[Arisaema-l] Arum Seed

[Ellen Hornig]

David - arums germinate in autumn, as average temperatures fall.  This is a
common adaptation in Mediterranean plants.  They're dormant in summer, when
it's too hot and dry to grow, and they germinate as soon as conditions
become more comfortable in  fall.  That way the little seedlings can grow,
and their tubers bulk up, for the better part of a year, until hot dry
weather returns.

I've grown thousands of arums from seed, and all I ever did was sow them in
summer, leave them alone outdoors  (natural rainfall is OK, but don't give
extra water during the summer), and watch them emerge in autumn. The first
year you'll see only one dull-looking leaf; don't try to separate them or
push them - just feed them as you would any seedling and leave them in
their community pots.  When they're dormant the next summer, you can empty
the pot and give each little tuber a small pot of its own, if you're so
inclined.  Remember, though, that the surest way to kill them is to give
them too much room and let the mix stay soggy, so it's actually safer to
let them stay in their community pots for 2 years unless you've sowed them
so thickly that they can't develop.

You didn't say which species you're growing, but if it's A. italicum, you
won't see mature foliage until 3 to 4 years from seed.  In year 2 you'll be
able to start getting a handle on which ones are most strongly marked, but
it will be longer than that before you really know what they look like.
Patience is required.

Ellen

Ellen Hornig
212 Grafton St
Shrewsbury MA 01545
508-925-5147


On Tue, May 28, 2013 at 4:50 PM, DAVID LEEDY <djleedy at sbcglobal.net> wrote:

> 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
>
> _______________________________________________
> Arisaema-L mailing list
> Gallery: http://botu07.bio.uu.nl/temperate/?gal=arisaema
> Site: http://botu07.bio.uu.nl/Arisaema-L
>
>


--
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman.science.uu.nl/pipermail/arisaema-l/attachments/20130528/36444ab1/attachment.html 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 9536 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://mailman.science.uu.nl/pipermail/arisaema-l/attachments/20130528/36444ab1/attachment.jpe