Storing Fritillaria & Erythronium seeds

[Australis]

Hi all,

Longtime lurker but rarely post. I am taking a dive into attempting Fritillaria and Erythronium from seed (after several years working on growing Liliums from seed and finally getting reasonable results), as Australia's Biosecurity rules are changing again and after the 28th of April 2022 a phyto certificate will be required for all seed imports. So I've just bought a bunch of seeds from my "future wishlist" before I lose the opportunity to get them.

My main question is how can I store the Frit and Erythronium seeds until I am ready to sow them? For Lilium, I know I can dry the seeds and store them in the freezer for years. Am I correct in thinking that Fritillaria, with its similar seeds, could be stored the same way? What about Erythronium?

We are in the middle of autumn here in Australia (I am in Melbourne) and so if these seeds will not store well (whether it be in the freezer, fridge or a cupboard), then it's the right time of year for me to sow them, at least.

Thanks.

[Ian Y]

Hello and welcome to the forum.

Firstly you are at the perfect season for sowing these seeds which is the best and what I would do.

Perhaps you have too many to accommodate so want to store them and yes provided they are not fresh from the plants and are stored dry and prepared well then they can be kept in a fridge or even freezer.

Fritillaria can be treated just like your lilies.

I have germinated Erythronium seed that had been stored dry for over 5 years although germination was sporadtic over a few years and  the success rate fell to less than half.

[Neil J]

Hi Australis,
I am intrigued by your statement that all imports of seed to Australia will require a phyto certificate as of 28th April. I have re-checked BICON and can't see any reference to this change.
Please enlighten
Neil J

[Australis]

Firstly you are at the perfect season for sowing these seeds which is the best and what I would do.

Perhaps you have too many to accommodate so want to store them and yes provided they are not fresh from the plants and are stored dry and prepared well then they can be kept in a fridge or even freezer.

Thanks Ian. Yes, there will be too many for me to start straight away, so I was hoping to store the rest to start next year. Sounds like I should prioritise the Erythronium seeds first.

I am intrigued by your statement that all imports of seed to Australia will require a phyto certificate as of 28th April. I have re-checked BICON and can't see any reference to this change. Please enlighten

Hi Neil, sure. Here is the BICON alert:
https://bicon.agriculture.gov.au/BiconWeb4.0/ViewElement/Element/Alert?elementPk=1777061

[Richard Green]

Hi Australis,

Many thanks indeed for this web reference.  Several Australian members have mentioned the likelihood of phytos for incoming seed, but only as a rumour.  Nobody has yet been able to supply the exact reference, and I have also spent some time searching the DAWE BICON website with no success.

This change will of course affect the SRGC Seed Exchange next year, as well as all the other specialist society exchanges.  We shall have to consider the implications for members carefully, as these certificates are expensive to obtain in the UK.

Many thanks for alerting us.

Richard
SRGC Seed Distribution Team

[Rick R.]

Australis, don't forget about Ian's Erythronium e-book.  An incredible amount of information, and he gives it to us free!

Download the pdf here
https://www.srgc.net/filessub/general/ERYTHRONIUMS-IN-CULTIVATION%20-2016-IanYoung.pdf
or from the SRGC home page.

[Australis]

Richard, you are most welcome. It hasn't really made any headlines and only a few gardening publications seem to have picked it up (my wife stumbled across it in one of her gardening magazines).

Rick, thanks for the reminder! I had seen that but completely forgot about it. I'll take a look now.

[Australis]

Well, it seems that three of my four orders have made it thus far, so I am hoping to start the Erythronium seeds on the weekend and have stored the Fritillary seeds for later.

[Vinny 123]

I am amazed that Australia has not had a requirement for phyto' cert's before. If anyone had asked me, I would have guesed that they had, long, long ago.

