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Erythrina Seeds Live a Long Time

Posted by Conroe_Joe 8b (My Page) on
Sun, May 25, 03 at 23:50

Hi,

I got some seeds recently from one of the folks on this forum. They are from various African Erythrina species, and are about 15 years old. Judging by the color and size, there seem to be 3 different species of Erythrina and 1 other type of seed.

I gave them a boiling water treatment, then let them soak about 6 days in the water. Then I soaked them for 2 days in a Captan solution and finally let them sit on wet paper towels (about 1/8 in of water) in a clear plastic box at room temperature. I kept the lid on the box, but changed the water daily. Daytime temperatures range from 80 to 84 F and it gets down to about 74-76 F at night.

After 2 or 3 weeks of this I noticed today that 3 of the seeds had put out a root. I've popped these in some potting soil and will wait to see if more try to grow.

Cordially,

Here is a link that might be useful: Photos of Seeds, Including Some Erythrina Seeds


Follow-Up Postings:

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RE: Erythrina Seeds Live a Long Time

Pretty interesting experiment. Dr. Deno of seed-studies fame has done some interesting germination experiments with some very old seeds. He also had some extremely long lived seeds. It's amazing how long stuff will stay in suspended animation. RJ


 
 

 

 


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