Hi John,
Yes, Joe had a sort of “lean-to” greenhouse the time that I helped him (or that he helped me!) It was always fun to learn from him. He and Agnes also came to our house a couple of times. Agnes came up and visited with our family the last time when she brought some of Joe’s ashes to be scattered in a rose field near Wasco. It was a very special time.
Jim Sproul
I haven’t talked to Agnes in years. Joe and her were special people who always had time to help others.
I am trying to follow up on what someone posted to this forum or another about keeping the hep pieces together with the seeds after separating them with the duct taped blender. A small strainer takes the smallest particles away, leaving a bunch of hep pieces and the seeds. Then they are put together on a paper towel and put inside a baggie to stratisfy. When stratification is done, the baggies get placed in a 45 - 55 degree place until they germinate.
I did this two years ago with OP Leverkusen. The germination rate was the highest of all the seeds I had because the seeds continued to germinate throught that year and the next. For whatever reason there wasn’t as much mold as I expected and germination started after six days and continued. I removed some of the hep pieces once germination started but always kept some in the baggie next to the seeds. I was going to toss the last five seeds from that bunch today but one of the seeds has a root coming out.
What the person who posted this theory which I practiced said was that there must be something that helps the seeds to germinate as well as the something that keeps them from germinated. Is it the mold the hep pieces generated? A chemical change in the substance that keeps the seed from opening to one that helps it? I don’t know but perhaps some of you do.
Geo, I tried an experiment a few years back using rotted hip pulp as a possible promoter of germination. It did seem to work. I think that the key is not allowing the seeds to rot along with the hip pulp - somewhat tricky!
I thought of this after I noted excellent germination coming from old rotting (a dry to slightly moist rot) hips that I found late in the season.
Jim Sproul