Curious as to what is going on with mailed seeds

[montanamato]

The water theory won't work for me.
We are on our own well, and have had it tested before. Except for a varying mineral content, it is not contaminated with anything...

Jeanne

[nctomatoman]

Michael, the water theory is invalid - in a flat of 50 varieties all being treated the same way, it is the one or two cells that do not come up at all that indicate the problem. Going back to the original problem that caused this thread, it is me sending seed I germinate at 100% to California and the recipient getting less than 10% - and vice versa.

[michael johnson]

Oh well it was just a thought regarding water content, so I can cross that one off my list of possibles.

It seem from what you say Craig, that all problems seem to be pointing in the general direction of California, and from what some of the others have been saying too.

I wonder what the heck is going on in California area that is creating this problem !!!!.

[JerryL]

Jeanne,

So glad the seed I sent you is doing well.

I’m curious about your 100% and 3 -4 days on Lucky Cross. I have 3 vials of LC. If you still have the envelop I sent them in could you look and see what vial # they were from?

I have 40% germination on the Lucky Cross I planted and the first one took 7 days to show with heat.

If I sent you the same seed I planted, which I think I did, we’ll have the reverse situation. Good germ rate on mailed seed and poor on not mailed.

If this is the case then what does that say?

[montanamato]

Jerry:

Vial # 04-052S Lucky Cross

They were in the incubator room, but no bottom heat. I was impressed with how well they did, especially after I started reading other threads...
Only Sochulak germinated as early too.

Jeanne

[nctomatoman]

No, not just California - a friend sent some seeds from Alabama of a variety that germinated fine for him - zilch for me. I think that it is a much more random, scattered, or universal problem - but not enough data to decide which!

[JerryL]

Jeanne,

That vial # (04) tells me I saved that seed in 2004. My records show it was bagged fruit.

I planted seed from Vial # 04-095S. Saved by me but not the same fruit as the seed I sent you. Same plant, I only had one in 2004, but non-bagged fruit.

Think I’ll plant 04-052S next year.

[barkeater]

Hmmm. Maybe, just maybe, the variable germination could be a result of when the seeds were planted.

[travis]

Bark,

There you go again, sliding down that slippery slope of occult horoscopery

PV

[Reign]

Could it be the scanning equipment airlines use?

[montanamato]

Barkeater,

Secretly, I am starting to believe. I planted them on 3/10 and another few on 3/12. The varieties on 3/12 were replants from varieties planted 3/4. The 3/12 all germinated ( well ,not counting Bullys mystery yellow) this round, even if not in great amounts.

Jeanne

[Rena]

I am late to this thread but will add a few thoughts. I had great germination on some Big Zac and then I sent the rest to Fusion-he then had poor germination.
I recieved some BTieDye from Bruce and got zip I had a particular variety from Neil that I used up the whole packet and got zip nothing. I know that was fresh seed. I had a hard time with the Witty dwarf as well
As far as radiation goes, I am an Xray tech and my DH is a Radiologist. It would take a whole lot of radiation to kill seeds. I have not seen any data on the subject but that would interesting to see. I do believe the goverment if they were doing such would not tell everyone what zipcode they were using it on.

Interesting thread.

[bully]

I planted seed from Vial # 04-095S. Saved by me but not the same fruit as the seed I sent you. Same plant, I only had one in 2004, but non-bagged fruit.

Thank you Mr. Spock.. ...

[geol]

If they were telling or not, if we mailed a badge dosimeter back and forth to each other, it would tell us.

[Rena]

Very true....