Out in the garden today doing battle with the weeds I noticed an OP hip on a Delbard I have called ‘Maurice Utrillo’ that I missed at pruning time. The hip has spent the whole winter on the bush to subfreezing temperatures and snow. It’s getting warm again and my seeds that have spent the winter in the fridge are starting to germinate. Would seeds stratified in the hip over winter require any special treatment if I was to sow them now? I have read in the warm stratification thread that seeds left too long in the hip will absorb germination inhibitors so if I was to warm stratify them to leach out the inhibitors would this work or could I just sow them now as I would straight out of the fridge?
I’ve sown them straight away out of the hip after Winter and did get some germination. Of course it never gets really cold here.
I did all of mine the natural way for the winter of 2007/2008. And it worked out well. I sewed them in a huge bed layered in soiless media in October. They wintered over with the massive rains, cold fronts and such, and germinated well in March, April, May and June (sporadic and filtered, which was okay). And I plan on doing it again. It saves a ton in costs of electricity, which we all know are on the rise.
Jadae, My friend in upstate NY does many of his the same way.
It just seems to flow better for me. I like it. I was apprehensive about the idea in my head at first, but I went with it as per usual lol. I think different approaches work for different people, though. So, I’m never convinced one such idea (regarding germination) is superior than the next. However, I think this idea will work for some.