Tag: scarification

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01/31/2024 red seed processing

A single scarlet legume seed sits in a clear glass beaker of just-boiled water.
Paula picked up this coral-bean from the Texas coast somewhere. Nokes’ guide to native plant growing says hot water allowed to cool can break the thick seed coat. I also scratched at it somewhat ineffectually with a razor and barely made any noticeable damage to the hard shell.
Ten smooth seeds lay on a folded envelope along with scattered bits of twig and dried bright red-orange berry flesh.
The fruits of American Bittersweet have been sitting drying in this envelope for several months and slid right out of the dried fleshy bits. Nokes says they succumb easily to damping off, in addition to needing cold stratification, so we’ll just put them outside in a pot.
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Scarlet pea process

Scarification of some kind is needed for quick germination of Indigofera miniata. I decided to nick each seed manually.
01/08/2024. The seeds swelled up ready to go within 24 hours! if you look very carefully you can see a few little roots emerging on a few seeds.
01/11/2024. More roots come out after a few days of light!
01/15/2024. These cotelydons (seed leaves) are opening in the container that had a clear lid! Two seed cases had fuzzy gray mold so I picked that off with tweezers the day before.
01/15/2024. This baby is emerging from the six-pack cells. It’s sort of yellow even though we have the grow lights right on them. For the open cells (no cover), I’ve been watering them by flooding the tray so the water soaks up.

I still have more of this species nicked. I think what I’ll do with the rest is plant them directly; they seem to imbibe water very fast which means they’ll probably sprout in spring rains. I forgot to inoculate them with any of the inoculum I bought from prairie moon nursery but I believe you can add it later if you disturb the roots a bit. If this species even needs it. Mysteries.

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03/29/2023 baby yucca????

Paula and I were out planting some seeds and she noticed this baby spike in a tray of yucca seeds that have been out all winter!!
The Baptisia sp seeds before we planted them. I nicked each seed surface then soaked in room temperature water overnight. We put some on either side of the patio plus some in a pot for more controlled monitoring as that seems to help with germination sometimes.
Paula also noticed the persimmon seed at the seedling base. I appear to have planted several.
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Wet bumblebee and other things

Last night, brought in dwarf tomatoes and purple and chocolate peppers since temps forecast (and did reach) into 40s.
On Thursday night, before another night rain, Paula and I planted more wildflower seeds. Mom sent these Yellow Puff seeds. We scarified them by scraping their hard coats on the concrete patio.
On Thursday morning, I saw this very dew-drenched bumblebee. I was hoping it might be a two spotted bumblebee but I think the yellow on its abdomen was just clumping together with the dew??