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#1
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Mountain Laurel from jojo
Someone from here harvested seeds from her mountain laurel and gave me about
3 gallon size baggies full! I planted half of them and gave half to my brother, and I have a handful of mountain laurel growing!! Thanks again! With hope and heart, Kathleen Ps. My ligustrum looks wonderful too. I am about to get some cages so I can plant it in the ground! Whooohooooo! -- This year, or this month, or, more likely, this very day, we have failed to practise ourselves the kind of behaviour we expect from other people. ~ C.S.Lewis |
#2
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Mountain Laurel from jojo
Hey Kathleen - Congrats on your Mtn Laurel sprouts!Wow 3 gallons of seeds -
that's a lot! Interestingly, I recently sprouted 5 seeds that I scrounged from some bushes.. I read online a method for sprouting these very hard-shelled seeds - but added my own twist, which I believe speeded up the process alot. After shucking the seeds from the outside 'peanut' shell, the online method suggested soaking the seeds overnight, placing them inside a folded wet paper towel, then sealing all inside a plastic baggie to await germination. (I added the water after everything was in the bag.) If I recall correctly, this method I read about did not have 100% germination. Since I know that hard seeds should be scarified or knicked before soaking, (ie: for morning glory I use nail clippers), I thought I should do something similar to the Mtn Laurel seeds. As a test (since nail clippers were out of the question), I used a small round metal file to hand-bore an indentation into the softer 'eye' of one seed . It took a while, and I was sort of careful - trying not to bore right through to the inside. But the seed was so hard, I needn't have been too worried because it took a couple minutes of boring just to make a shallow hole. Not surprisingly, this seed was the first to absorb water, expand to double size, and germinate - taking about 7 days. All of the other seeds were still small and hard, having not absorbed much water, so I did the same thing to them. Sure enough, about a week later, all had sprouted and are now merrily growing in little pots on my patio. Anyway, just thought I'd share that little tidbit Teri in Cedar Park. "Kathleen" wrote in message ... Someone from here harvested seeds from her mountain laurel and gave me about 3 gallon size baggies full! I planted half of them and gave half to my brother, and I have a handful of mountain laurel growing!! Thanks again! With hope and heart, Kathleen Ps. My ligustrum looks wonderful too. I am about to get some cages so I can plant it in the ground! Whooohooooo! -- This year, or this month, or, more likely, this very day, we have failed to practise ourselves the kind of behaviour we expect from other people. ~ C.S.Lewis |
#3
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Mountain Laurel from jojo
Thanks Teri! I will have to get more seeds from somewhere! I will have to
scrounge around and see if some seeds are still in the pods and just 'didn't take' this year. With hope and heart, Kathleen -- This year, or this month, or, more likely, this very day, we have failed to practise ourselves the kind of behaviour we expect from other people. ~ C.S.Lewis "TLR" wrote in message . com... Hey Kathleen - Congrats on your Mtn Laurel sprouts!Wow 3 gallons of seeds - that's a lot! Interestingly, I recently sprouted 5 seeds that I scrounged from some bushes.. I read online a method for sprouting these very hard-shelled seeds - but added my own twist, which I believe speeded up the process alot. After shucking the seeds from the outside 'peanut' shell, the online method suggested soaking the seeds overnight, placing them inside a folded wet paper towel, then sealing all inside a plastic baggie to await germination. (I added the water after everything was in the bag.) If I recall correctly, this method I read about did not have 100% germination. Since I know that hard seeds should be scarified or knicked before soaking, (ie: for morning glory I use nail clippers), I thought I should do something similar to the Mtn Laurel seeds. As a test (since nail clippers were out of the question), I used a small round metal file to hand-bore an indentation into the softer 'eye' of one seed . It took a while, and I was sort of careful - trying not to bore right through to the inside. But the seed was so hard, I needn't have been too worried because it took a couple minutes of boring just to make a shallow hole. Not surprisingly, this seed was the first to absorb water, expand to double size, and germinate - taking about 7 days. All of the other seeds were still small and hard, having not absorbed much water, so I did the same thing to them. Sure enough, about a week later, all had sprouted and are now merrily growing in little pots on my patio. Anyway, just thought I'd share that little tidbit Teri in Cedar Park. "Kathleen" wrote in message ... Someone from here harvested seeds from her mountain laurel and gave me about 3 gallon size baggies full! I planted half of them and gave half to my brother, and I have a handful of mountain laurel growing!! Thanks again! With hope and heart, Kathleen Ps. My ligustrum looks wonderful too. I am about to get some cages so I can plant it in the ground! Whooohooooo! -- This year, or this month, or, more likely, this very day, we have failed to practise ourselves the kind of behaviour we expect from other people. ~ C.S.Lewis |
#4
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Mountain Laurel from jojo
On Thu, 18 May 2006 20:02:38 GMT, "TLR" wrote:
Hey Kathleen - Congrats on your Mtn Laurel sprouts!Wow 3 gallons of seeds - that's a lot! [snip] Since I know that hard seeds should be scarified or knicked before soaking, (ie: for morning glory I use nail clippers), I thought I should do something similar to the Mtn Laurel seeds. As a test (since nail clippers were out of the question), I used a small round metal file to hand-bore an indentation into the softer 'eye' of one seed . It took a while, and I was sort of careful - trying not to bore right through to the inside. But the seed was so hard, I needn't have been too worried because it took a couple minutes of boring just to make a shallow hole. Not surprisingly, this seed was the first to absorb water, expand to double size, and germinate - taking about 7 days. All of the other seeds were still small and hard, having not absorbed much water, so I did the same thing to them. Sure enough, about a week later, all had sprouted and are now merrily growing in little pots on my patio. Anyway, just thought I'd share that little tidbit Teri in Cedar Park. This is the moscited method of getting good success, but you might want to try an easier way. I have found I can get nearly 100% germination by simply timing the harvest correctly. When the seed pods have formed and are just starting to lose their green color, and the seeds are just turning pink, they are still big, fat, and soft. If you peel off the husk at this time and plant the pink seeds, they will sprout quite readily. It isn't as easy as it sounds to get them out of the pod, but it's still a lot easier than the alternative. I haven't been looking this year, but you might find now is the time. If you want a ready source of pods, check the UT campus. I seem to remember some pretty prolific plants near the engineering sector (north central campus). Of course, there are many other places to find them--my post office by Northcross Mall has quite a few. k |
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