I have something in the order of 100 Iceberg XOP achenes in the fridge now, soaking in water in a sealed baby food jar, as an experiment. I am curious to see if water soaking them in this manner is a practical alternative to other ways of cold stratifying which require more fuss IMO.
They have been soaking in this chilled water now for almost 6 weeks.
With conventional cold stratification methods, is it better to complete a full 8 week period before removing from cold storage, or is 6 weeks chilling equally as effective for the stratification to give optimal results?!
Hi George
I am very interested in this experiment as I see the huge advantages in statifying in such a simple way.
I have done some trials myself (inspired by your posts) and have so far discovered that it completely eliminates all moulds.
I think that it weakens the bond in the achnea as I have had some split by themselves and others very easy to open along the seam.(from this I learned the very high percentage of non viable seeds that look normal as reported in your post)
I hope that the complete immersion will be very effective in leaching inhibaters and so shorten the time to germination.
My trials are not well documented as I started in a haphazard way as ideas came and so did not keep good records until mid Aug.
I have the first seeds sown 25/8/10 that were soaked anywhere from 4-8 weeks and refrigerated for various times.
I wait with interest to see results and look forward to more results from you.
Russ.
Hi Russ.
I am interested in your results just as much.
If anything it is a fun ride, to be sure!
I’ll continue to post the results of my water germination studies in the thread which I have linked below.
In the mean time I decided that I could sow half these Iceberg X OP achenes at 6 weeks and leave the other half soaking in refrigerated water for the extra 2 weeks, and see what happens.
Link: www.rosehybridizers.org/forum/message.php?topid=23111&rc=311&ui=2691970020
Hi George,
It has been noticed that less chill requirements are needed for seeds grown in warmer climates than in cooler climates for the same variety. So for someone like you in zone 10, 6 weeks maybe enough. But for someone like me in zone 4, 6 weeks is usually not enough for most of my seeds and 8 to 12 weeks is more the norm. It really does vary by seed parent and by pollen parent though. I had seeds germinate without any chilling at all and I had polyantha seeds germinate after 3 weeks at 50 degrees F. I would let seeds tell when they are ready; they
Hi Paul.
Thanks for your advice, this is very helpful information!
In that case I’ll leave them all in the chilled water until I get germinations starting in the chilled water. If this has not happened by eight weeks, I’ll then sow half of them at 8 weeks, and leave the rest in the chilled water, just to see if and when the rest do decide to start sprouting in that environment.
Soooo… As I have never cold stratified and sowed rose seed before, can anyone hazard a guess as to how long these Iceberg OP seeds might take to start to germinate?
I sowed them last week after 8 weeks cold stratification…and I am guessing they would need at least like 4 weeks…is that about right?