Texas Gardening: hibiscus martianus, 1 by dmj1218

dmj1218 wrote:
OK Miss Marie--this took me a little while, I'm heavily multi-tasking this morning

Since you now have your seeds this is what I'm going to do--this is on my afternoon list--lol
which as you will know from the thread, I'm highly motivated to complete today.

There are a number of bizarre methods like using various acids on these--I'm just going to use the same methods I use on Boomeria's and Tropaeolum's. It works good with them which I can attest to since I'm not starving.....

I'm going to use the kitchen tool in the picture below--the grater end I think its called. Its pretty useless in the kitchen except for cinnamon sticks and ginger anyway. where the arrow is. I'm going to gently grate them a bit--basically just to get thru the outer coat and then soak them 2 days in bottled water in a cup. I'm going to check them after 24 hours (change the water too) and remove them if any are germinating--otherwise they all come out at 48 hours. Then I'm going to put them in about 2" of pre-moistened good quality seed germinating mix in an aluminum disposable loaf pan with holes in the bottom (any shape of these aluminum pans will work--I just have loaf pans). I'm doing this not to unnecessary waste or use more seed germinating mix than I have too since I'm going to need it for some commercial perennials I'm doing in the fall. Then I'm going to slip the pan into a gallon zipper baggie (the thinner kind with the actual zipper--not freezer baggies) and set in the north window (it gets good light this time of year but no sun). Doing this in the house since its so hot outside now.

Don't get me wrong, I never cover any bulb seedlings or perennial seedlings and seldom use pans when I do them at the correct time of year--which is the fall. I'm just using this method since its the middle of the summer. I've even got other stuff in the fridge like this--really making my house guests wonder.

If I haven't made myself very clear--which is a distinct possibility, I'm doing about 10 things at once here--just ask me what I'm not making clear. lost my pic for a minute there--forgot how I tagged it--lol
Debbie
=)