Cannas 2015

My seeds arrived! And @Scrungee was right they only cost £2.25

 

Well I soaked them in tepid water for 48hrs but they didn't seem to soak up the water any like with Sweet Peas so I've chipped the seed coat (what a job!) and stuck them back in some warm water over the radiator for another night as our radiators are run off an air source heat pump so they only get up to around 40-50°c perfect for tropicals.

 

I've got my chipping method down to about 5 secs per seed:

1) Place pliers over seed with their nose resting on something the thickness you wish to remove:



2) Grip seed in jaws and rotate pliers through 180 degrees:



3) File off seed coating to the exact pre-determined depth every time:



Did 60 like that a couple of days ago.

 

Beyond excited as I got up this morning and three of my seeds have germinated

 

That's a brilliant idea @Scrungee, I just used a combination of wire cutters and toe nail clippers to gradually scrap some of the seed coat off until I could see the Endosperm (haven't used that since college!) and this morning I can see that the seeds have swelled nicely and the seed coat is starting to come away slightly.

 

Back in business guys

 

Yes JWK , so far 5 out of 7 are out , thank you

 

Update on mine, well they've all now germinated, well almost, just 2 no shows, I can live with that

Largest so far is a Thai canna at about 3 inches

 

60 Seeds chitted, soaked and placed in 2 separate cotton wool wraps in same poly bag, 3 days later (today) 10 of the 30 seeds in one wrap have germinated, but zero germination in the other one. Can't figure that one out, the wraps were side by side rather than one on top of other.

Plants from seeds sown 1/1/15, now all in 90mm square pots and many with shoots coming up around the base.



67 Plants in pots and 75 seeds germinating, it's going to be a bit of a jungle here until the frosts have passed.

 

What are you going to do with them all? Your garden must be massive!
I now have 4-5 seedlings poking their shoots out of the soil and about the same on their way.
My revived tropicana/Durban now has 4 shoots up. Lovely purple foilage just hope it hasn't got canna virus.

 

Some of my Canna have started to germinate I can see the little root poking out the side on some of them! At what point do you usually pot them up from the "Baggie Method"?

 

Watch the root carefully and you'll see a bump start to form. This will be the foliage starting and that is when I do it.

 

think I've got a pic of one at that stage ....

 

Thanks guys I'll take a look tomorrow and whip them each out as and when.

Sent on the go from my telephone