Friday, April 18, 2014

An Attempt at Germinating a Hard to Germinate Seed

Today I am attempting to germinate my 119 Johnson seeds.  Three previous attempts to germinate this seed during the winter failed.   The 119 Johnson is a late season cross of my plant that grew my 1,220 pound pumpkin with the plant that grew the world record 2,009 pound pumpkin.  I think it is a fantastic cross.  Problem is that when the frost hit the pumpkin was young and although there was lots of seeds, the seeds hadn't fully filled out.  At first appearance they look fully formed but they are light.

Joe was kind enough to offer me some gibberellic acid to help jump start the germinating process.  I mixed that with a little alcohol (it needs a solvent in order to mix with water), humic acid, fulvic acid and a touch of liquid seaweed and then put that in water and let the first group of seeds soak for about 2 1/2 hours and the 2nd group of seeds soak for about 4 1/2 hours.  I then wrapped the seeds in a lightly moist paper towel, put the paper towels in zip lock bags and put the seeds in a warm place (about 85 degrees).  Hopefully in the next 5 days some of them will germinate.  If they do I will grow that seed for sure as long as the plants don't look like duds.

So far every seed I've tried to start has germinated except for the 1791 Holland seed.  I went ahead and removed that seed from the paper towel and put in its pot.  I'm hoping that in about 5 days I'll see some signs of life.

No comments: