I took a peek at the 2-liter bottles which have been outside since 20 Mar, and to my (pleasant) surprise, I could see that the seeds in some of the bottles had in fact started germinating!!! I decided to take the germinated seeds (almost 100% of them germinated) from the bottle containing ‘Common Milkweed’ and transplanted them to smaller containers where they’ll be kept under the grow lights to finish their growth. Here are some pics from today’s HAPPY surprise…
This bottle contained plant ID ‘19014’ – common milkweed.- seeds.
Overhead shot once I removed the duct tape and opened the bottle.
Aren’t they cute?? Baby (common) milkweed!!!
Another pic of the tiny root emerging from the seed.
I transplanted the tiny seeds into condiment containers. They’ll now be kept indoors under grow lights.
Started my seed germination for the 2019 garden. Later than I had hoped, but still a bit earlier than last year’s effort, which was affected to some degree by recovery from heart bypass surgery (remainder was laziness/procrastination on my part!)
This year I’m making an effort to encourage higher germination of my Milkweed seeds by introducing a period of cold stratification before starting the seeds. Not all seeds need this additional step, but a fair amount of perennials do benefit from it. Basically, one is trying to simulate what a seed “in the wild” would experience, when Mother Nature drops it seeds onto the ground after a plant has completed its blooming cycle.
I am trying three different methods: (1) putting the seeds in 2-liter soda bottles and leaving them outside; (2) putting seeds in peat pots into covered plastic trays in basement fridge; and (3) putting seeds between damp paper towels then into baggies inside fridge. Some of the seeds need 30 days of stratification while the others need 60. It’ll therefore be April/May before we see the yield.
Pic of the outdoor 2-liter bottle method of cold stratification.
Pic of the wet paper towel and plastic container methods of cold stratification.
