Dear Andrew The night time temperatures can certainly play a big role in germination of seeds. I sowed a large number of seeds this season and I sowed them all in March (very early fall for us). Nothing germinated at all in March or in April and I began to panic. Then we had a really cold spell at the end of April, and about 60% of the species germinated within 2 weeks. The rest germinated in May and the last Romulea (some really old seed of Romulea unifolia) was up by the end of June. We sow all our seeds in trays and they are kept in a large plastic covered house which has no heating. During March the day temperatures were probably too high, and the nights not cool enough, and in April, the days were cooler but the nights still warm. The cold snap we had seemed to do the trick and the seeds all came up. We sowed Babianas, Lachenalias, many Gladioli and a few odds and ends like 2 Romuleas, a Freesia, a Polyxena, etc. Most were really old seed that we had thrown out, but some were fresh unidentified species. Regards Rachel Saunders Silverhill Seeds and Books Tel: +27 21 762 4245 Fax: +27 21 797 6609 PO Box 53108, Kenilworth, 7745 South Africa ----- Original Message ----- From: "MARK MAZER AND FREDRIKA MAZER" <markmazerandfm13@earthlink.net> To: "Pacific Bulb Society" <pbs@lists.ibiblio.org> Sent: Tuesday, October 19, 2010 1:41 PM Subject: Re: [pbs] Seed germination temperature > > >> Can anyone comment on the need for lowered temperatures at germination > time >> for Cape bulbs? > > In my experience, the majority of Cape bulbs that I sow (about 100-200 > pots > per year) will begin to germinate when the daytime highs are about 75F and > the night time lows are about 50F. Generally, I get three or four flushes > of germination over a five to eight week period beginning in early to mid > October here in northeast North Carolina. When I lived in northwest > Connecticut, the time frame was two to three weeks earlier. > > Mark Mazer > Hertford, North Carolina USA > USDA zone 8 > > _______________________________________________ > pbs mailing list > pbs@lists.ibiblio.org > http://pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php > http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/