Morning Glory Garden Performance Trial

I have what I hope is an interesting challange for ya'll. In sowing MG seed for my trial this spring, I noted considerable variability in seed germination rates. Out of 6 randomly chosen seed sown of each of the 72 MGs: 13.8% germinated 0, 11.1% germinated 1, 9.7% germinated 2, 13.8% germinated 3, 15.3% germinated 4, 23.6% germinated 5, and 12.5% germinated 6. I will make the assumption as a consumer that if I pay money for seed I should be able to expect at least 50% germination. Based on that assumption, 34.7% of the seed I purchased germinated less than 50%. They were mostly Ipomoea purpurea, Ipomoea tricolor, Ipomoea coccinea, and Ipomoea quamoclit, all either purchased from vendors on eBay or from seed companies. As a part of the effort, I have compiled a huge collection of recommendations from Google for germinating Ipomoea seed. They vary widely, nicking, soaking in warm water, soaking in hydrogen perioxide, soaking in chlorox, even, get this, soaking in meat tenderizer! I have many question. What temperature is warm water? Do you maintain that temperature or let the water cool to room temperature? Does hydrogen perioxide or chlorox improve germination and at what concentration? Does meat tenderizer improve germination and which product? What are the reason that hydrogen perioxide, chlorox, or meat tenderizer if they do?
I have an undergraduate student starting with me this summer who has signed up for a special problems class (student works directly with a professor on a research project) for 3 hours college credit. I thought we would set up controlled experimants to test some of these ideas, for example:
1 - direct sow, nick seed and sow, soak in warm water and sow, or nick and soak then sow.
2 - Place seed in 50, 70, 90, 110, 130, or 150F water and let cool to room temperature.
3 - Place seed in 90F water and let soak for 0, 4, 8, 12, 16, 20 or 24 hours.
I hope you get the idea. If you have ideas you would like for me to test, please let me know. Thanks!

I just nick the seed coat on a lateral edge and soak in tepid tap water without additives and get nearly 100% germination on the seeds I grew. Usually they make a nice seed root in 3 days, then they go in the ground.

Maybe you are cooking the seed with too hot water?

Joseph

Joseph;
How warm is too warm? I ran the water until it was comfortable on the back of my hand, like checking a baby bottle. I did not nick any of my seed and noted that some seed from the same source imbibed water (swelled and radicals emerged) and others appeared no different and did not germinate within two weeks from sowing. I think there are two possibilities: 1) incomplete pollenation of a given harvested seed pod. or 2) because of the basipetal direction of seed ripening in the pod, those that are more mature toward the pod apex exhibit greater hard-seediness and may require nicking, while those that are less mature toward the pod base exhibit lesser hard-seediness and imbibe water more quickly. An additional observation. In some cases, seed from a source had both dark colored seed and light tan colored seed. I picked out and sowed each group separately and got faster, higher % germination from the light tan colored seed. Again, I did not nick any of the seed. Your thoughts?

Before I moved to TX, I never used to soak the seeds in a mixture of peroxide/water. However, for some reason, soaking in water just didn't work for me here - so many seeds would rot. So, someone suggested to me last year that after I nick the seeds, to soak them in a mixture of 1/8tsp peroxide to 1C room temp water. Amazingly, that seems to have done the trick (something to do with the hard water here, maybe?). A nice root is in place within 2-3 days, and into the soil it goes!

Nichole

I think the temperature of water you mention (baby bottle temperature) is fine.

It's my opinion that one vendor that I am aware on ebay marketed seeds that were not fully mature when they were harvested, which may have contributed to seeds that did not germinate. That was my experience last year and I simply have not bought more seeds from this vendor for that reason. I select seeds for shipment based on how they look, and do not send seeds that appear to be laterally shrunken or different in appearance from the rest of the seed lot. Maybe others have a trick to determine seed quality from visual inspection?

That is interesting about the seed coat hardness being a function of the location within the seed capsule. I have observed during harvest of seeds that they were all at the same level within the seed capsule and there wasn't a layered arrangement of seeds.

I don't have any information on germination success as a function of seed coat color. Maybe you got a mixed lot of seeds?

rkesslerjr warm water if you go by medicinal preferences is when it feels warm on you handwrist where your veins show on the inner side. If it feels the slightest HOT its too hot and you will boil the protein. Dont feel for tempts on the back of the hand it is much more tolerant to "hot" temps
Good luck
Janett

Edit to say: I have read here on Dave´s that some people nick the big hard (Canna)seeds in "boiling" hot water but that was just a VERY quick dip to shock the seedshell not to leave it in there. most Protein boils at 42 C-107,6 F

This message was edited May 11, 2006 10:59 AM