I have never tried germinating these. Have you?

I'm thinking I may be getting off to a late start on these, so I'm wondering if there's anyone here who can tell me if I can skimp a bit on time frames.

The instructions I've found are -

>Sow seeds just below moist soil surface at 70F for 1 month. Move to 30F for 1 month, then bring back to 50F.

I do have a plentiful amount of seed, so I'm willing and ready to try several approaches, if necessary.
I'd eventually like to have quite a few of these for our stream-side garden, but I'm finding it a bit tough to find the amount of already started plants needed for this large of a space.

I have not.. hopefully someone has

I'd give it a try Chelle. I understand they are pretty easy to start from seed.

I've not tried them, either.

But your description: "Sow seeds just below moist soil surface at 70F for 1 month. Move to 30F for 1 month, then bring back to 50F." makes them sound to me like a good choice for wintersowing.

Most seeds, when wintersown, don't require the exact recommended conditions you read which are always for indoor-grown stuff. Rather, the fluctuations in temp that they get naturally outside, combined with alternating freeze-thaw cycles and bombardment with rain and snow, just seem to make most seeds overcome their dormancy. Since you said your seeds are plentiful, I think it's worth a try for at least a portion of them.

But then, admittedly, I do tend toward wintersowing for anything that even sounds persnickety like that. Usually it works out fine. Not always, but usually.

Karen

I'm definitely going to try winter sowing these....it seems to me too, that these would be prime candidates!

For now though, just until I'm ready to start winter sowing, I'm trying some in a baggie as well. Just got them started today. I soaked them in hot water (with a bit of peroxide) for a few hours while I was potting up some semps, then put them in a damp coffee filter and baggie and set them on the water heater with a light on them....we'll see if this works, and how long it takes if it does.

Thanks for the encouragement!

I'm really looking forward to the results!

Keep us posted!

It's always good to cover all bases, chelle!

Karen

kqcrna said:It's always good to cover all bases, chelle!

Karen

Yep. Just like I covered all the bases with agastache seed last year. I started 4 different varieties....

.....and ended up with nearly 72 each of two, 14 or 15 of another, and an unknown multitude of the fourth! Needless to say, I didn't really need quite that many!

>>Will post as soon as I see something!

I'm confident that they'll do great, Chelle.

Karen

wow that is a lot of plants!!!... good for you though!!!

Thanks, Allison. I wanted those agastache to germinate for me in the worst way! ...and, boy did they ever!



>It's so interesting to watch these iris seeds progress!

Today I noticed that each little seed is flaking off teeny bits of its seed coat. Each seed has a ring of tiny dark specks around it - easily seen on the bright white of the coffee filter.

Tomorrow when I have them open again for a look-see and some fresh air I'll see if I can get a good photo.

always fun

No sprouts on these guys after three weeks of steady warmth and light, so I believe I'll start a cold treatment period today on this batch of seeds. I'll probably just WS them outdoors. Think I should give them the extra week, or just go for it now?

Chelle, if you want them to get a cold period, we're supposed to get the coldest winter week yet this year, so this might be your best bet for cold. I assume your weather is similar.

Karen

as of yesterday I know this is the coldest so far here.. supposed to warm up after the weekend again

Yes, we're supposed to warm up next week too, after a frigid weekend with lows at night in the upper teens. We haven't had such cold temps yet this winter.

Karen

Good reasoning. I'll get them out today.

Thanks for the input!

I think I might have the first sprout!

There's something green showing in that container at any rate.

It's definite. There are a bunch of them up this morning! I'm doing the happy dance!

Congrats, chelle.

Karen