Cold Stratification Method - My Experiment !

Hello friends,

The Cold Moist stratification is the process by which we imitate the period of cold and moisture in nature required for perennials seeds germination (break dormancy). These perennials or native perennials seeds are much more difficult to germinate.

I took many pictures when i tested this method.

See ---> Cold Moist Stratification, my experiment

testing:

 

I'm stratifying seeds for the first time this year but the instructions on the seed packets said to sow them in a tray of soil. As yet no signs of life! Your system is a much easier way and takes up much less room.

 

I know this is a popular method, but it has never worked for me. I find that using filter paper / kitchen towel I can never get the air / moisture balance correct. Its far too easy to have too much water / not enough air. Personally I much prefer to use a couple of teaspoons of damp vermiculite in as small a zip-lock bag as will hold them (so that the seeds are in good contact with the vermiculite - a large bag means more vermiculite, or not good contact between the two sloshing around in the bigger bag; more vermiculite means that if I then tip the contents out to grow them on conventionally, in a small seed tray, that it needs a lot of surface area for the volume of vermiculite)

I suspect that a zip-lock bag with vermiculite makes it a bit harder to see when germination starts, and the root is a bit more developed before "pricking out", but it seems to work OK for me. Possibly the Vermiculite helps reduce mould as I think it has a slight fungicidal property.





http://kgarden.wordpress.com/tips/s...sing-the-baggy-method/#VermiculiteBaggyMethod