Branscomb seeds: The gibberellic acid cure

[GreenThumbGal_07]

OK you guys,

I decided to bite the bullet and shell out for some gibberellic acid. I'm going to give the Branscomb seeds a good wake-up call. GA-3 is supposed to be effective on the really old seeds.

(The Branscomb 1990? seeds I planted 1.30.2006 with no treatment haven't yet shown their little green heads.)

GTG

[bonekittyslug]

Anyone have any luck with Craig's Branscomb seed?

So far:

Cat=zero, zip, nada, nill, none
Hog=zero, zip, nada, nill, none

gosh darnoodley oodley doodley
or
{_________}(insert many fine cuss words here)

[GreenThumbGal_07]

The first half of the Branscomb seeds were soaked overnight in plain water and planted in Jiffy-7 peat pellets, on January 30. Nothing seen from them yet. This is the "control" set.

The second half of the Branscomb seeds (the remainder) were soaked overnight in 1000 ppm GA-3 solution last Monday and planted, also in Jiffy-7 peat pellets, on Tuesday, March 21. I hope I'll see something in two or three weeks.

I have not tried this method before. The GA-3 instructions recommended the 1000 ppm solution for the very hard-to-germinate seeds.

GTG

[bonekittyslug]

GTG,

I certainly wish you great success with the GA-3.

I'll be watching for your post giving us good news!!

[GreenThumbGal_07]

Grammatical correction to my post:

Should have read "the second half was."

From experience, I have found that untreated seed from 1996 will take between three and six weeks to sprout. The Branscomb seeds date from 1991 at the latest, and who knows when before that.

Did someone say that a record period to wait was three months? My three months aren't up yet!

GTG

[GreenThumbGal_07]

GA-3 source:

J.L. Hudson, Seedsman

http://www.jlhudsonseeds.com/

GTG

[carolyn137]

GTG,

Craig and I both used giberellic acid to try and wake up old seeds. It had been suggested to use it in concert with Potassium Nitrate, which we had both used before, since GA, being a plant hormone, trends to make the seedlings gangly and stupid looking, and it had been suggested that adding the Knitrate might cut down on that

my memory was that addition of GA, and I don't remember the concentrations we used, for there were several, with and without K nitrate, did nothing to wake up old seeds, or any better than did 0.2% Knitrate, which I'd been using.

Over the years I dropped even the Knitrate and for many years now have used just soaking o/n in water with a few drops of seaweed or fish added, or a pinch of blue stuff added, to up the nitrate concentration, since that is known to be involved in seed germination.

So do let us know, with your controls ,if GA did anything special for you re old tomato seeds.

[MsCowpea]

Using bleach to aid in germination:


http://tgrc.ucdavis.edu/seed_germ.html

[GreenThumbGal_07]

Thanks for the link, MsCowpea.

"Passage through the gut of Galapagos tortoise is more effective, but cumbersome, nasty, and otherwise too inconvenient for general use. "

Yeah, where can I find one of these guys when I need one. :wink:

GTG

[carolyn137]

But they use bleach for only some of the species tomtoes, particularly L cheesmanii, to break down the seed coat that would normally be enzymatically broken down in passage thru the tortoise.

I didn't take the time to read the link, but I knew about the bleach after contacting Dr. Chatelet at TGRC about the variety Sara's Galapagos as to what it might be. And knowing the island it came from he was most helpful.

But bleach for that one was not advised. And I can't see it helping with our domesticated, non tortoise passing thru backyard tomato garden seeds since they don't have a seed coat such as does L cheesmanii.

[MsCowpea]

I think the above Davis link would help with domestic toms or any solanaecea species--they are only soaking for 30 minutes. As kctomato noted bleach may reduce germination somewhat. You could test some seeds with the solution and then figure out germination rates.

Of course you would not do it over and over again for the TWO MONTHS as may be required for cheesmanii seeds.

[bonekittyslug]

Still nothing here.