Bulb Log 09 2014 - 26/02/14

[YT]

Hello Ian

It looks petticoat season has almost finished at your place, and subjects on your log shift to other beauties…

I have a question at the beginning of your log. You mentioned soaking the seed into surfactant water over a night. Then, do you pick the seeds up from the water and put them on the soil directly, or rinse them with tap water before seeding? ……or the easiest way - pour the surfactant water over the soil with seeds?

I soak the such kind of seeds (narcissus, crocus, iris and paeonia etc.) into tap water in small polythene bags and leave them in fridge 5 – 7 days before sowing, but this way is annoying more or less

[Matt T]

I agree Tatsuo. Sometimes I will soak seeds in the glassine packets (the glue holds together just long enough for an overnight soak) but sometime it's difficult getting the wet seeds off of wet paper.

At Dunblane, Anne Wright said she just pours the whole lot - seeds and soaking water - into the pot. I think there will be such a small amount of detergent in the water, and this will be flushed through when you water the seed pot, that it will do no harm.

[Yann]

Matt
to solve the glassine problem :i use paper filters used for coffee.
Before placing seeds in it i mark the paper using a lead pencil.
marking doesn't take away with soaking.

[Ian Y]

Tatsuo,

yes of the petticoat Narcissus are going over but N. cantabricus forms are just emerging and N. triandrus is a while away from flowering so a few more of these beauties will appear in coming weeks. The trumpet Narcissus are coming out big time in the bulb houses now.

With the soaked seed I showed in the small round bottle tops I just tip the entire contents into the pot. As Matt says there is such a tiny amount of detergent there that it will not cause a problem even if it is harmful to plants.


I also use plastic packets for some seeds - I attach a picture comparing two packets of Eryhtronium seeds, one soaked the other not, to show what a difference an overnight soak can make to the seeds.
I have never tried keeping the soaked seed in a fridge basically because they will  get more exposure to cold outside in our garden. I can understand in warmer areas it could provide and advantage to speeding up germination in plants that require a number of cold periods.

Matt I have also used the glassiline packets as you describe with the same fiddly problem of extracting the seed. I suppose we could just plant the whole packet and let nature break it down but that could just defeat the object of speeding up and improving the germination rate of stored bulb seeds

There is an interesting topic been started here http://www.srgc.net/forum/index.php?topic=11481.0 that also discusses this subject and puts the view that soaking like this can harm the seed that you should also read. It may make sense to merge these two topics if this discussion continues.

[YT]

Thank you Ian and Matt I'll try your way with some seeds at next sowing season