1949 seeds

LOL okay, that joke I can appreciate!

Sorry to report my final three seeds failed to germinate. They just seemed to disappear in the sowing mix.

We were hit with freezing weather and ice on the roads (okay, people who live in REALLY cold weather can laugh) and the pipes have been frozen for three days. I'll get to the PO today to get the next round of seeds mailed out.

I received the seeds, Beth! I will get them all going tonight and see what happens!

Joseph

I found the seed coat of these morning glory seeds to be very hard. This morning I saw 5 seeds showing signs of imbibation so that is a good sign.

Joseph how are you starting them?

Ronnie,

I am starting them as I do any other MG, I chipped the seed coat, then soaked these overnight, and now have the seeds in moist paper toweling in a ziploc bag. Several of the enlarged seeds do not look so good. They have the look of the seeds that have gone to that big trellis in the sky look.

Joseph

Hi,
I just found this thread and what your all doing is fantastic, I hope you get atleast one that blooms!
This thread seems to have a definite following! Good work Beth!

Happy Gardening,
Steve

phicks,

How's is the baby MG?

its not doing a lot it has a few more leaves but seems weak

...more leaves is good!! Always hopeful! - Arlan

More leaves means it can absorb more sun so thats good!

I can't keep my mouth shut anymore. Folks, we need to revisit the sensitivity of a germinating seed as mentioned several times at least by Ron. We should take a closer look at a germinated seed and look more closely at what we are seeing. We need to see what we are looking at and learn some of the jargon that goes with potting etc. I would like us to take a closer look at the recently germinated seed. What is there? Brand new roots barely bigger than they were in the embryo before germination. Stem? I should say not!!! That thing you are probably calling a stem is a hypocotyl, the umbilical cord between the rootlet and the cotyledons where the rootlets are still getting their nutrition. The hypocotyl needs to get it's own recognition, because of it's extremely high level of vulnerability. If you don't think it is vulnerable, just bruise one. I might be going out on a limb, but what the heck, bruises to the hypocotyl ARE DEATH. They are so easily injured. The main purpose of the hypocotyl is to transmit nutrients from the cotyledons, down to the rootlets. When the cotyledons have sent all they have, then having developed enough chlorophyll, they now can send food UP to the new leaf and other organs begining to develop. By the time you have grown two or three real new leaves, the hypocotyl has developed a good rind on it and the cotyledons are about to fall off, their job finished. This completes the most vulnerable period in this plant's life, SURVING BIRTH. Whoever we are, man or woman, we are the mothers of these seedlings, and like a cow we have to protect the new born from the predators. We need to provide temp, moisture, light, so simple for us. The cow has to eat the afterbirth to keep the coyotes from getting the calf the night of its birth. We do this with sterile seedling media. Yes, STERILE, STERILE, STERILE, or at least as sterile as you can get.. If you cannot replace the seeds, it would be stupid to think any other way. If we have 2# of last years seeds, then we can gamble and start over again and again. I have spent over $5 per seed on special seeds and failed at temp because I didn't take the time to find out the temp in the windosill, below 60 degrees! I hope you can profit from my mistakes, through this place to share.
I had better post this now before my "CUSSED 350" freezes again, and I can continue with these rantings about seedlings and their vulnerablility later. We need to endorse a protocol of planting mix terminology so that we are all on the same page. What is compost, dirt, soil, potting mix, top soil etc. Later Frank

I wired a rheostat to my big crock pot so I can carefully control the temp. of the peat pots with perlite in them for sprouting.

I am very sorry to report that all the seeds in my lot shipment were not viable. Thank you for letting me have a chance to grow them, Beth!

Joseph

I received mine today and will start getting them ready to go tomorrow. Stay tuned! Thanks for letting me try!

BRILLIANT, Beth. necessity is the mother of invention. I once wrapped xmas lights around the water pipes to keep them from freezing. It worked. Now all you need is one of those $40 thermostats to keep the temp where you want it for sure. Ace Hdw has them. Something else you might get inventive with, is one of the hot rocks for lizards at the local pet store. They come in different sizes and they are designed to keep the lizard around 80 degrees, with a 6' cord. This puppy can do a lot of things for you when you are working with irreplaceable seeds.
I just got from Park seeds two boxes of the styrfoam blocks with cone shaped holes and dig this, some kind of sponge plugs the color of peat. They are outstanding. Very very strong plastic, not disposable. They are a little pricey, but, you only live once. One of the bags of extra plugs tore open and some of them went onto the floor, and they didn't expload and make a mess, so I had to take a closer look. WOW, a sponge like fibery thing that stays in one piece. Now I can get serious about my fried egg poppy seeds. I think I will even get some more. You stirred up the inventor in ME. Good luck with the crock pot method. Frank

Two of the four seeds I received from this sweet person have germinated and are planted up, just poking their heads thru the soil

Rejoice! Rejoice!

