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GA3 and seed dormancy

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OK OK I'm doing a controlled GA3 experiment to see if it's as good as they say.

I've done a bit of a search, but others experience is best IMO. When trying to break the dormancy on cold climate seed, is it best to use GA3 alone, or with a cold period as well?

Or will a cold period send the seed dormant again and waste all my efforts.

I'll fridge a few if it won't, and let you know the results

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I've fiddled with ga3 for a while now and never got any results worth the effort. I can't see that it does any good at all on most seeds. Some people swear by it but it may depend on the seed. Some seeds do very well with a cold dormancy but others don't. Some you can store dry in the fridge, some need wet stratification, some are really difficult. No way to make a general rule, it just depends on the seed.

Stoney

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Stonehenge:

I've fiddled with ga3 for a while now and never got any results worth the effort.

Yep me either, I kinda figured for most ppl it's usually a last ditch resort for seed that may be univable anyhow.

But I had some Corydalis solida seed I'd placed in TC, some fridged/ frozen etc for a year cycling on and off. After a year I excised the embryos ( what a fucken tedious job that was ) and replated- the embryos were still firm, intact, looked good and had none of that brown limpness and media fogging that usually characterises unviable seed in TC

So I'm working on the notion that seed from that batch may still be viable, and have put a couple of hundred through the new TC experiment in the hope that something will germinate, maybe even a statistically significant result :)

I spose I should also try the embryo with a tetrazolium chloride stain, but I'll have to make some up again. The tiny white embryos should still show staining if they're viable and the process is followed OK

If the TTZ stain goes OK, I'll have a bit more faith in the GA3 experiment as having taken place on viable seed to start. Spose I should have done the TTZ stain first, then GA3, but wasn't thinking :rolleyes:

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darcy and i have both had strong results (as opposed to no germination at all) with GA-3

the concentration and soak duration is critical and unfortunately varies from species to species depending on seed size, the nature of the dormancy etc.

so yeah... unless you have a bit of the stuff to play around with - and a lot of seeds to do controlled pre-treatment evaluations on! - it can be disappointing.

But when you have worked out the optimal concentration for your species... it can be a miracle.

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