Well over 20 years ago I worked for a company shipping plastic sheets (for printing) to Oz, and all pallet timber had to be pressure-treated. I have also read that Oz only got modern poultry strains via smuggling as there was no legal quarantine procedure available (although some arrangements have been in place in recent years).

If the UK charges for phyto' cert's are similar to other countries, which I suspect they are (£25-35 per shipment), the answer for any society seed distribution that is large enough, is to bulk ship everything and then split the shipment in the receiving country. It would be unmanageable any other way.

[Australis]

I am amazed that Australia has not had a requirement for phyto' cert's before. If anyone had asked me, I would have guesed that they had, long, long ago.

Well over 20 years ago I worked for a company shipping plastic sheets (for printing) to Oz, and all pallet timber had to be pressure-treated. I have also read that Oz only got modern poultry strains via smuggling as there was no legal quarantine procedure available (although some arrangements have been in place in recent years).

If the UK charges for phyto' cert's are similar to other countries, which I suspect they are (£25-35 per shipment), the answer for any society seed distribution that is large enough, is to bulk ship everything and then split the shipment in the receiving country. It would be unmanageable any other way.

Australia has a rather inflexible Biosecurity system, unfortunately. It often comes down to the customs staff member or BICON staff member as to whether things like misspellings or things that don't fit an exact import case get through or not.

I agree, the only way any seed exchanges will be able to send into Australia is to have a local rep to split up the shipment and send domestically. It will really depend on whether there's enough members in Australia for the affected societies to even consider doing this, since the phyto cost + domestic shipping would need to be included in either the seed exchange pricing or membership (depending on the group). It simply wouldn't be worth it for just one or two Australian members, unfortunately.

It also means that many of the overseas seed suppliers I have bought from in the past will no longer send to Australia. Several already stopped sending back in 2018 when the packaging requirements became more strict and so far only two suppliers I am likely to import seed from will actually get a phyto cert when needed.

[Vinny 123]

It works both ways - the UK has had a requirement for phyto' cert's for a year(?), apart from seeds from the EU, which was supposed to happen this year, but has been delayed.

Not everything will get caught by our customs, but any that is, is automatically destroyed. At least with deadstock, you get an option to pay import duty etc.

You'd only need more than something like 10 Australian SRGC members to want seeds from the distribution for the cost of phyto' to becaome insignificant when split amongst them. Add in what ought to be trivial domestic letter post.....

[fermi de Sousa]

Our group, AGS Vic Group, is hoping to make some sort of representation to the Govt but it's hard to know how much luck we'll have.
We've heard that NARGS and the Cyclamen Society are looking at the idea of getting one Phyto and sending all the seeds to one recipient to send on.
As well as that we have started our own Seedex which is open to Australian members,
cheers
fermi

[Jan Jeddeloh]

So I'm running the Pacific Bulb Society seed exchange.  I have an exchange coming up soon.  Up until now we've shipped seed to Australia.  Does anyone know if the phytos for Australia requirement is now the real deal or is it still in the coming down the pike phase?  I need to know if I can send seed to Australia this time.  It would have be done at the receiver's risk. 

Jan

[Australis]

So I'm running the Pacific Bulb Society seed exchange.  I have an exchange coming up soon.  Up until now we've shipped seed to Australia.  Does anyone know if the phytos for Australia requirement is now the real deal or is it still in the coming down the pike phase?  I need to know if I can send seed to Australia this time.  It would have be done at the receiver's risk. 

Jan

Hi Jan,

The new rules are now in place - a phyto is required for seed imports into Australia (I've just gone through the BICON tool for determining an import case and can confirm they now list the phyto for seed imports).

https://bicon.agriculture.gov.au/BiconWeb4.0/ImportConditions/Bookmark/GetBookmark?EvaluationStateId=cc124782-db83-48fa-a9e6-102eae8e2dac&EvaluationPhase=ImportConditions&CaseElementPk=1800886&ImportDefinitionPathwayNodePK=469&OnshoreManagementPathwayNodePK=