Humm what a waste

[Finch]

SO this year i have beec collecting seed from every conceivable plant i want to grow. This winter i put them out for stratification, and it turnes out witer has infliltrated all but one bag, and my very important native seed colection for a praire restoration is gone, meethinks. AND my tree seed collection, AND my perrenial seed collection.. Im gonna try to dry them out indorrs but they seem to be mor mush than matter at this point, thanks to the unusually warm weather.

*sigh*

 

[herenorthere]

That's too bad and I hope you can salvage some.  That's why I prefer to stratify seeds in the fairly controlled conditions of the fridge, where I can keep an eye on what's happening.  But I've occaionally learned how quickly a sealed bag can dry out too.

 

[Finch]

i felt that id be safer with alternating warm-cold strtification instead of a straiht fridge one. plus, im rather afraid the temperature range in the fridge is too high to saitsfy these prarie plants.

 

[PiranhaPlant]

I use test tubes and old medicine bottles to store seeds and for stratification.

 

[aprilh]

I wouldn't worry too much about the native plant seeds, unless they sprouted. out in the wild, seed gets soaked all the time. If they haven't sprouted, get a styro cup, poke holes in the bottom, fill the cup with wetted potting soil or seed starter mix, put the seeds on top of the dirt, gently press them in, fix a ziplock baggie around the top of the cup, poke some holes for transpiration and sit 'em back outside. They should be fine. I'm planting a bunch of prairie stuff today, since it finally got cold enough.

Most prairie plant seed require cold/moist stratification. Refrigerator stratification will work with some native plant seed, it will not work with ones that require freeze-thaw cycles in order to crack the seed coat.

I think most of your seed will be okay.