Lowrie seed
martin zevenbergen (Martin.Zevenbergen@ALGEM.PT.WAU.NL)
Mon, 11 Dec 1995 10:47:51 +0100 (CET)
This season I treated my seed from Allen Lowrie with Gibberellic acid (GA3)
before sowing them in pots. I sowed the seeds first on thick filterpaper in
petri-dishes, the paper wettened with 500 ppm (5 mg per 10 ml) GA3.
After the seeds are swollen (they took up some water with GA3) I transferred
them onto soil in pots. With very small seeds (Utricularia for example) this
is a quite annoying work, but I seem to have success with some species now
(Drosera menziesii subsp. thysanosepala, D. cistiflora, Drosophyllum
lusitanicum), they are germinating now. Utricularia(/Polypompholyx) westonii
was also germinating without GA3.
With the Dosophyllum seeds I tried something: from 5 seeds I removed one
corner as described in Pietropaulo's book, and 5 seeds were not treated lik
this. All the seeds were put on filterpaper with GA3, and expected the
treated seeds to germinate earlier than the others. What happened was that
three of the treated seeds, and two of the untreated seeds are germinating
now! So it seems not to be really necessary to cut off one corner if you
germinate the seeds with GA3. Disadvantage of this method is that GA3 is
quite expensive, but so are the seeds from Lowrie, so I think it's worth
trying.
Martin Zevenbergen
Dept. of Plant taxonomy
Agricultural University
P.O. box 8010
6700 ED Wageningen
The Netherlands
martin.zevenbergen@algem.pt.wau.nl