Hi, this spring i starter breeding peonies, i made a bunch of crosses between lactifloras and i’ve noticed that a few pods have already opened up in june, showing the yellow seeds. I read that viable seeds should be black. Does this mean that the cross was unsuccessful? This happened only with lactifloras, not hybrids.
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Hi, thank you so much for replying. I’ve waited and now the herbaceous ones are almost all brown. They look kinda crispy though, do you think this will impact their viability?
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As far as I can see, they are not good and will do nothing. Good seeds are more or less round. If they have that shape, it is probably because those were ‘hollow’ seeds. Good seeds are ‘full’ and when placed in water will sink (unless dried out very much). It’s not unusual, I also have some results from crossing giving nearly all hollow seeds. If…Read More
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Hi, now that the majority of my crossings have matured, i can see the difference! Those in the photo i posted early are no good, thank you! Here’s a picture of healthy seeds!
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If i may, i’d like to ask you another question, this time regarding the germination process. I read your article about the germination substrate (very interesting and useful) i prepared the ziplock bag with 20 grams of dry fine vermiculite and i put inside the seeds (they were previously hydratated in water for 3 days) and i calculated the 7% of w…Read More
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Hello. The round seeds look good indeed. As to the vermiculite I can see I wasn’t detailed enough in the article. The 7% should be volume/volume, not weight/weight. For water it doesn’t matter since 1 gram of water is equal to 1 ml of water (since the specific gravity of water is 1). But vermiculite is very light, thus 20 grams is quite a lot of…Read More
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The article was updated to clarify that it is calculated volume/volume and not weight/weight.
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The seed pods have opened up too early, but the seeds themselves are good. The yellow ones will turn brown. Leave them as they are, at the beginning of July they’ll probably be ready to harvest. If you harvest them now, they’ll simply rot. Hybrids at this time will be red, those will turn black. You need brown or black seeds, not yellow or red ones.