Seedex sprouting and 1st dormancy

[George R. Stilwell, Jr.]

Bonaventure,

Most strange. Refrigeration for unly 1 month has worked for many of us,
lthough 2 months is better,

Have you checked the refrigerator temperature? I run mine at exactly
40oF,

Ray

At 03:37 PM 7/21/03 -0400, you wrote:
>Thanks for the nice note Ray! You've encouraged me to send more
>observations. I have little time this time of the year (and gardening now
>makes me more and more late to work in the mornings!)
>
>When I get outta here, off of the computer at my workdesk and out the door
>and go home, I gotta check the seedpots under lights. These run at night to
>take advantage of cooler temperatures (and gives me more time after my
>commute) . The seedling pots need constant watching at first. Drying out is
>not such a problem but sometomes the plastic film covering has to be lifted
>a little for venting as they may be too slow in drying out a bit, like in
>the days right after a good watering. Candidissimum was the first to start
>putting out roots, but suddenly now after more than 2 weeks yunnanense just
>shot up in just a couple of days, the root-shoot (official name please?)
>lifting the seed body up off the moist substrate.
>
>I had another observation/concern to write about. Some previous seedexes,
>various species,  sprouted nicely, and were kept in leaf about 3 months or
>so until the leaf started to fade. They were then dried out a bit (varying
>degrees of that tried) and refridgerated (both in pot, or in dryish peat or
>moist sphagnum. Most fared well in any condition after 3 months, but when
>taken out to room temperature failed to sprout after months and mostly died
>a lingering death. Lost all tortuosums that way. Ones taken out after 5 or
>more months often sprouted and surpassed them. Second dormancy
>consanguineums that made it that far only suvived if left outside. All
>previous baby cands died that way and I was careful with 1st dormancy
>taiwanense by keeping them refridgerated 6 months, all survived, but now
>have to wait at least 3 more months to take them out again and again grow
>them over the winter here. Now, I don't understand how to get 2 years of
>growth into 1 year or 3 into 2  if they persist with this behavior.
>
>Bonaventure Magrys
>Cliffwood Beach, NJ USA
>zone 6-7
>
>magrysbo at shu.edu
>
>PS I still have unsprouted, but soaking in damp towel for several weeks,
>Podophyllum hexandrum seed. I would send them to our seedex hub in Leiden
>but its too late and they've been soaking. PRIVATE e-mail me
>magrysbo at shu.edu  with your snail-mail address and I will send some moist
>in a padded envelope for, lets say saxatile or urashima replacements for
>me, or just the postage amount.
>