Dear All, I have had very good luck with cyrtanthus seeds and other winged amaryllids by placing them in a clean/clear plastic disposable container (Glad Ware) on several layers of well moistened paper towels. To ensure that the seedlings are not attacked by fungus, I added a little fungicide to the water as I moistened the paper towels. I placed the seeds directly on the paper towels, put the lid on tightly and placed it in a warm bright location. In about a week or so nearly 100% of the seed sprouted (these were fresh seeds). I don't see why this technique shouldn't work on slightly older seeds. I have tried this technique twice with velthemia seeds and got 100% results, now I have an explosion of velthemia seedlings at varying stages of growth. Give it a shot and keep us posted. Warms Regards, Fred Biasella Cambridge (Boston) MA USDA Zone 6b ...and shoveling out from a tremendous 3' plus blizzard!!!! -----Original Message----- From: pbs-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org [mailto:pbs-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org]On Behalf Of J.E. Shields Sent: Sunday, January 23, 2005 2:43 PM To: Pacific Bulb Society Subject: Re: [pbs] Cyrtanthus Alberto, Floating seeds on water is my favorite way of starting Cyrtanthus seeds -- BUT! you have to remove them from the water and plant them as soon as the tip of the radicle emerges. Otherwise, they have never adjusted to growing in air for me. The germinating seeds appear to drown very easily once they have started to germinate. In this regard they are quite unlike Hippeastrum seeds, which can grow in shallow water for a long time and still survive when planted in solid mix. Good luck, and let us know how your year-old seeds do for you. Which species are they? Regards, Jim Shields in central Indiana, where we have bright sun shining on the white snow. At 08:06 PM 1/23/2005 +0100, you wrote: >Dell, thank you. >On "A review of the Southern African Species of Cyrtanthus", by Reid, I >have read about the germination of the seeds in water with success. Did >you or anyone experimented this method? >Ciao. >Alberto > >Italy > > >---------- Initial Header ----------- > > >From : pbs-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org >To : "Pacific Bulb Society" pbs@lists.ibiblio.org >Cc : >Date : Sun, 23 Jan 2005 09:07:43 -0500 >Subject : Re: [pbs] Cyrtanthus's seeds > > > Dear Alberto, > > > > Yes, contrary to myth, cyrtanthus and other papery amaryllid seed can > remain > > viable for a year or more, particularly if refrigerated. Germination > > percentage will probably be reduced. > > > > Regards, > > Dell > > > > --Dell Sherk, Director, Pacific BX > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > pbs mailing list > > pbs@lists.ibiblio.org > > http://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php > > > >Alberto Grossi >Italy >____________________________________________________________ 6X >velocizzare la tua navigazione a 56k? 6X Web Accelerator di Libero! >Scaricalo su INTERNET GRATIS 6X http://www.libero.it/ > >_______________________________________________ >pbs mailing list >pbs@lists.ibiblio.org >http://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php ************************************************* Jim Shields USDA Zone 5 Shields Gardens, Ltd. P.O. Box 92 WWW: http://www.shieldsgardens.com/ Westfield, Indiana 46074, USA Tel. ++1-317-867-3344 or toll-free 1-866-449-3344 in USA _______________________________________________ pbs mailing list pbs@lists.ibiblio.org http://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php