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02/14/2009: "Seedlings II!"

today's weather: 19 °F Heavy snow overnight
weather forecast: 36 °F Clouds breaking for some sun

[Above picture] This is one 9-cell pod of Blue Umbrella seeds I had left in the freezer from 2007. As you can see (or maybe not see) is that all 9 cells have plants growing in them. Some have multiple plants in the same cell. I apologize for the size of the photo - it was necessary to get the desired detail.



When I plant seeds, I plant the same variety or same seeds from the same parent in each pod (in this year's case 3x3=9 cells per pod... but 2x3=6 are also common), with an average of 3 seeds per cell. Since separating hosta seed is like sorting flakes of coarse ground pepper, sometimes they get 3 and nothing comes up - and sometimes they get 5 and all of them come up.



So, the scorecard as of Valentine's Day...

16 Varieties planted. 14 out of 16 have at least 2 little sprouts sticking up, hoping to become viable plants.

144 Total cells, roughly 70 cells now contain at least one sprout.

Not bad. Not bad at all.

I'm told that 50% germination is a generally accepted number. In 2007, I was around 48%, and I was very happy. In 2008, I hit over 60% and people barely believed me. 2009 is starting to look above average as well.