[Arisaema-l] Arum Seed

[DAVID LEEDY]

Hello All,

I sure would like to get some advice from someone successful in growing arum 
from seed.  I am about ready o try again.

First Time:  Cleaned all of the seed, soaked it in warm water, placed on clean 
white paper towels, spritzed the paper towel with water, and put them in a 
plastic bag.  Seven months later (Feb through August), nothing had happened.

Second time:  Cleaned all of the seed, soaked in tepid water, placed on clean 
white moist paper towel, put in plastic bag, and placed in refrigerator for 
close to 4 months (August through November).  Roots were starting to form on 
some seed, so I placed all of the seed in seed starter mix in seed cells 
trays.  Six months later and I have about 10 seedlings out of over 200 seed.  I 
moved these to larger containers  a couple of weeks after they had sprouted.  
They are just now going dormant (approximately 6 months of growth).

As to the refrigeration, I have had one person advise me to do this and one 
person advise me that it was of no benefit.  I would appreciate the opinion of 
successful seedsmen (or seedswomen) on this.  BTW I did not do this with A. 
pictum and they were a complete success (not included in counts).

I just meticulously went through the seed starter mix in one 72 cell seed tray.  
I found 13 round, brown things, which could be the original seed (although they 
seemed larger), could be a corm which never sprouted, or could be nothing (maybe 
an impediment in the seed starter mix).  Any ideas?

Please don't misunderstand me.  I am thrilled with the ten seedlings I have, but 
I would like to increase my success rate.  All ideas and comments appreciated.

David Leedy
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