Iris species

[Rafa]

Well It seems somebody has started sooner than me, hahah and with splendid results!
I hope this year I will have more success with forced germination, last season was a complete disaster, all the seeds contaminated....

I notice it is very important in forced germination, to avoid the air enter in the bags.

[Hans A.]

Hello Rafa, I suppose much earlier as this seedling is one of very few of the last years attempt.
Of about 100 seeds only 5 germinated (three of them died before I noticed their germination) - so results could be quite better.
Surprisingly only one of the seeds was soft - all the other are ok, so I hope to get a good germination in a short period of time as I now keep them outside the fridge. I will compare the germintion of this seeds with the ones I kept outside  (sown in pots) last year.

Hope to get seedlings of I. urmiensis next year as I received some seeds from a very skilled plantsman - many thanks again!

[arilnut]

Hi all. Hans has motivated me to make another post.  Just off the top of my head without running out
with a flashlight here is what have come out of dormancy from my forced germination this spring.
2 barnumae, 2 kirkwoodii, 1 korolkowii, 1 elegantissima, 5 urmiensis, 2 paradoxa, 2 choschab,
1 atropurpurea, 4 calcarea, 1 sari, 1 lycotis, 1 meda, 3 scariosa, 2 acutiloba X choschab,
2 Dardanus X choschab, and 2 Orion X Anacrusis.
And from 2008 germination 2 sofarana, 1 barnumae, 1 elegatissima, and 4 paradoxa are growing again
plus 2 more paradoxa in the pot planted in June 2008 have germinated.

Now to keep them going!

John B

[arillady]

John you have certainly been able to source lots of aril species and to germinate them as well is great - yes now the touch and go part of keeping them going.

[Rafa]

Well done John,

Here some macro pictures I did to illustrate forced germination method

[arilnut]

Thank you Rafa.  I use an exacto hobby knife for cutting.  I just pinch the aril off with my thumb and first finger  nails.

John

[arillady]

I just pinch off the aril like John - and maybe remove a little skin covering but I have not ventured into the seed any further.

[BULBISSIME]

Thank's for pics rafa !
Lest year, I've cutted my seeds too deeply and lost lot of them.
now I'm more carefull and trying another method, that I'll explain later.... if it works 

[Hans A.]

Fantastic pictures Rafa  , thanks a lot - now I see I did not cut enough off.

[Lesley Cox]

A sure recipe for cut fingers there too, by the look of it.

[arilnut]

Well Lesley, "nothing ventured-nothing gained" .  A little bloodletting is good now and then.

[Rafa]

I think it is just as bad to cut off too little, as much as to cut too much. It is neccesary to cut 1/3 of the total length (from the embryo) arround the embryo. If you cut too little the embryo wont have the strength to develop and if you cut too much it might just come out of the seed, just by pressing the seeds with your fingers.

To venture into this all depends of the quantity of seeds you have. Here is the second roud that I will cut in three days time.

[arilnut]

Rafa you are correct. If you cut too little the radicle may just callous over and not germinate.
 If this happens you can sometimes slice the end and it will grow.

John

[BULBISSIME]

Rafa, I think you'll have some work in the next days !!!  
Do you prefer to cut seeds or to dig  or built with concrete ?  
I wish you good luck and lots of Iris babies in the next weeks  

[Lesley Cox]

Do we have brain surgeons among the Forumists?