Cyclamen 2019

[Diane Whitehead]

I received my first lot of seeds today and have them all sown - from the regular list, not the CSE ones yet.  It is odd how some seeds from the UK come quickly, like the AGS seeds which arrived before Christmas Day and are showing some germination already, but the cyclamen seeds which were mailed Dec 12, just got here.

Some of the cyclamen seeds were tiny.  Has anyone had success germinating tiny ones?

[Mark Griffiths]

Diane, I tend to find that seed size isn't really an indicator of how successful germination will be, it's more about the species.

Of the smaller ones:

autumnal :C.cilicium and C.intaminatum germinate well.

Winter: C. parviflorum is not so easy to germinate.

Spring: C.repandum ssp repandum I find the hardest. C. balearicum is usually ok, C.creticum perhaps less so.

Which ones did you get?

[Diane Whitehead]

I got seeds of many species, and some selections had tiny seeds while others had normal sized ones.

Here are the ones that were all tiny:

balearicum
coum Maurice Dryden
coum pewter/silver lf, pink flowers
hederifolium scented
repandum album

The CSE/Peter Moore/Jan Bravenboer seeds just arrived today.

[Mark Griffiths]

Diane, most of those should be fine. I find even within a single pod the seed size varies but germination remains good. The only one you might have a problem with is the repandum album - however I find it generally more robust than the normal repandum I have. 

[Véronique Macrelle]

could someone remind me how to sow Cyclamen purpurascens?
 hot / cold, light / dark?
 and if the GA3 works on this cyclamen?
 these seeds were stored for a few months in the dry ...

last year, I only got one germination.

[SJW]

could someone remind me how to sow Cyclamen purpurascens?
 hot / cold, light / dark?
 and if the GA3 works on this cyclamen?
 these seeds were stored for a few months in the dry ...

last year, I only got one germination.

I usually sow anytime during winter - wouldn't leave it much later than this though - and leave the pots outside. Cold and frost isn't a problem. Move under cover in Spring (frame, greenhouse etc) in the shade, and seed should start germinating by June. Don't let the pots dry out.

[Véronique Macrelle]

thank

[elena]

could someone remind me how to sow Cyclamen purpurascens?
 hot / cold, light / dark?
 and if the GA3 works on this cyclamen?
 these seeds were stored for a few months in the dry ...

last year, I only got one germination.

Below I outline a rather successful approach to germinating the seeds of C.purpurascens it was successfully used on three sets of seeds planted in different years, 200 seeds in total. The aim is to get most seeds to germinate at the same time.

Overall strategy: use stratification on the seeds and make sure everything used for potting was previously heat-treated.
Whenever water is needed, only boiled water is used, never tap water. This ensures absence of mould and parasites, at least early in the life of those Cyclamens.

Stratification:
Seeds are first placed in a jar of water with 1 drop of Fairy in 200ml of water for 24 hours and then again in a jar with an anticeptic (Potassium Permanganate, in the concentration giving light magenta colour). While seeds are prepared with Fairy and anticeptic, a pot for them is prepared: a clay pot that was heat-treated by keeping it for a while in a boiled water is filled with drainage (which was also heat-treated) and a mix of soil and washed and heat-treated sand (sand granules 1-1.5mm in size). The proportion of soil and sand is 1:1.
The soil is J.Innes N 2 and soil from a pine-beech forest mixed in proportion 2:1. This soil mixture is heat-treated in the oven for 30 min at 82C-83C (if it is colder, it is much less effective and overheating makes the soil toxic to plants). Once the pot is filled, it is watered with anticeptic.

The seeds are sown very close to each other and after that the pot is sealed in a bag. This is done between Nov and Jan; the sealed pot is placed in a kitchen fridge at +4C until Apr 1st and then in a different fridge at +7C - +8C until June 1st. This ensures that seeds of C.purpurascens are stratified. All this time the seal on the bag remains intact.

Potting:
On the 1st of June the sealed pot is placed on the floor not far from the front door (temperature 15C-20C) without opening and subsequently it is opened once a week so as to pot Cyclamens that pop. Most germinated plants have about 1cm long stem and sometimes up to 3cm long roots. Potting Cyclamens when they are very small apparently ensures early flowering. This process (potting and possibly moisturising the jar) is continued weekly until mid-August. In the 3 different experiments 30%, 50% and 70% of seeds germinated.

Repeated stratification:
After August, the pot with remaining seeds is sealed in a bag again and stratified in the fridge until next June if many seeds did not germinate. In the first experiment where only 30% of the seeds germinated in the first year, additional 50% of the original number planted germinated in the second year.

It seems that far more seeds germinate in June-Aug if stratification begins in Nov-Dec rather than in Jan, but the process of stratification can be repeated to persuade many of the those which remained to germinate.

After germinating, Cyclamens are grown based on the article by Gert Forum Petersen in the Journal of the Cyclamen Society "Cyclamen" V.8, p. 44 "Growing Cyclamen seedlings under artificial light". In this article, Gert described how to make seedlings of many types of Cyclamen, including C.purpurascens grow around 4 times faster than under normal conditions. This is also my experience. The three main components of this method is an abundance of light, warmth and moist atmosphere (I cover seedlings with plastic bags for the first few weeks after they are potted).

Elena

[ArnoldT]

Cyclamen coum Yayladagi.

A gift many years ago from a forumist.

Still going strong.  Grows in a cool greenhouse here in Northern New Jersey, USA

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yaylada%C4%9F%C4%B1

[Hans J]

Hi Arnold ,

nice to see that you still my Cyclamen coum ex Yayladagi  is growing so well for you

Congratulation 

Hans