[Arisaema-l] arisaema seeds

[Pat Taylor]

Russell, no expert here either, but I agree with Charles.

Plus, I soak my seeds in 1 or 2 drops of dishwashing liquid in 1 cup of water 
for 24-36 hours.  I think I read this somwhere on AEG!

From my experience soaking in dishwashing liquid does not hamper germination, 
but I don't use controls to determine if it improves it.  I germinated about 
200-250 seeds this way a couple of years ago.

Then I use the damp paper towel method for germiniation (also somewhere on 
AEG!).  Use 1 paper towel (about 12" x 12" or 30 cm x 30 cm) for each different 
lot of seeds.  You can put at least 100 seeds or more in 1 paper towel.  Fold 
the towel in half and then in half again.  Wet the towel and squeeze excess 
water out.  Open the towel one fold, put your seeds down in nice rows!, then 
close it up again.  You can stack 10 towels on top of each other if you like.  
Then put in a zip lock plastic bag and put near some heat & light if you have 
it.

Check them in a week to see what is happening.  Depending on species it takes 
from 7 to 60 days to germinate.  Once you see the radical start to emerge you 
can plant just those seeds which show a radical or all of them, as presumably 
the rest of the seeds will germinate shortly.  I do the first, bacause I like to 
know I have a viable seed before I plant it.

I use Turface, a fast draining non soil product used for playgrounds and now 
starting seeds.  (here is a link with some info on it: 
http://www.icangarden.com/document.cfm?task=viewdetail&itemid=1414 ).  It holds 
moisture really well.  I put a bunch of 4" (9 cm) pots in a tray and keep the 
bottom of the tray full of water up to 1".  Once the leaves start to show I use 
20-20-20 at a very low rate (since the small plants are not getting any 
nutrition from the Turface) to fill the trays.

The leaves last from 2 to 4 months depending on the species before they turn 
brown.  I let them dry out for about a week and then harvest the corms which is 
much easier to do when the Turface is dry. You shoud have lovely little corm 
looking tubers (don't know if I got this correct or not, but they do look like 
corms the first year).

Pat Taylor
Vancouver, Canada




________________________________
From: Charles S. Hunter <2csh at bellsouth.net>
To: Russell Coker <cokerra at bellsouth.net>; arisaema-L at science.uu.nl
Sent: Fri, March 18, 2011 1:53:30 PM
Subject: Re: [Arisaema-l] arisaema seeds
 
Russell: No expert here, but the pulp (usually red) surrounding the seed
inhibits the seed germinating. In nature, it eventually rots away and the
seed will germinate after that. Before I knew that, I would push seeds with
the pulp into the ground and got some germination, but it is recommended to
remove it to get a better rate of germination, particularly if the seed has
not been outside with Mother Nature doing her thing to help decompose the
pulp.

I defer to others on the list more expert than me, but that is my
understanding. 

Charles Hunter
Smyrna, Georgia USA

-----Original Message-----
From: arisaema-l-bounces at science.uu.nl
[mailto:arisaema-l-bounces at science.uu.nl] On Behalf Of Russell Coker
Sent: Friday, March 18, 2011 11:20AM
To: arisaema-L at science.uu.nl
Subject: [Arisaema-l] arisaema seeds

Hey Y'all.

Last fall I collected some ringens and dracontium seeds, but didn't have 
time to clean them.  Can I sow them as is, or do I need to soak them to 
loosen the dried pulp and clean them?

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Russell
Mobile, AL 

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