Seed Germination Theory and Practice- Norman Deno retires

[Cgull49]

I just received mail from Norman Deno indicating that at the age of 89 is has retired and is not distributing copies of his Seed Germination & Practice publications any longer.

I'm looking for a copy of his Supplements 1 & 2.  Would anyone know where I might be able to locate one?
In Deno's letter to me, a copied letter, he indicated that there is no longer any patent on his material and anyone is free to copy and distribute them without having to compensate him.  So if anyone has a copy of the two Supplements and would make a copy of them and mail them to me I'll gladly pay for the reproduction and postage.

[David Pilling]

The Alpne Garden Society sell the Deno publications... nice to hear about him.

[Darren]

Purely by coincidence I ordered Deno's book from the AGS a week ago. No sign of it yet though...

[Robert G]

Rob,

It is interesting you requested his books this winter. I got a similiar response and I am trying to track down all three. I have a copy of the first, but it is work's (Agriculture Canada) and do not want to dismantle it to copy it. If you find the other two let me know. I would be willing to pay to have them reproduced. Also from my end I will try to see if AG Canada has the others and maybe we can get them copied locally. I was hoping that they would be out there on the internet as a PDF, but no such luck. I will try to be at the next OVRGHS meeting and if you are there we can chat about. Maybe one of the other member's has copies.

[Gail]

I've got a copy of the second edition of Seed Germination Theory and Practice that I don't look at.  If anyone wants it, I'll happily send it to them.

New home found for book!

[Robert G]

Gail,

Thank you very for your kind offer, but I have found a way to copy it...I think.

Rob,

You probaly saw this, but NARGS offers all three on their book list.

Take Care,

Robert

[Darren]

Got my copy yesterday and am impressed at the dedication shown. I must say that I am doubtful about some of the conclusions though. I don't have the supplements so perhaps the information has been updated?

Examples - based on 4 samples he concludes that dry storage of Anemone biflora seed is fatal. It isn't - it is a summer-drought species so is adapted to a few dry months (he acknowledges this himself for another species later on). It is more likely the seed he got wasn't viable to begin with.

Also states dry storage is fatal to Jeffersonia and Sanguinaria, yet I have had 100% germination of these from AGS exchange seed in the past. Same goes for Gunneras prorepens & flavida and several other genera.

I am happy to acknowledge that these may be exceptions and have possibly been less thoroughly dried than his experimental samples. I'm now reading the book with caution however as I don't think reality is as black & white as suggested here.

[David Pilling]

I'd go along with that. Deno's aim is to get rid of anecdote. Yet one just ends up agreeing when his experience backs up ones own, and disagreeing when it doesn't.

There is some good stuff like using a tooth pick of GA3, and germinating seed in "baggies", but most of that information has become common knowledge.

It's a pity that distribution of Deno has not moved into the age of the net. It's not appeared on Google books or sites like "scribd". If he really has relinquished copyright one would expect progress, probably to the cost of societies who have been distributing it up to now.

[Lori S.]

http://tomclothier.hort.net/page15.html

[David Pilling]

Lori - that's interesting:

"the Taxonomic index in a single alphabetic file in database or spreadsheet format which shows each seed trial result as a separate record for each book"

http://tomclothier.hort.net/deno.zip

[Darren]

Thanks Lori - just downloaded it and will peruse later!

[Diane Clement]

The Ontario Rock Garden Society Seed Germination Guide is another useful link with a lot of information derived from Deno, but rearranged in a simplified table (although an odd web design to navigate):

http://www.onrockgarden.com/page/germination-guide-overview
http://www.onrockgarden.com/germination-guide/plants

"While this data is based primarily on the experience of ORGS members, we have also relied extensively on methods described by Norman Deno (Seed Germination Theory and Practice), Dr. Pavel Slaby ( www.kadel.cz/flora ) and Tom Clothier ( http://tomclothier.hort.net)"

[Maggi Young]

These links to Dr Deno's "Seed Germination: Theory and Practice" and the two supplemental books are free downloads at the USDA National Agriculture Library online site. I know this book is out of print and nearly impossible to find. I hope this information is useful.


The books of Norman Deno are in the Public Domain so they are free for download.

National Agricultural Library Digital Collections
pdf s to download are linked to on each of these pages from the US site :


Seed germination, theory and practice
http://naldc.nal.usda.gov/catalog/41278


First supplement to the second edition of Seed germination theory and practice.
http://naldc.nal.usda.gov/catalog/41279


 Second supplement to Seed germination theory and practice.
  http://naldc.nal.usda.gov/catalog/41277

[LucS]

The links seem to give problems when I'm trying to open the documents.
Does anyone know an other way to get access to these documents, besides the books of course ?

[Maggi Young]

Luc, they are quite large files, the first is nearly 12MB.... could that be the reason there are problems? It is slow to download for me.

 second one is around 5MB and the third is 4.8MB