I put these seeds in moist paper towels and sealed them inside baggies on June 22nd and placed them on the top of the hot water heater. Some were peeled, some unpeeled. None were treated with any insecticides or chemicals, just plain water. We opened them today. Here are the results so far:
This first pic is of unpeeled seeds of Rosamond X L'Amour. You will notice some fungus growing on the seed coats but no insects.
L'Amour X Butterfly. When I peeled these open, I found several seeds had rotted inside and some were empty, no seed had ever been inside the seed coat. No bugs and no fungus on the outside. You can see two seeds I've peeled on the left hand side.
Butterfly X L'Amour. You can see some fungus growing on the seed coats. There are two peeled seeds and a split open(bad) seed on the left. No insects were found and we even squished out the insides of the rotted seeds to check for them!
L'Amour X Butterfly peeled seeds. These seeds were covered in hairy mold, more than half were rotten though some were good and one was starting to germinate. We washed these off with plain water and placed the good ones back inside a clean paper towel.
Butterfly X L'Amour peeled seeds. These looked great when I opened the towel to look at them. You can see that a couple are starting to germinate.
Rosamon X L'Amour peeled seeds. These looked pretty good too, though some had rotted. There were several that were starting to germinate.
All seeds in this experiment were sealed back inside the baggies and placed on the hot water heater to be checked again in 5 days.
I am glad that you are doing this Susie and find it interesting. Is there light by your hot water heater or is it dark? This sure makes me want to grow more seeds.
Me too! Lookin' good.
There is only light when the bathroom light is on. It wouldn't matter if there was light, the seeds are wrapped in paper towels.
I will have to find homes for these seedlings when/if they germinate. I wonder if I could mail them in their wet towels in the baggies?
Your paper towels are sure wet. I wrung mine out before I put my peeled seeds in. When mine showed any mold, I actually poured some 10% bleach on my new paper towel and wrung it out before putting it back in a new plastic bag.
Your method Cala, really changed my life from a bruglingless lady to one with bruglings! LOL. I did fail with my soil mix though. It seems to give nothing to my plants to grow. I was using the miracle grow soil mixed with super soil. terrible this year. I needed to fertilize constantly to get them to take off.
I see some already sprouting in your pics Cala. I think waiting another 5 days may be too long.
This message was edited Saturday, Jun 28th 11:08 PM
Do you have my address?oh yes I guess you do,spent whole day working on getting all your plants settled in!!Whew!
You are a sweetie!
keep me in mind if you if you want to try a shipping seeds in bags,I will be the best sitter till you get in your new yard!LOL!
Root, that might be a good experiment! I've got your addy. No need to send them back to me, just a cutting if they are "to die for" beauties!
LOL,I'll put them next to the other TDF ones you sent!still amazed,just don't know what the heck I would do if I had to move,I was telling a friend today of your shot with them all on the quilt,amazing!
good experiment cala. i would be happy to grow some out for you. the seed you sent me last time are growing up nicely. when you move to tx. and settle in you will have to come out to visit them.
LOL Cala, you are so nice!!! Sharing such special seeds. Not to mention all the brugs you send out to everyone.
I, too, would love to grow some of those for you! Way to go...
Well done experiment Susie :D I am looking forward to the next result in five days. There should be both more rotted as well as germinated seeds. Even if it can not be excluded I assume so far that there will be no worms found. Seem already now - without jumping to any conclusions that some crosses has a more pronounced tendency to empty seed coats than others and that some has the tendency to rot, where as others don`t. I wonder if the tendency to empty seed coats is due to failure of pollen fertilizing the eggs or what causes it? Also I wonder, if the abillity to rot (or not) is linked to the hybrids that were crossed or if there was other reasons (ie. small amounts of the fruit juice or fruit meat on the seed coats. That would be materials that "could" cause quick fungal attacs).
Tonny, interesting questions! I have found that some crosses tend to produce more empty seeds than others. My professor friend said that's common in some seeds. The gametes fail to combine and produce a viable seed. Sometimes the seed only partially forms and sometimes the little embryo tries to grow too soon, sometimes the endosperm(food reserve) isn't there and the embryo starves. Lots of things can make the seed not viable.
As for rot: I didn't dip these in bleach for the experiment. I have found that if I dip my peeled seeds in a 10% bleach solution prior to planting the incidence of rot is almost nil which leads me to think it's caused by a surface fungus. I do think some varieties/crosses are more susceptible to rot.
Tonny,
Susie and I discussed that the fungus growth was probably caused by not having clean or sterile hands when wetting the paper towels, but some could occur anyway. By the way, I had the honor to spend all day will Calla yesterday. You would not believe what all she gave to and old rift raft!!! I will be busy for the next couple of days trying to get everything planted or rooted. I think the number of named brugs that I have just doubled, not to mention hostas. I can not say adaquately with words how kind and sweet a person Calla is. You should all have the honor of spending a day with her. Sorry, got off the subject, but wanted all to know what a special person Calla is.
