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| I read where gardening members have done "cold stratification" on certain seeds. I thought that wintersowing the seeds outside in containers replaced that but evidently I am wrong. It seems to me that is a lot of extra work and I'll take my chance for germination in the milk jugs. My husband is putting up with me filling the milk jugs in the kitchen; he'd put his put down if I put seeds in the refrigerator! I just want to get them sown in the jugs and put out in the cold cruel world and sit back and wait for germination. I never said I was a patient gardener! |
Follow-Up Postings:
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| Winter Sowing does replace indoor cold strat. You don't have to do both. |
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| pippi, I'm not sure what you've read - winter sowing is cold stratifying although for most sowers here - not limited to seeds that need it. Some of us will use the refrigerator for seeds we can't obtain at the right time of year to winter sow, but I can't recall seeing where anyone has chilled to prepare for WS sowing. There are some seeds that will achieve better germination if given a warm moist period before the chill... |
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- Posted by gardenweed_z6a 6 (My Page) on Fri, Feb 11, 11 at 17:42
| morz8 - are you aware of a site or source for germination information like the warm-cold-warm that's sometimes referred to? I think WS is amazing and the seeds are warm & dry inside the house prior to WS which might give them at least the warm part. I think it was you who suggested starting lady's mantle seeds in moist vermiculite before WS and I did that with some of the seeds I had. I'll let you know how they do. |
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| gardenweed, I usually check what I'm sowing in three places: fresh seed - Druse (Making More Plants, great book for all propagating, the Clothiers site for stored or commercial seed, and for those really weird unusual seeds, Explorers Garden propagation notes, Hinkley. If I can't find it anywhere (which doesn't happen often) I'll research the country and climate where the plant grows naturally and try to copy the conditions best I can that the seed would normally experience...when ripe in what kind of zone, if warm, cold, wet, dry for a while, what would happen to it next after falling or blowing from the plant. The ladies mantle was always hard for me, I bought seed more than once, and not from discounted sites where it could have been old, or badly handled. Then bought one plant and had self sown seedlings to pull, more than I needed. I tried warm, cold, cool from my own seeds (like mother nature would have done) and bingo, germination after it no longer mattered :) Anytime you store seeds dry, either warm or cold, it's just storage, doesn't count towards the germination process. And one thing you have to remember about the suggestions on any of the germination databases, even the very good ones, they are suggestions of processes known to work and sometimes known to work for best/most germination, not necessarily the only way that works, or the only way any germination at all will happen. |
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| Did I make that sound like the alchemilla/ladies mantle warm cold cool was my own idea by overexplaining? Didn't mean to, credit goes to Tom Clothier... Alchemilla alpina, epipsila, erythropoda, hoppeana, mollis, saxatilis, and xanthochlora , Sow at 18-22C (64-71F) for 2-4 wks, move to -6 to -7C (19-21F) for 4-6 wks, move to 5-12C (41-53F) for germination |
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- Posted by gardenweed_z6a 6 (My Page) on Fri, Feb 11, 11 at 18:39
| Thanks for the information morz8. I guess I just had dumb beginner's luck last year with the lady's mantle seeds/chaff mixture I WS. It was my first time to WS as well as my first ever attempt to WS lady's mantle. I'd harvested the dried flowers assuming there had to be seeds too small to see somewhere in the mix. I got excellent germination but since I was new, I was cautious and only WS one container. I've got a plan to edge a very large garden with LM so I'm hoping this year I'll grow enough plants to execute my plan. I'm also excited about seeing all the babies I grew last year getting some size to them in a few months. You didn't overexplain it, or if you did, I was too interested to notice! Without giving myself a headache, I try to understand these gardening challenges but admit I read them over a few times before it all sinks in. |
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