Germinating Cardiocrinum giganteum
Burger, Steve (Mon, 06 Sep 2004 06:46:53 PDT)

So you used no cold treatment? Directly sowed and they germinated?

Steve

-----Original Message-----
From: Paul Tyerman [mailto:ptyerman@ozemail.com.au]
Sent: Monday, September 06, 2004 08:53 AM
To: Pacific Bulb Society
Subject: Re: [pbs] Germinating Cardiocrinum giganteum

At 04:12 6/09/04, you wrote:

Does anyone have any experience germinating seeds from these? I'm getting
some soon and I'm not sure what I need to do?

Steve,

Have you ever tried germinating Fritillarias? I have treated mine exactly
the same way and have just had a heap germinate. Supposedly viability
drops off quite rapidly, but I do not know for sure about that as mine were
fresh from my own plant.

Basically, I filled a pot with seed raising mix (whatever you use for that)
to about 1cm from the top, placed the seeds on the surface and covered with
3-5mm gravel to just below the rim. That is how I tend to treat most of my
bulb seed. I noticed this week that the shoots were up quite thickly in
the Cardiocrinum pot so it must work <grin>

I would hazard that these will not like being disturbed much when young as
they are a strange type of bulb that seems rather "temporary" when small (I
can't think of any other way to describe it). I would be thinking or
repotting the whole pot when they have filled it, rather than trying to
split them up individually too quickly. Given how large the 4 year old
bulb I bought a few years back was I think they grow rather rapidly, so I'd
imagine that you'll be repotting in a years time, which is definitely when
I would be thinking about just repotting the whole root-mass into a larger
pot instead of dividing them up. I think you'll need to get some size on
the bulb before you start jeopardising roots. That is my impression anyway
but there are likely others here on the list who would have more
experience. My cardiocrinum are either freshly germinated or were from a
sowing of old seed which barely germinated and so they aren't exactly thick
in their pot! LOL

I hope that this is of some help? Good luck!!

Cheers.

Paul Tyerman
Canberra, Australia. USDA equivalent - Zone 8/9

Growing.... Galanthus, Erythroniums, Fritillarias, Trilliums, Cyclamen,
Crocus, Cyrtanthus, Oxalis, Liliums, Hellebores, Aroids, Irises plus just
about anything else that doesn't move!!!!!

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