SPECIES MGS

I would like to start a thread for those enthusiasts that love the species, and especially those from Africa. If you have grown these and know of some special, out of the ordinary tricks for treatment they need, please post it on this thread. If you plan on some odd species this year, tell us a little about your plans. Avoiding damping off is especially important in the eclectic seeds, but not impossible. Frank

I'm going to be trying out various types of smoke compound treatments (both the prepackaged smoke treated paper and various homemade products) which have been found to stimulate germination even in species that would not encounter fire in their native environment...

The smoke compounds may hinder pathogens in addition to breaking dormancy...(have you ever seen moldy ashes?!)...

I'll be reporting back more as I begin my experiments which will start in late March and extend throughout the Spring and Summer...

TTY,...

Ron

Good to hear from you Ron. I just bout some pipe boul stainles mesh filters for smoking up seeds prior to germination myself. Now the trick is to find out what to make the smoke out of. I think to generate smoke I just might buy a new pipe and use an aquarium supply to force air into it. MY smoke needs are to get the seeds of Rhomnea coulterii to germinate. 20 years ago I bought this kind of seeds from Burpee pre treated and now you have to haunt ebay. The seller said pine needles.

Which seeds are you going to use smoke on? Frank

Ron, reading your comment about never seeing mold in ashes made me think of something. I know that ashes are high alkali. I wonder if that acts the same way an acid treatment would on the seedcoat. Perhaps it might not be the smoke that triggers the germination in some of these seeds at all, but the change in pH.

Paracelsus, very interesting and something I would never have thought
about. Will be interesting to see what Ron has to say.

Jackie

Ashes also raise the conductivity (read that as salinity!) of the soil. A little would go a long way since most plants won't do well in salty soil.

It is interesting that if you buy a Morrell culture kit, they tell you to innoculate the site of an old burn pile. In my area, soil pH is around 5 to
5.5, so a burn pile gives a quantum leap to the pH, and plants grow there that don't normally grow there abouts.

It is known however, that smoke nutrilizes some of the chemical in the seed coat that induce dormancy. Proteas, Banksias don't release their seeds until a brushfire sweeps through. Then all the seeds are sown at the same time during a surge upward in pH, which is needed by developing seedlings. Maybe we should experiment with very strong amounts of P and K, in mgs. We might discover something.
Frank

Here are a couple young seedlings of Ipomoea obscura 'Bone Yellow'. It is now beginning to extend its vines looking for support structures.

Joseph

Joseph - Nice photo...helpful to be able to see the tuft of hair along the edge of the leaves...

This strain of Ipomoea obscura usually produces little to no pigmentation on the leaves and/or on the stems...

TTY,...

Ron

Ron, thanks for the nice comment. I am happy I got a key character in the photo...what are the other other major ones to look for in determining species in the Ipomoea? I already know about the sepal character. I probably could get all that information myself if you suggested a good basic dichotomous key on Convolvulaceae.

Joseph