Glaucidium palmatum

[Lesley Cox]

I followed the advice of Kristl Walek... soaking the seeds in a weak solution of GA3, sowing in a community pot, and watering them in with the remaining solution for good measure. The seed pots were kept at warm temperature in sun. They germinated in less than a month, if I remember correctly, and the resulting seedlings bloomed for the first time last spring.

I expect it has been answered somewhere on the Forum at some stage but I'll ask anyway, Gordon, where did you get your GA3? It is able to be bought in NZ but so far as we can find out, only in massive quantities (at massive cost) for agricultural use on grass and other crops. A few of us would like to try it for apparently hard to germinate seeds so we need a source supplying small quantities. Presumably it is a liquid which one dilutes?

[GordonT]

Hello Lesley,

I got my supply of GA from Kristl Walek at

http://gardensnorth.com

She sells 100 mg packets of GA3. It is listed in her catalogue, under the "Other Products"heading

It comes as a powder, and I was advised to mix barely a toothpick's head worth of the powder in a glass of water. I can't remember the exact proportions, but the amount of powder dissolved in water is miniscule. Kristl's website has additional information on the use of GA (specifically GA3) here: http://gardensnorth.com/About.Germination.asp#GA-3

[Lesley Cox]

Thank you Gordon. It now remains for us to check ,probably with Ministry of Primary Industries, whether a small quantity of the product will be permitted entry, then, if so, to order some from Kristl.

You will have gathered from this thread that I an STILL waiting for the white glaucidium to ripen. There are seven twin pods so should be quite a lot of seed - eventually. My problem at present is to keep its place in the garden (under a large conifer, I think a Douglas fir) damp enough for the seeds to develop fully then ripen. In recent years I have lost quite a lot of seed because the plants became too dry too early.

[GordonT]

Lesley... I figured as much. My three seedlings of the common lilac form of Glaucidium bloomed this past year for the first time, and set two pods (one had 2 full chambers of seed, the other was a singleton). I have never experienced such slow seed maturation on any other plant, so it doesn't surprise me that you are still waiting.

I gather from your need to water, that rain continues to be scarce, and temperatures high? Here, although it is mid February (usually our coldest & snowiest time of the year), there isn't a speck of white on the ground. Sap is running in the maples at least a month early. I hope the weather cools a bit, and stays there- the thought of extended warmth followed by a deep freeze when everything is waking up, would be disastrous.

[Lesley Cox]

Yes still very warm here in the far south of NZ and while we had 52mm a couple or 3 weeks ago, it has all dried up with hot winds so we need a lot more. Other parts have had far too much rain and are tonight gearing up for the remains of Cyclone Gita and expecting savage winds and deluges. There's no sense to the climate now.

[Gabriela]

Following this discussion I've decided to sow another batch of seeds with GA3, counting them this time to have a clear idea on the germination.
I only had good seeds from 2017 season and I couldn't look at how 2 or 3 years old seeds would do (although as I said I've done it before).

I've used Glaucidium palmatum and G. palmatum ‘Album’ (syn. var. leucanthum) - 15 seeds of each/2017 season (collected in SW Ontario)
Treatment with GA3 1000 ppm/sowing next day March 23th.
Pictures taken April 18, 19th - all of Glaucidium palmatum, G. palmatum 'Album' is slower, just starts to germinate and I don't want to poke again into the mix.

From 15 seeds, 13 germinated (one barely seen); 2 seeds unnaccounted, I found remnants of the teguments.





The efficacity of the method is more than clear, at least for me and it's easy to apply.
I went even further and transplanted all young seedlings (counted them again) - it will be interesting to see how this goes!

[kris]

I sowed the Glaucidium palmatum pink and the album today with GA3 application. Thanks a lot Gabriela. Hope to see some germination in a month.

[Gabriela]

I sowed the Glaucidium palmatum pink and the album today with GA3 application. Thanks a lot Gabriela. Hope to see some germination in a month.

You're very welcome Kris. It will be right on time probably for them to grow outside.

[Véronique Macrelle]

I think I'll have to learn how to use GA3!

[TheOnionMan]

Following up on my earlier post, refer to my photo on 1st page showing my seed flat, it shows a split flat, 14 seeds of blue/mauve form on one side, and 24 seeds of white form on other side.

Photo today, 05-13-2018, on the left 4 blue seedlings out of 14 seeds, and 17 white seedlings out of 24. The white ones are still germinating so there may be more.  On the blue side, I expected low percentage germination as some seeds felt flat and non-viable.  Not bad germination overall, particularly on the white seed side, no fussing with GA3, coddling indoors with lights, just sow the flat, leave it out all winter, see what germinates in spring. Examining the seed I harvested back in August 2017, some seed is plump and other seeds are underdeveloped and nearly flat, so I suspect the issue with seed is not with easy germination, but with seed that's not fully developed.

[P. Kohn]

Seems like your conditions may be great for producing fully mature seeds. I'm sure you are right that seed quality is key. We have had some germination of seed sown last year but never more than 2 seedlings in a pot. Like you we use the 'let nature take its course approach at the moment.

[GordonT]

I am grateful to Lesley Cox for providing seed of Glaucidium palmatum leucanthum this year. The seeds were soaked in very weak GA solution. Normally they would have all been sown immediately after that, but I noticed the seed coats on many of the seeds had started to come loose (possibly due to treatment they received while en route from New Zealand).  I decided to carefully remove the seed coat from as many of the seeds that would permit. Seedlings on the left in the photo, are from the stripped seed. The two seeds that were sown intact, took several more weeks to appear above ground, the first of these is just emerging on the right side of the flat.

[P. Kohn]

Do you think one could strip seeds that hadn't travelled from New Zealand ?  Maybe all that is needed is scarifying ?  The stripped weeds obviously did brilliantly.

[Véronique Macrelle]

I have one of your glaucidium seeds that germinates Gordon!
(The iris have sprouted germs too, thank you!)

[GordonT]

P. Kohn, I think it would be an interesting experiment to simply soak  some Glaucidium seeds, and peel away the seed coat, to test how quickly they germinate. My comment about the rough handling in the postal system was meant to be funny, but perhaps there is some truth to it.

Véronique, I am glad you are having some success with the seeds I sent to you. The Glaucidium is the lilac/purple form, which is why I was so happy to receive Glaucidium palmatum leucanthum, to grow alongside it this year. The parent plants to your seedlings is almost finished blooming for this season, so I ought to have more seed available before the end of the year.

Happy growing to both of you!