Germination/Updates(2012); My Seed Offer

[tam91]

I had that happen last year with a variety (not one of Carolyn's). It was suggested to me that it was immature seed, and lacking in nutrients. After fertilizing, it took off and caught up with the others. Perhaps a weak fertilizer solution? See what others say though, I am not one of the more experienced members.

[tam91]

My germination results so far: (I started a bit late this year)

No special treatment, sowed in sunshine mix in seed starting tray (rows) on heat mats

Maiden's gold 3 sowed 3/7 1 germinated 3/15 33%
Indian Stripe Potato Leaf 3 sowed 3/7 1 germinated 3/15 1 germinated 3/20 66%
Vince P1 6 sowed 3/15 2 germinated 3/20 1 germinated 3/21 50% so far
Medovaya Kapla 4 sowed 3/15 2 geerminated 3/20 50% so far

I also sowed 10 seeds of Russian Bogytr from 2004 on 3/15 - I soaked them first in a weak fertilizer solution. No germination so far.

The interesting thing is - these are 20 row seed starting flats. I have seeds from various sources in the same flat (same conditions). I knew all the varieties from Tomato Growers Supply wouldn't germinate well from last year - so I double sowed those, and as expected got around 50% germination.

But - for seeds sowed on 3/7 from all other sources, I had pretty close to 100% germination by 3/15. I'm not sure why your seeds are struggling a bit - I wonder if the postal service did something to them?

[greyghost]

Carolyn,


Sowed 8 seeds of Indian Stripe/possibly Daniels F4 4 germinated, 50%

All are healthy potato leaf seedlings, as expected.

Thanks very much for offering these! Darlene

[MarinaRussian]

All varieties were sown on 3/18. Results so far:

Aunt Gertie's Gold - 2/3 - 66%
Dutka's Pink - 2/3 - 66%
Fish Lake Oxheart - 1/2 - 50%
Granny's Heart - 1/2 - 50%
Hoy - 2/3 - 66% ( one is not growing any true leaves)
Kosovo - 2/3 - 66%
Maiden's Gold - 2/5 -40%
Rose d' Eauze - 3/3 - 100% ( one never took the helmet off)
Terhune - 1/5 - 20%

Note: The first one to germinate was the Rose d'Eauze (2009 !!!)

I'm pretty happy with the results. Waiting for the other seeds to catch up.

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by MarinaRussian

All varieties were sown on 3/18. Results so far:

Aunt Gertie's Gold - 2/3 - 66%
Dutka's Pink - 2/3 - 66%
Fish Lake Oxheart - 1/2 - 50%
Granny's Heart - 1/2 - 50%
Hoy - 2/3 - 66%
Kosovo - 1/3 - 33%
Maiden's Gold - 0/3 - 0% (resowed)
Rose d' Eauze - 2/3 - 66% ( one still has a helmet on)
Terhune - 0/3 - 0% (resowed)

Note: The first one to germinate was the Rose d'Eauze (2009 !!!)

I'm pretty happy with the results. Waiting for the other seeds to catch up.

I think some explanation is needed here. Yes, Marina started out by participating in my seed offer and then we deicided to do a trade. Just so the rest of you know that I didn't send out nine varieties to some who participated in my seed offer.

Marina, why did you sow so few seeds? perhaps you want only one plant. The no shows were 2011 seeds, Terhune and Maidens Gold, and earlier in this thread you can see that those have been doing well when it comes to germination, so fingers crossed on those.

Now here's the larger picture.

Marina sent her seeds to me on Feb 2nd and they still haven't arrived. She resent some, but not all, quite recently, still not here.

Andrey in Belarus sent me his on Jan 28th, still not here and resent them as well, still not here. What I did for Andrey was to facilitate a Lady Gaga T-shirt to be sent for his oldest daughter Liza, and she got that and was very pleased.

Marina got my trade seeds but here I am right now packing seeds to send to Craig for my plants and to Lee and Neil and Shoe for seed production and knowing that some outstanding ones were in the ones that Marina sent me as well as Andrey.

We've joked about this in another thread here, but what is, is.

I still think that the seeds from Marina and Andrey are coming either by a slow moving submarine or a hot air balloon, I mean who knows for sure.

[delltraveller]

Seeded March 7th with Jiffy Organic Seed Starter Mix, pre-moistened, in a 9 cell unit, one of four in a half size tray (36 cells total).

Blush (2011)--1/6
Lucinda (2011)--1/5
Malinovyi Rog (2011)--1/5
Natalie (2011)--3/7 [one dead end helmet head]
Zolotoy Zapas (2011)--4/7

For comparison, the seeds in the other four cells:

Iditarod Red, 2nd sowing after lackluster results--2/3
Yukon Quest, 2nd sowing after lackluster results--3/3 [one blind, one helmet head]
Utyonok, 2nd sowing after poor germination when testing Plantation brand seed starter--3/3
Green Sausage--3/3

Iditarod Red and Yukon Quest are part of this years Dwarf Project releases through Tatiana, and the Utyonok and Green Sausage are from Carol Knapp.

UPDATE: 21 April--culled Malinovyi Rog, signs of disease

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by delltraveller

Seeded March 7th with Jiffy Organic Seed Starter Mix, pre-moistened, in a 9 cell unit, one of four in a half size tray (36 cells total).

Blush--1/6
Lucinda--1/5
Malinovyi Rog--1/5
Natalie--3/7 [one dead end helmet head]
Zolotoy Zapas--4/7

For comparison, the seeds in the other four cells:

Iditarod Red, 2nd sowing after lackluster results--2/3
Yukon Quest, 2nd sowing after lackluster results--3/3 [one blind, one helmet head]
Utyonok, 2nd sowing after poor germination when testing Plantation brand seed starter--3/3
Green Sausage--3/3

Iditarod Red and Yukon Quest are part of this years Dwarf Project releases through Tatiana, and the Utyonok and Green Sausage are from Carol Knapp.

