Hibiscus: Dr. Deno’s Seed Germination Books are now in Public Domain., 0 by Michael_Ronayne

Michael_Ronayne wrote:
A week ago Saturday October 30, 2010, I collected over a thousand seeds of what may be a color variant of a wild Hibiscus moscheutos from what reports to be an early 1900’s marshland restoration area in the New Jersey Meadowlands. Over 75% of the seeds were compromised the Hibiscus Seed Beetle (Althaeus hibisci). The Hibiscus Beetles was very active in the collected seeds, many seeds had visible holes from which the Beetles had hatched and many seeds were suspected of containing un-hatched Hibiscus Beetles because of appearance. Using the water flotation technique which I have discussed elsewhere in DG, I isolated several hundred Hibiscus moscheutos seeds which I believed to be sound because they floated for extended periods of time without any visible swelling.

I randomly selected two batches of ten seeds each, of the good seeds, and nicked one batch and not the other. I put both batches of seeds in hand-warm for 24 hours. The nicked seeds all sank within 4 hours and began to swell in size while the un-nicked seeds continued to float. Both batches were transferred to heavy-duty Ziploc bags with four-ply of moist paper towels above and below the seeds. The Ziploc bags were placed on my television receiver unit to provide warmth.

Within three days, nine of the ten nicked seeds had broken dormancy and had grown to over one inch in length or longer and were transferred to soil in starter trays. Two of the nine seedlings were noticeable weaker than the other seven but growing. Using seed nicking with the Deno Method allows you to visibly inspect Hibiscus seedlings before you transfer them to soil to grow. I suspect the seed nicking combined with the Deno Method is a form of embryo rescue were seeds which would not have survived under natural conditions can successfully germinate. If your objective is to reestablish a wild population this may not be viable long term strategy but it will allow you to jump start a new generation for reintroduction into the wild. For a domestic cultivar, which will be propagated using vegetative methods, seed nicking and the Deno Method allows you to inspect every potential seedling for desirable traits.

For the ten un-nicked seeds, only one has broken dormancy and has a half inch root after five days in the Ziploc bag. I should mention that wild Hibiscus moscheutos seeds are significantly smaller than the hardy Hibiscus cultivar under domestication. Fortunately the seeds I collected last Saturday October 30, 2010 are small, as a wild Hibiscus moscheutos seed should be. Here is a picture of specimens I hope I collected. This pink color morph with no red-eye will occur in nature but it is unusual. I will know next year if I collected the correct seeds. The photograph of the leaves is consistent for a wild Hibiscus moscheutos,
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The Deno Method combined with seed nicking has allowed me to do the following.

1. Verify the success of separating Beetle compromised Hibiscus moscheutos seeds with nearly 100% accuracy without the use of any chemicals.
2. Prevent the distribution of the Althaeus hibisci Beetle in seeds trades.
3. Verify that the germination success rate of the good seeds is 90%.
4. Germinate both strong and weak Hibiscus seeds.
5. Start a new crop of Hibiscus moscheutos seedlings in less than a week from the time of collection in the wild.
6. Transfer only germinated seedling to the starter trays which saves space.


Mike
Attachment: Picture of my nine Hibiscus moscheutos seedlings as of Sunday November 7, 2010.