Larry
Yes she is! I am just now learning.
Larry, how did that huge brug survive the trip? It was good to have you come visit and also find a home for those "orphan" brugs, lol. Now I know I can beg a cutting if mine don't survive the trip!
All made it fine. Lost only one flower on the large one.
I'd be happy to grow out some of your seeds, Susie. I have some of 4 different crosses growing now, the hard part will be culling ones that aren't special enough!
It is the wrong time of the year for starting seedlings here. Otherwise I would have volunteered to help you out.
Hummernut . . I am glad that you had the opportunity to spend the day with Susie and I know the both of you had fun. I can just see you driving away now in your car loaded down and especially with that big one! I agree with you 100% about Susie. She gives of herself so freely and never asks for anything in return. Susie is truly awesome . . an angel unaware!
Susie, if you need any help, with anything, all you have to do is email.
Susie,
Great experiment. Glad that many of your crosses are germinating readily.
It is interesting to note that adding 10% bleach may kill some of the ones that may have germinated. Did you try adding a little bit of diluted bleach to the wet paper towel AFTER they had germinated? I'm thinking that it may help to cut down on the mold infestation, but not hamper the germination process.
Also, another thought that crossed my mind was actually how "wet" were your paper towels??? Were they dripping wet, very moist, or slightly damp??? It would be interesting also to control the amount of moisture that each paper towel contained. You would have to measure out the same amount of water and dampen each towel with the same moisture level, to have a truly "controlled" experiment.
If you need anymore volunteers to house sit your Brug seeds, I'll be more than happy too. BTW, the Brug plants that I recently purchased from you are all doing great and being to increase in size. Hope they'll bloom before the end of this summer.
Hugs,
Shirley
I could be wrong but I think you misunderstood Shirley. I do not think the 10% bleach hurt the germination process, at least the way Cala had me doing it. Practically all my seeds germinated and grew up.
Hummernut now I know why Cala likes you, she is especially fond of rift raft......LOL
Shirley, the 10% bleach didn't hurt the seedlings or germination, if fact it kept the mold from growing in the first place so the seeds could germinate.
I am dipping all of my seeds in the 10% bleach as soon as harvested now. I take them out of the pods, dip them in the bleach and then dry them.
As for the amount of water, I have tried with the towels dripping wet and also with the towels just moist. Didn't seem to make much difference as long as they were peeled and inside the sealed baggie.
One more volunteer for brug sprout sitting ;) Cala the brugs you sent are doing very well and putting on several new leaves. So far so good....maybe my Jedi mind tricks are working on them...I wave my hand over them every day and tell them in a soothing voice...you are happy in your South American home, you want to grow big ...rofl
Susie, I knew we would get a great report from you on this experiment. One basic thing is to be sure we use the 10% bleach solution.....
great going! thanks for taking the time during this very busy time for you to embark on a germinating quest....
cheers
Sublimnal messages Plantsrfun? heyyyyyyyyy?----and Ive been trying to hypnosis all this time? No wonder they grow so slow... Cala---if you find your self overflowing with seeds, and extra time (doubtful before your move) I would be honored to try to grow some of them, and would label them and everthing. These 3 little buds I have have really encouraged me---think Im gonna go out n feed everyone this morning. cheryl
Here is what they looked on day 9. The unpeeled seeds are moldy but no sign of any kind of worms or bugs. The peeled seeds have a few losses due to some kind of fungus making the seeds mushy, 5, 3 and 1 lost in the three packs of peeled seeds with L'Amour X BF suffering the greatest loss.
I will send these seeds out this afternoon. I have six little bundles and there were six volunteers to grow them out:
Rootdoctor
Hibiscus
Farmgirl
Ronna
Plantsrfun
Playsndirt
plus a packet of seeds to be sent to Shirley1md to do her own experiments on(if she still wants to)
I guess it would be easier for you to see the picture if I added it to the post!
Oh goodie gum drops! Let me know how much postage costs and I'll send payment through paypal. Looking forward to babying them.
Just sending them first class, should only be 49cents! If your package contains unpeeled seeds, it probably won't hurt to peel them before planting.
Thanks, Susie! I'll take good care of them, and hope that I have pink luck! I guess I'm already covered on the postage, I overestimated the weight on the brug package by a pound, sent postage for a 3 pound box, and it only weighed 2.
Yes Ronna, you are fine. That postage is so hard to figure. I never know if I'm going over or under. Some just don't weigh as much as I though, some weigh more!
Thank you so much Susie, hope to make you proud with these babies! Will reimburse you.
YIPEE! Thanks Susie, I would love to "experiment" with some of your brug seeds. Thanks so much for your generousity!!
Well I just learned a lot about brug seeds! Thanks for all this info!!! Great pictures too. Is it to late in the summer down here in florida to try to germinate the seeds?
