Hot soaked seeds

8 years ago

Growing a number of varieties from seed (attempting, anyway!) and having mild success. Cold strat 60 days and a good seed started medium in 3" peat pots on heating pad got me about 20% germination. Same conditions in 1" peat pots got me 50% germination. So the proximity to heat was a big factor. On a hunch, I took the next 60 day strat batch of syrica, hirtella, whorled and perennis seeds and put them in bathroom drinking cups in 1/4 inch distilled water (some sand attached from the cold strat) and set them on a heat pad. Covered the cups with a thin baggie. Thirty hours later, putting seeds into 1" peat pots, 8 of 14 syrica had already visibly germinated along with 2 of 15 whorled and 1 of 6 perennis; though zero of the hirtella.

I will be "hot soaking" all my upcoming cold strats now, based on this good response.

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Comments (4)

Loretta NJ Z6
8 years ago
Good to know. Thanks for the observation!
William Kelly
8 years ago
Hi Ginna, what are all the asclepias species your growing?
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Ginna
Original Author
8 years ago
Hi Will, I gather you are into the most species possible. My focus is native species that can replace curassavica and the African specieis along the Gulf Coast, zone 9 ecoregion 232. We need to do this here to get a handle on our OE problem. Perennis is my top focus, all the incarnatas and tuberosa sharing second place; and I'm dabbling in syrica, asperula, hirtella, speciosa, viridis and whorled as third tier, not really expecting them to thrive in the hot wet and humid environment here but giving a shot. Perennis is rare in my area, but I'm installing plants from MS and FL to build up, hopefully, enough of a field to produce seeds and cuttings in enough volume to make a small difference.

Your seeds, BTW came out of CMS two days ago and are on a heat pad. (=:
William Kelly
8 years ago
last modified: 8 years ago
That's great! Let me know if the seeds I gave you germinate!