The lion's share of perennials that are especially desirable in the garden in cold climates sprout only after wintering under the snow. What to do? The conclusion suggests itself: sow before winter or imitate winter sowing!
If you collect such seeds and throw them into pots out of habit in the spring, no magic passes will help you germinate them. After all, the main sorceress in this case is winter. Naturally gradually cooled seeds, washed by melt water, lose special substances that prevent germination, and sprout beautifully. But winter sowing is not always possible. In this case, we will use its imitation - stratification.
Home stratification of crops is desirable when:
- the seeds are very small, they are easily washed away by melting snow;
- there are few seeds, each one is worth its weight in gold;
- the species develops slowly, it would be good to germinate the seeds in advance and "disperse" the seedlings;
- the seeds were obtained in winter, when there is no access to the garden.
Using reference books
How do you know which plants germinate simply in warmth, and which need winter? Look in a reference book on seed germination. For example, in a popular online gardening encyclopedia. Often, related plants require similar germination conditions. For example, composites (dandelions, daisies, pyrethrum, townsendia, etc.) germinate simply in warmth, but most buttercups (clematis, peonies, buttercups, aconites, anemones) need cold.
Other factors are also important. Some plants only need to cool for a couple of weeks, and they begin to germinate right in the refrigerator. Many primroses are like this. Others need to survive the whole winter - three months in the cold, and it is also desirable to freeze periodically. And that's not all! Some seeds can be sown and put in the cold every other day. Other crops need to be kept in the warmth for a long time before this - the so-called warm stratification. All this information can be found in reference books.
Inventory
It is better to take smaller pots for crops, especially if there are many crops - remember about the lack of space in the refrigerator. It is convenient to put the pots in trays or mini-greenhouses. While they are in the cold, you can even in several layers, alternating them with cardboard. As a greenhouse, you can use a plastic cake box or even a bag.
Preparing the substrate
To prepare the substrate, take peat (or purchased soil for indoor plants) with coarse-grained sand (1:1). The soil should be steamed: both disease spores and weed seeds will disappear. To do this, pour a thin layer of soil on a baking sheet, cover with parchment on top to avoid active evaporation of moisture, stirring occasionally, and keep in the oven for 1 hour at a temperature of 100–120° C. If you use a microwave for this, the optimal time for steaming 0.5 liters of soil is 5 minutes at maximum mode. Or two approaches for 2–3 minutes with soil mixing between treatments. If you use ready-made soil, keep in mind that it is better to choose expanded clay from it before steaming in the microwave: the consequences of such treatment can be very noisy.
Subtleties of sowing
The procedure is standard and is no different from ordinary sowing: pour soil into a pot, lay out the seeds, attach a signed label, sprinkle the surface with a little soil, water.
Until the seeds sprout, it is necessary to maintain high soil and air humidity, so a mini-greenhouse for keeping crops is optimal.
The crops are put in the refrigerator and the temperature is set slightly above zero. In principle, light freezing is not prohibited, but a temperature above +4 °C is no longer suitable.
Most perennials sprout during the first two weeks in the warmth. The crops need to be checked every day, and as soon as the first green loops of shoots appear, put them under additional lighting.
If you plan to sow a lot of crops, and there is little space in the refrigerator, you can put the seeds in bags with wet vermiculite or moss instead of sowing them in pots. This method is suitable for large seeds, which are then easy to remove from the vermiculite. After the "period" in the refrigerator, we sow such seeds in pots and put them on the windowsill.
Sowing dates
Sow in several stages: in autumn, seeds with long warm stratification and long cold stratification, as well as those that need to germinate faster and "disperse" over the winter. For the New Year - standard (a week in warmth and 6 weeks in cold), and already in early spring those that need to cool down a little.
Warm stratification + a long cold period is needed for hellebores, ash trees, peonies, Siebold's primroses.
The standard (1 week in warmth and 6 weeks in cold) is required for gentians from the spring and stemless sections, globeflowers, rue, codonopsis, clematis, princes, prolomniki, arizema, perennial violets, low-growing alpine bellflowers, jeffersonias, irises, most bulbous plants.
«Hurrying up» (1 day in warmth, 1-2 weeks in cold): meconopsis, large-flowered delphiniums, columbine, primroses (hybrids of stemless, high, as well as auricula, candelabra), Daurian gentian.
Pitfalls of home winter
Mold and other fungi. If steaming the soil and seed dressing did not help, the crops must be sprayed with a fungicide solution ("Maxim", "Fundazol").
Unexpected shoots. It happens that, contrary to all forecasts, the seeds take and sprout even before putting them in the refrigerator. There is nothing to be done here, just take out the backlight lamp and try to provide a lower temperature. Check the crops in the refrigerator more often!
«Magic passes»
Their effectiveness is not proven, and often far-fetched, but sometimes (sometimes!) they still help:
Pouring melt water. Yes, yes! It is best to collect clean snow and spread it in pots, letting it melt gradually. Just put them in a tray so there is no flood.
Spraying and watering/soaking seeds in "Epin" or "Zircon".
Gradually raising the temperature after the refrigerator or repeatedly repeating the refrigerator - window sill cycle at night and during the day, respectively.