YES!!!!!!

Hip Hip Hooray!!

KayJones, I'm getting ready to start mine. Please tell me what you did exactly...

This lurker rejoices with the rest of you!

I put mine in warm water to soak overnight and I noticed that five seeds sank, and two floated. I seem to remember some discussion about sinkers and floaters in this forum last year...

Goody goody goody!!!

I use a seed sprouter similar to this one to germinate all my seeds - it takes care of itself except for changing the water - I have several of these units and just love them:

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.cooksgarden.com/images/586T.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.cooksgarden.com/departments.asp%3Fdept%3D1243%26lvl%3D1060%26dpt%3D1&h=100&w=100&sz=20&hl=en&sig2=XRKoEgJMHAdUb9lTRIuzQA&start=49&tbnid=f2fs56tCE6goaM:&tbnh=82&tbnw=82&ei=RFO3RdPjMIikiQG_q82FBQ&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dgrow%2Byour%2Bown%2Bsprouts%26start%3D40%26ndsp%3D20%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26rls%3DHPIA,HPIA:2006-13,HPIA:en%26sa%3DN

I awoke this morning to find five seeds still intact, and two have burst open. One has a little 'tail' and one split in half. I'll be planting them in Jiffy peat plug pots and keeping them in a warm, bright room. This is what I did with my morning glories that I started early last spring.

I want to mention that when I started my seeds last spring inside, some germinated right away and it seemed that some didn't germinate at all. I put the potting soil of those that didn't, right back into the bucket of it that I keep in the garage, and some time later, I used that potting soil to stuff my topiary turtle. Imagine my surprise when much later, I had morning glories growing out of my turtle! So even if it seems like they aren't going to germinate, some are just slow. Don't give up!

It is encouraging to hear that there are sprouts...I'm very interested to see any closeups of the cotyledons of the new sprouts...and to compare the features to the strains commonly available today...I'm so curious to see if there are any interesting differences...maybe the color of the hypocotyl will portend the color of the flowers

What mine looked like this morning...

I included this little project in my blog entry for today: http://ourlittleacre.blogspot.com/2007/01/whats-story-morning-glory.html

That article on the seeds in London is fascinating! There's no telling how old a seed can be before it's not viable. I recall hearing a story about a lotus seed being found in a pharoh's tomb and being germinated, but I don't know if that's true or not.

Here is a story from 2002 about some 200-500 year old lotus seeds. I`m not sure everything they wrote is true but it sounds like the seeds had problems. The thick seedcoats may be part of the reason they last longer.

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2002-02/uoc--cls022102.php



This message was edited Jan 25, 2007 8:25 AM

I think I found it, but it appears it was in China this happened...

"Lotus is one of the oldest plants in the world. In 1972, archaeologists in China found seedsof the Lotus with estimated ages of 5,000 years in lagoons in Yunnan Province. In 1973, inChekiang Province, other Lotus seeds with ages of 7,000 years were also found (Wu-Han,1987). A large number of Lotus seeds were found in Shan-Tung, Liaoning Provinces andin the Western suburbs of Peking during the period 1923-1951. The age of these seeds was estimated at more than 1,000 years old. Shen-Miller et al. (1995) reported that a1,288±271 year-old (1,350±220 year BP, radiocarbon age) seed of Lotus Nelumbonucifera Gaertn. from an ancient lake bed at Pulatien, Liaoning Province in China, hasbeen germinated and subsequently radiocarbon dated. This is the oldest demonstrably viable and directly dated seed ever reported on."

This other article mentions the Dutch botanist's seeds, as well as the story of the Pharoh's wheat.
http://www.alphagalileo.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=readrelease&releaseid=515398
"In the 1990s, sacred lotus seeds recovered from a dried lake bed in China astonished scientists by sprouting: one seed was 1300 years old. The resulting plants, however, had serious genetic abnormalities. The second case was the seed of a South American canna lily, found inside a 500-yearold Inca rattle." (bolding mine)

I believe it about those canna seeds!

I wonder if the morning glory seeds will be okay then, and won't have too many problems with them resulting from age?

I'll just be thrilled to pieces if they germinate and I see anything green!

Good Job Kbaumle. Frank

If anyone has an incubator for chicks, you might try putting your peat pots in there to keep them warm. This has worked for me before. I really just want to tell all of you that I'm rooting for you in the back here and thanks for all the fun on this forum. I've learned alot.

Robin

Just checked the temperature of the surface of my heating pad. 76°. Should be good, right?

This message was edited Jan 26, 2007 1:03 PM

76 sounds about perfect!

I have an incubator, and never thought of that. Good idea!

Sad to say 3 of mine bit the dust! I will try the other 2 come spring