zip lock seed propogation
David Pilling (Tue, 06 Jan 2015 16:49:55 PST)

Hi,

On 06/01/15 22:44, Tom Brown wrote:

The idea originated with Prof. Norman C Deno who did a lot of work on
seed germination. You can now get all his publications on this subject
as free downloads [1].

The upside is that it allows a lot of seeds to be stored in little
space, that you know where they are and what they're doing, they're
safer than in pots or in the ground.

The downside is that you have to keep an eye on them. Once they start to
germinate it can be a very delicate operation to transfer them to a
growing medium without damage. I enjoy manipulating tiny objects with
tweezers - you may not.

I keep the zip locks in a sealed plastic container; what was once called
"Tupperware". Even so they will dry out over the long periods which
seeds can take to germinate. So once in a while the zip locks need
topping up with water. Molecules will pass through plastic...

I have standardized on one size of zip lock and I know that I can cut a
sheet of kitchen paper into two, and then fold the two halves three
times and they will exactly fit the bag. I have a pipette which allows
me to put a known amount of water into each bag.

The paper is moist, there's no standing water. You can see one of my
bags with seeds at the bottom of this wiki page [2]. That page is about
seed germination and is relevant to this subject.

I put the seeds on top of the kitchen paper. Other people wrap them in
it. If they're wrapped in the paper it is a lot harder to remove any
germinating seeds and leave the remainder.

It is only worth using this technique for valuable seeds (where you only
have a few) or seeds which take a long time to germinate. For example
the tropaeolium speciosum require a warm spell and then cold. I knew in
2013 when I was given them that they would not germinate until now.

It is necessary to decide how small to go. I've done OK with common
primula seed, I would not attempt to grow something like begonias (and I
did try coconuts).

What goes wrong - the roots can grow through the paper. Rot, fungus,
mould can develop. Usually this is a sign the seed are bad anyway. But
sometimes one is led to remove the paper, clean up the seed and continue.

I did try experimenting with treating the seed before putting in the
bags to control mould. I used common household antiseptic cleaner
"Dettol" and surprisingly it did not kill the seed. But I did not find
the need to pursue this approach.

A simplification is to wait until one or two seeds germinate and then
transfer the bag contents to growing medium. Obviously no good for seeds
where germination is spaced over many years but it saves a lot of time.

[1]
http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/…

[2]
http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/…

--
David Pilling
http://www.davidpilling.com/