Storing cyclamen seeds
Diane Whitehead (Sat, 22 May 2010 11:47:15 PDT)

The species of cyclamen makes a great difference. Coum and
hederifolium need no special treatment. Purpurascens requires soaking
and darkness unless you don't mind how long it takes to germinate.

I have posted the results of my cyclamen germination tests several
times on Cyclamen-L. The seeds were bought from the Cyclamen Society,
which I received in October. I didn't bother to test hederifolium as
I had no need to buy any seeds. (It produces masses of seedlings in
the garden, even right on top of the parent corms, so it obviously
does not need dark to germinate.)

The temperature was between 15 and 17 C. The seeds were in a peat-
based compost in small plastic bags so I could observe as soon as they
germinated.

If I had enough seeds for the test, I did this:
soaked/light, soaked/dark, unsoaked /light, unsoaked/dark

coum - no difference. They all germinated between 17 and 22 days
(I've had coum from Cyclamen Society seed bloom 8 months from the time
I sowed them.)

purpurascens and repandum: soaking and darkness made a definite
difference (but repandum album behaved very differently from plain
repandum: unsoaked/light 27 days)

*** purpurascens: soaked/dark 21 days, unsoaked/dark 38 days,
soaked/light 49 days, unsoaked/light 83 days

---------------------------------------------

If I didn't have many seeds, I didn't soak, but tested for light and
dark.

mirabile, graecum, intaminatum, persicum no difference

creticum and cilicium did better in the dark (cilicium germinated in
22 days in the dark, and not until 31 days in the light) I don't
consider the difference is worth changing my usual seed sowing
practice, however.

Diane Whitehead
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada

On 22-May-10, at 10:15 AM, gentiaan bulborum wrote: