Arisaema Germination (was: Soaking colchicum seeds)

Ellen Hornig hornig@earthlink.net
Fri, 19 Feb 2010 16:26:34 PST
Eugene - I was being deliberately vague, because yes, there are differences, 
and I am by no means an expert on this.  My experience w/A. sikokianum is 
like yours (warm germinator).  A. triphyllum is easy w/a cold/warm sequence, 
as is A. dracontium.  I just haven't experimented to see which ones, if any, 
actually require cold, because I find it easier to start almost everything 
cold (not summer-rainfall South Africans, though).  As Deno shows, it 
doesn't usually matter whether hardy seeds are started at the wrong 
temperature; the chemical changes commence when they hit the necessary 
sequence. Thus, for example, I've had batches of cardiocrinum (same 
collection) sown 6 months apart germinate at precisely the same time, 
because for one batch (which? the one sown cold, I think) the first several 
months were at the wrong temps, and nothing happened.

Some arisaemas have hypogeal germination (from memory, of the ones I've 
tried, A. elephas and A. thunbergii ssp urashima had that, and no doubt 
other people can contribute some more names).  I've grown out thousands of 
A. consanguineum in the process of looking for amazing forms, and those 
always germinate like grass after a cold/warm sequence, but I suspect they 
don't need the cold.  Ditto for A. candidissimum, A. flavum, A. 
franchetianum - all easy w/cold/warm and possibly all easy with just warm. 
Maybe someone else can speak to that.

The one thing of which I am quite certain is that nothing I have grown has 
needed a leaching in the toilet tank!

Ellen

Seneca Hill Perennials
3712 County Route 57
Oswego NY 13126 USA
http://www.senecahillperennials.com/
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Eugene Zielinski" <eez55@earthlink.net>
To: "Pacific Bulb Society" <pbs@lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Friday, February 19, 2010 7:06 PM
Subject: [pbs] Arisaema Germination (was: Soaking colchicum seeds)


> Ellen.
> Are you referring to both the Asian and North American Arisaema species?
> I've had A. sikokianum germinate for me at 70 F (20 C) without any
> pretreatment at cold temperatures.  I've heard, however, that A. 
> triphyllum
> is difficult to get to germinate.  (I haven't tried, though.)
> Apologies to Rodger Whitlock for continuing the germination thread, but I
> am not incurious about the factors that trigger seed germination.
> (Something about meeting Norm Deno at an impressionable age, I guess.)
>
> Eugene Zielinski
> Augusta, GA
> USA
>> Ellen
>>
>> Ellen Hornig
>> Seneca Hill Perennials
>> 3712 County Route 57
>> Oswego NY 13126 USA
>> http://www.senecahillperennials.com/


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