pbs Digest, Vol 94, Issue 30 re seeds germinating in mail
CGeat25049@aol.com (Wed, 17 Nov 2010 11:32:53 PST)

Hi
Years ago, I had poor luck germinating clivia. Very bad because I paid
$2-4 each plus shipping from South Africa. When I complained to Silverhill
about the bad seeds they were sending me, it turnd out I had bad sowing
advice. Some website had said to sow them in the dark so that's what I was doing.
Silverhill corrected my error. I had sowed them two months previously so
they were kept moist in a ziplock. I had taken them out to my lanai with
the idea of dumping these "bad" seed and had stuck the cell inserts on a
shelf for two weeks until I got around to throwing them in the compost heap.
Of course they were getting light now. When Silverhill told me what I
doing wrong, I rushed out to bring them back inside and lo and behold , the two
weeks in the light was a enough to get them started. With all the talk of
seeds germinating willy-nilly, I went googling to see what was being said
about clivia right now and there is still advice being given about starting
them in the dark ! What saved them for the two months was that they were
being kept moist. It is suggested that the seeds be refrigerated and I am
wondering if that is necessary as long as they are kept moist and in the
dark ( when apparently they need light to spout).
Cherry G