hello i started 400 seeds on January 26th & 27th. since then i have not seen any sign of life with the seeds. the species i am statificating are, Japanese red maples, white dog wood, pink dog wood, red dog wood, & magnolia liliiflora. So in this book i have it says"" The length of chilling time required varies considerably. As a guild line, many decidous species require six to eight weeks of chilling below 41F/(5c). So this is my question i was curious & i put a thermometer in the bottom of the refrigerator were my seeds are and the temperature 10C.. so i am 5 degrees higher then im supose to.. and my frige is max i kno some smart *** people might say buy a new frig not an option. so i am curious how much long is this going to prolong my germination process thanks!!!!!!!!!!! so much! for any help
If not cold enough then maybe nothing has been accomplished toward overcoming dormancy, the seeds not being any more ready to sprout than if they were not given any treatment.
I say try another thermometer. If your fridge is only getting to 10°C you would find that your food spoils very quickly and your beverages do not become chilled. As for stratification, I prefer the natural outdoor approach for maple seeds but am not sure if that is an option in your climate. Might be too late for this year but I would go ahead and plant the seeds in pots outside and see if they germinate anyway. If none do, keep the pots undisturbed until next year and you will likely find that many of the maple seeds sprout.
yeah its my girlfriends mothers fridge i dont even bother drinking milk or nothing like that cause milk does spoil fast cause not cold worth ****.. she jam packs the fridge.. well mayb ill try my grandma's beer fridge for awhile. cause i started it all out and figured a date they be ready.. and it supose to be for may 8th- 10th.. maybe if i put them in my grandma's tomorrow it will work.. cause i did boil water and pre treated them before i added it to soil/peat mix in the fridge as is now
My JM seeds always take closer to 120 days of stratification. If they don't sprout the first year, they sprout the second year.
so if they don't work this year just sow them in a garden in rows and the following season they should sprout.
Or just leave them in the pots. Here's what I do: 1.) Soak seeds in hot water. 2.) Put in zip-lock sandwich bags filled 1/2 way with slightly moist potting soil. Label the bag. 3.) Put in crisper drawer of the fridge for 4 months. At this point you start to see seeds sprouting. 4.) Remove from fridge and spread the contents of each bag into a separate 8" garden pot filled 1/2 way with soil. Cover seeds with 1/4" of soil. I put a label on each pot so I know what kind of seeds and the date I planted it. 5.) Put pots in a partly-shady place all summer long and keep watered. Transfer seedlings that are big enough to individual little pots when they are 4" high or so - usually before the first frosts of the fall. I just use a spoon to gently scoop them out of the pots. 6.) Leave the 8" pots alone the rest of the year and all through the winter. There are still seeds in there that did not sprout this year. The following spring the rest of the seeds that didn't come out the first year will have sprouted. I put them in individual little pots when they're big enough. 7.) Clean out the 8" pots and get them ready for another batch of seeds. That's just the way I do it. There are other ways, most of them good. It just depends on the growing conditions you have. I like using the pots because its easy to move them around if I need to and I can put them where the critters can't get to the seeds.
thanks for the advice. very useful. i like using containers too! lol the only thing is when there all over and theres hundreds of seeds i have haha..
LOL! I know what you mean. All my decks and patios are covered with pots and plants - no place for furniture or people!
