What's the answer? 4 or 6?

[wadave]

Hi guys,

does anyone know if there is any real benefit to stratifying longer than 4 weeks?

Will 6 or 8 weeks give a higher success rate if the seeds are a little older than fresh?

I've got some Othello x Othello and some Othello x red seeds stratifying in the crisper right now and would like to know if I can be impatient and pull them out after 4 weeks.

The reason I ask is I've bought the seeds about 4 -6 months ago and wanted to know if a longer stratification would be of benefit?

I've been keeping them sitting in their envelopes in the fridge the whole time waiting for winter.

I wanted to give them a winter strat so they would germinate naturally and bring them into sync with our southern hemisphere seasons, but this year our winter has been very mild.

Instead of temps varying from say 12 or 15 deg C during the day to just above freezing at night the days have been hovering round 19 or 20 during the day to 5 - 10 at night. This is effectively spring weather.

Hence the long wait between buying the seeds and geting them into the crisper to stratify.

Any help would be great.

Thanks in advance.

Dave.

[Not a Number]

I believe the ICPS germination guide says 5 weeks. Ivan Snyder said 4 weeks and that's what I used.

Germinations/Sown:
'Othello' x 'Othello' (from LACPS direct from Barry) - 1/3
californica (from ICPS seedbank) - 5/9
'Othello' x ? (from ICPS seedbank) - 19/20

Many of the UK CP growers have come to the conclusion that cold stratification of Darlingtonia seeds is not necessary.

Edit - corrected total sown Darlingtonia californica from 20 to 9

[Dave Evans]

The "secret" to stratification is a chemical which keeps the baby plants asleep after they have imbibed water. This chemical is broken down in temperatures below 40~F. and above 30~F. Most of the time a seed is dormant, the temperature is out of this range. Inside your refrigerator, though, it is always within the correct range, so the time length for stratification in the fridge will much shorter than the actually winter time a plant would be experiencing in a natural setting. Each generation of seeds are given variable amount on a seed by seed basis, so some seed will wake up earlier, while others will wake up later. This ensures the population is not decimated by odd weather.

Anyway, just because a plant is from a colder area, does not mean the stratification period has to be longer. Two to four weeks should be fine for most temperate species.

[wadave]

Thanks for that info guys,

I will give them a minimum of 4 weeks to ensure the weather is warming up but will take note of how the weather is going outside.

It's going to be 22 deg C today and its the middle of winter, it should be around 12 - 14 on one of our typical winter days.

Dave, I remember reading a paper on seed germination some one linked to in the ICPS listserv about the various methods plants use to protect their seeds from germinating in the wrong season.

The one thing I didn't realise was the importance of the amount of time the seeds were exposed to the specific temp range needed to break down the chemicals which prevent germination.

Your explaination helped me realize why a seed could go through 3 or more months of winter in the wild and not germinate but it is possible to encourage it to do so after only 4 weeks in the crisper.

Thanks,

Dave.

[jm82792]

There is always ga3,I had some untill someone cleaned the foil packet of it from the fridge

[wadave]

For the benefit of those who are reading this post (I've written other updates elsewhere) I can say I've gotten around a 75% germination rate with my cobras after a 4 week stratification.

The seeds had been sitting in my fridge for around 6 months so they were not fresh as fresh but the success rate is good.

I don't know when Barry distributed the seeds so can't say how old they were before I got them but I'm happy with the results.

Thanks Barry for taking the time to spread these beauties to the rest of us.

Dave.

[Deleted]

wait what...oaky so it wont help them germinate if they are in the package dry in the frindge for 4 weeks....so they have to be moist....and its better to haev them in the crisper?...im sorry i had a long day of algebra2 and am really tired and this is very confusing to me.....

[wadave]

Yes they need to be moist, and I assume the crisper keeps them coolest as it is at the bottom of the fridge (cold air falls) plus the temp remains a little more constant.

I wrapped my seeds in a moist paper towel sprayed with fungicide. This is then placed in a plastic ziploc bag and placed in the crisper.

The first time I ever tried stratifying seed I placed my seed on peat moss in plastic containers with a lid. I sprayed the seed with fungicide but it didn't work very well as the majority of the seed became moldy.

I thought of using a little sphagnum in a plastic bag but thought it may be difficult separating all the seed when it came time to sow them out.

I think ICPS bob has a web page showing the paper towel method. I found it very useful, and now I stratify all my seed using this method.

Dave.

[Deleted]

o ok thanks

[SundeWCitY]

i def reccomend Ga3 it only takes overnight to startify then sow the seeds, and they germinate quite fast

[taz6122]

Jul 8, 2007 6:00:12 GMT jm82792 said:

There is always ga3,I had some untill someone cleaned the foil packet of it from the fridge

What are you saying? Did someone snort your Ga3?