
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Hi Diane, Found your blog Very, Very, interesting.
I maybe missed it out but why have some of your pots got wire grid on them :-[.
Thanks for sharing with us all your tips.
Angie :)
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Diane Darren and everybody thank you very much for the advice, can i clarify,i follow your seed sowing steps and from what i understand i let them grow on and then let them go dormant in the summer next year then they follow there normal pattern of growth next autumn or do i try to keep them in growth through next summer and allowed to go dormant the following summer.
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Diane Darren and everybody thank you very much for the advice, can i clarify,i follow your seed sowing steps and from what i understand i let them grow on and then let them go dormant in the summer next year then they follow there normal pattern of growth next autumn or do i try to keep them in growth through next summer and allowed to go dormant the following summer.
If it's possible, keep them coolish and moist through next spring into summer as long as possible. They will then keep growing and the tuber will get larger. When mine have germinated (indoors) I put them outside usually in January against the north wall of the house and they stay there for the next year. Sometimes they dont go dormant at all the first summer. If they are warm or dry they will go dormant, then they will come into growth naturally in the autumn.
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Hi Diane, Found your blog Very, Very, interesting. I maybe missed it out but why have some of your pots got wire grid on them :-[.
Thanks for sharing with us all your tips. Angie :)
Thanks Angie. The reason for the wire grids is MICE in the greenhouse. One year when repotting I realised that several pots of crocus had evidence of mice digging. In particular, one pot of Crocus serotinus which had 14 corms in was empty. Later that year, flowers starting coming up in the sand plunge and I managed to retrieve all 14 corms from the sand. The mice had evidently buried corms in the sand for a winter store. However, I wasn't so lucky with all the species and some of my autumn crocuses are muddled up and a nuisance to try and sort out. So I use various "methods" to annoy the mice, one method is wire squares on the tops which I put on before the top dressing of grit, but sometimes they work their way to the surface. It's been quite effective for a couple of years, the hardest job was cutting all the squares but now I have them I can reuse them.
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Thanks Diane, good idea, I thought it might be for the mice, I had a lot of trouble with mice this year in the garden and coldframe I bought a mouse trap that the shop said could catch up to ten mice at a time and boy I nearly got there 9 in one go, so l used it for two months and I caught 33 mice, what chance would my garden bulbs have if l hadn't caught these. Diane wish you lived closer you could give me some lessons on seed germination I am hopeless.
Angie :)
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This mouse trap we have to see!
One year a nest of mice made a nest in a huge Rhodo pot in the greenhouse. They were entering through the drainage hole. They chewed off many of the leaves of the Cyclamen, even some shoot stalks. It took a few years for those that lost their growth stalks to recuperate.
johnw
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Diane wish you lived closer you could give me some lessons on seed germination I am hopeless. Angie :)
Angie, I think you have VASTLY more experienced seed germinators living MUCH closer to you than I am! ;) ;) ;)
The main recommendations I can give are
sow lots of seed every year
read Deno
keep careful notes
don't be put off by failure!
However, it sounds like you are better at catching mice than me, I only manage one at a time ;D
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If you have trouble germinating your seed, throw them on the lawn and they will magically sprout patterned leaves amongst the grass >:(
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If you have trouble germinating your seed, throw them on the lawn and they will magically sprout patterned leaves amongst the grass >:(
Worth a try
Angie :)
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i have just had an email and they on there way ;D ;D ;D ;D
most of the people on this forum will know of the nursery i bought my seed from but for those that haven't here's the link
http://www.bravenboer.tk/
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my hed seed has started to germinate so i can't thank Diane,David,and Darren and everybody else who offered there advice enough,Diane now they have started to grow can i put them in the greenhouse which doesn't drop below 5c.
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my hed seed has started to germinate so i can't thank Diane,David,and Darren and everybody else who offered there advice,Diane now they have started to grow can i put them in the greenhouse which doesn't drop below 5c.
Great news, Dave. Your greenhouse sounds a good place at the moment. Keep them in growth as long as possible, by keeping them out of direct sun ::) - you remember, that warm thing in the sky :o
When spring does finally come, they will be better in a shady place outside (perhaps against a north wall if you have one). Keep us informed as to their progress.
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A tip about summer dormancy in cyclamen:
Cyclamen never go entirely dormant, and when planted out, their roots are very far-ranging. Even during summer dormancy, their roots continue to imbibe moisture and the tubers therefore remain turgid. This is why dried off cyclamen tubers in bags are so badly shrivelled and need such care to re-hydrate and return to active growth. Overwatered, they'll simply rot in their weakened state.
Cyclamen in pots therefore do better with a trace of moisture available. One technique is to use very tall pots, and sit them in a few mm of water so there is always moisture at the deepest levels of the pot. Another method is to plunge pots in a bed of sand which you water from time to time.
Young cyclamen seedlings are especially prone to dying from desiccation, hence are in particular need of summer water.
It is also advisable to keep your cyclamen pots shaded from the side so the soil does not overheat during the summer.
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A tip about summer dormancy in cyclamen:
Another method is to plunge pots in a bed of sand which you water from time to time.
When I had fewer I grew them this way and they never performed better. I kept the sand quite wet and the pots were long toms. Many big roots ex drainage holes were later found in the sand, even those they were said to prefer summer dry.
johnw
johnw