Whoa, those are very poor germinations for those varieties from my seed offer and every one of them are fresh 2011 seeds. And the varieties you list were produced by three different folks.

Some of them have already been reported on in earlier posts here and got very good germination with some of them. Blush I remember has done well for almost everyone who posted about it, Malinovyi Rog less so, so I'm keeping and eye on that one.

So I have no explanation but this is why I like to do this thread b'c it not only gives me feedback but it also gives feedback to those who are growing some of the same varieties such that one person will have great germination with a specific variety and the same seeds as started by another person will not be good.

But I spoke to this in the first post I made and said that I'd been doing seed offers for many years before Tville opened in Jan of 2006 and kept germination data and it's true that I could see HUGE differences ranging from 0 to 100% for the same seeds.

Finally, I have no explanation for the germination of your Dwarf seeds since they too would have been processed by different folks before you in probably different ways and you had to start them twice.

[Father'sDaughter]

As of tonight, two of the three Terhune seeds are up.

So that makes 100% germination for the six Casino, and 66% germination for the three Terhune. I did sow another Terhune to see if I can get one more seedling, but that leaves me with only one seed as a back up! If I end up with just two and they survive and bear fruit, that will be good enough for me!

Carolyn, thanks again for the seeds!

[tam91]

Yay! One of your old Russian Bogytr seeds (from 2004 I believe) just poked his head out today.

soaked a day before planting with a pinch of fertilizer
planted 3/15 - 10 seeds, 1 germinated today 3/26

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by tam91

Yay! One of your old Russian Bogytr seeds (from 2004 I believe) just poked his head out today.

soaked a day before planting with a pinch of fertilizer
planted 3/15 - 10 seeds, 1 germinated today 3/26

Tam, that one has to be from a seed offer prior to the recent 2012 one b'c I didn't offer anything older than the three excellent 2007 ones which few folks paid attention to, same with the 2008 ones, for 2012.

I think you'll like Russian Bogatyr ( please note spelling), it's a big honking red beefsteak variety with 1-2 # fruits and excellent taste for me and most others.

So I hope you get a few plants and those seeds would now be about 8 years old. Happy Birthday to Russian Bogatyr to see the light of day again.

[tam91]

Rats, I always spell that wrong. I have it right in my seed stock list, but not in my brain apparently.
These weren't from an official offer - you very kindly sent me a couple varieties when I first joined t-ville. One I grew last year, but didn't have space for both. So I will be trying Russian Bogatyr for the first time this year - it sounds great! Even one plant is ok, I will save seeds from it.
So thank you again, and Happy Birthday indeed to the seed.

[ginger2778]

Just to let you know Carolyn,
I will be starting my seed after Labor day, because of our reverse growing season. i will report my results faithfully.

[delltraveller]

Originally Posted by carolyn137

Whoa, those are very poor germinations for those varieties from my seed offer and every one of them are fresh 2011 seeds. And the varieties you list were produced by three different folks.

Some of them have already been reported on in earlier posts here and got very good germination with some of them. Blush I remember has done well for almost everyone who posted about it, Malinovyi Rog less so, so I'm keeping and eye on that one.

I'm a bit bummed myself, particularly since the initial germination seemed decent. Zolotoy Zapas was coming up in 4 days and Blush, Lucinda and Natalie in 5 days. Malinovyi Rog was the straggler at 7 days.

I checked the earlier posts in this thread and noted the results, too. Some of the varieties seem to be germinating on both ends of the spectrum, some more consistant. To date, including mine:

Blush--3/5, 1/4, 2/7, 1/6

Lucinda--1/2, 1/5, 1/5

Malinovyi Rog--1/5, 2/6 [helmeted], 4/9, 1/5

Natalie--3/7

Zolotoy Zapas--1/3 [died], 4/7

No other Natalie reports yet. I hope we'll see some more reports for all of the varieties shortly.

I am pleased that, barring any negative developments, I'll have at least one plant of each variety to grow out.

[delltraveller]

Originally Posted by carolyn137

Finally, I have no explanation for the germination of your Dwarf seeds since they too would have been processed by different folks before you in probably different ways and you had to start them twice.

For me the Iditarod Red and Yukon Quest seem to be weaker all around. In my initial seeding both germinated 2/3, but each one had a seedling that couldn't escape the seed coat. The Perth Pride and Sleeping Lady were more vigorous seedings and germinated 2/3 and 3/3, respectively.

Other dwarf plants seeded at the same time, in the same material, in the same environment had no problems. Seven of the eight additional varieties germinated 3/3, the eighth was 2/3. Some were from Heritage and some were my saved seed.

[ljp]

These seeds were planted March 4. The ones that sprouted were up in 6-8 days.

Casino Chips 2/7 29%
Fish Lake Oxheart 0/6 0%
Green Doctors Frosted 6/16 38%
Moravsky Div 2/14 14%
Terhune 0/6 0%

These were all planted in 2" pots using the dense planting approach (used successfully last year). I planted 64 varieties and 55 sprouted. For Carolyn's I planted all the seed as instructed -- it didn't occur to me that I would need to replant. For the others, I planted 3 to a pot. I'm getting 2 or 3 sprouts each, about 50/50.

Half my seeds came in the mail. Most seeds survived in slightly padded regular envelopes. The seeds Carolyn sent were well padded, I'm not sure why the germination rates are so poor.

I haven't given up on any of the seeds. Two are showing signs of life; but, the sprouts are thinner than a hair and have the seed coat on. I'm not ready to say they sprouted. If I do and they don't survive, it's me and not the seed.