Quote:
Originally Posted by J-Mech
I want to add also, that in the case of rye and winter wheat (both plants in the grass family) you actually plant in the fall so the seed germinates, then it starts growing in the spring. In CAD's example, he puts the seed out on top of snow. Snow melts, seed embeds in the soil and grows when it gets warm. Optimal start time for growth is when it warms up in the spring, and before it's dry enough to plant. I can go on about the other reasons for success rate, but the big thing here is I think you killed the germ on your seed by just taking it from a warm environment to a below freezing one without time for the seed to go dormant.
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Just wanted to clarify a little bit of the pseudo-science:
- Seed dormancy refers to the ability of a seed to not germinate under ideal conditions when it should germinate, e.g. plenty of water, nutrients and warmth. This is often achieved through physical barriers on the seed, like coatings, or hormones/chemicals. The seed not germinating under non-ideal conditions e.g. too cold,not enough water is called
quiescence.
- Quiescent seed will resume growth at any time if the conditions are right, whereas dormant seeds require some sort of "special event" to germinate.
- Tall fescue seed, unless treated is not a dormant seed, and does not "go dormant".
- The processes which govern plant dormancy have nothing to do with seed dormancy. Which is why putting grass in the freezer has nothing to do with freezing seed. Which is also why winter wheat that germinates in the fall also has nothing to do with seed quiescence in the winter.
Having said that,I don't see how taking grass seed out of the bag and seeding it on top of snow (which is frozen water and will cause the seed to freeze) is different from putting it in the freezer. That is, it should freeze and germinate eventually when the conditions are right, either 4 hours later or 3 months later. The fact that nothing came up was a huge surprise to me. At this point though I agree that the experiment is flawed, but for reasons other than the ones you mentioned. I believe that since it was frozen, the seed will take a few extra days to thaw out and reach optimum temperature, whereas the seed that was not frozen was at the right temperature to begin with. If this is correct, the grass should begin to germinate in the next few days. I will try the experiment again, but I will allow the frozen seed to fully thaw out and then plant both batches to see if there's any difference in germination speed. I suspect there shouldn't be.