Smoking seed ....work in progress

Have any members used the smoke method for seed germination?
Smoke germination is a method which is used for some tropical seed such as Protea.
Apparently crushed charcoal from bonfires,or bought ready to use.

Or this .........outside in a safe container to light some sheets of newspaper(if it's still in production,)
The burnt ashes /charcoal are added to a small amount of cooled boiled water.
The seeds are then added for X number of days. I have some protea seed from a few years back.
I. shall give it a go .

 

I've tried in the past with protea, banksia and grevillea. I used bonfire ash mixed with butt water.....that's rain water from water butt
Germination was very good, even with fairly old seed....keeping them alive past the seedling stage is where I really struggled

 

Oh I misread the title of this thread, damn, could do with a pick-me-up

 

The ones I am trying now,

I put some straw in a 6in clay pot, set light to it, then put another pot the same size over it inverted.
I put the seeds around the edge of the drainage hole and covered with a jam jar.
I left it for half an hour, then put the seeds in the smoke filled jam jar and left them overnight in the smoke filled jar with the lid on.

Sowed the next day in a bark and sand mix with bonfire ash.
Hope it works.

 

John 558

:sorry:
Don't despair I will change title if someone shows me how.
just for you

What bout this .........Smoking WEED is effective!:cheerup:

 

On reading your Post Pete this sounds a good way of getting smoked seed.I'm interested to see how this works.

can I pick your brains further please , ........Would you try the scarify method of rubbing with sandpaper first or even after?

My protea seed has like a couple of fluffy bits on top of the seed .would you remove these?

 

Thanks flounder any idea what time of year did you start the germination. Maybe I could start in a few weeks or when it starts to get warmer .??????

 

I've not tried scarifying, and I've not removed the fluffy bit.

But who knows, I dont.

 

I haven't sown all the Protea seed that I bought, only half of each packet, I'm hoping for a second chance later in the summer when I can give them normal greenhouse temperatures.

Thinking the highs and lows, in temperature, might make a difference.

 

I started them in the greenhouse somewhere between March and June, can't exactly remember as it was nearly twenty years ago......I have difficulty remembering what I did twenty minutes ago!