Storage of tropical seeds

Hi,

This summer I started germinating some tropical trees from seeds. I was successful with some of them. I've read somewhere that I should store them (for example Tabebuia rosea seeds) at around 5ºC (around 40ºF), that is, for example, in the fridge and keeping them with a low humidity.

My questions:

1) Would that be appliccable to all seeds, either tropical or not?
2) How could I control a low level of humidity of not more than 7%, as I've read?

Thanks in advance.




This message was edited Oct 22, 2011 9:42 PM

I cant imagine tropical plants germinated in zone 11 summer requiring any kind of fridge treatment as to my mind, this would kill off the tiny seedlings by sheer cold, but ofcource I could be completely wrong about that, do you have a problem growing the seedlings on in your climate, even the seeds that have not yet germinated I would be inclined to keep them in the compost till next summer as some type of plants germinate so much slower than other.
I do hope someone else from your zone can come in here as I would be so interested to find out what the cold fridge would do for tropical seeds as in there own natural habitat there would be no such cold areas, we live and learn is always the best way to go eh !!!!
Take care and good luck. WeeNel.

Thanks for your reply, WeeNel,
That's more or less what I thought and still think, in a way. I have some tropical and some not-tropical seeds. With the non-tropical ones, I guess that I'll have to keep them in the fridge for conservation. The thing is that I read on a very technical report that Tabebuia rosea (which is a tropical tree, I think) needed to be kept at low temperatures and with a low humidity level if you wanted to maintain their viability; otherwise they would be viable, at most, for a couple of months. I wondered if that would apply to other tropical seeds or if that special tree was an exception.

There are a decent number of tropical seeds that don't keep very well even if you have good storage conditions, so you're best off sowing them fairly quickly after you receive them unless you know for sure that you have ones that do keep. Otherwise, cool & dry are the best general conditions for seed storage regardless of whether they're tropical or not.

Thanks, ecrane3, for your clear explanation.

I know that I could surf the web in order to get some information about the conservation of each species of seed. Would anyone tell me some source (a good book or website) where I could find that kind of information (seed conservation) about many different species of plants?

Here's some interesting sites that may be of help.

http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/AR/archive/sep98/seed0998.htm

http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/AR/archive/sep98/

http://www.seedforsecurity.com/article.php?articleid=27

http://www.alchemy-works.com/growing_tips.html

http://www.fao.org/docrep/006/ad230e/AD230E04.htm

Seed care and germination:

http://www.tradewindsfruit.com/seed_germination_tips.htm

i just wanted to share: i tried to germinate sapodilla seeds and was unsuccessful because the fruit was stored in the fridge before i tried them. i know temperate fruits like apples need the chilling period just the way tulips do. usually tropicals are used to falling to the ground and having correct conditions to germinate, or at least when the wet season arrives. good luck :)

Thanks, Metrosideros, for your links. It'll take me some time to have a look at them, but they seem very informative.


Coastalzonepuzh, thanks for sharing your experience.

This message was edited Nov 1, 2011 2:05 PM