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Research
Tamara (Sherrill) Nelson Reports
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| Alani (Melicope knudsenii) |
February 11, 2004
I kept hoping and hoping that I would
get some germination and would have something to report. However, I guess
it's time to report what didn't work. My gut feeling is that perhaps the
seeds don't store well, and since I waited until the winter rains started
to plant (this has worked in the past for me), they may have died before
planting. The other possibility is that the soaking time was far too long.
I soaked them for six days, since the U of H Manoa website I often use
suggested that this worked for Melicope anisata. (The exact quote
was, "Lilleeng-Rosenberger used a 6 day cold water soak as a seed
pretreatment. These seeds took 6 months to germinate."). I have never
soaked seeds for this long. One to three days is what I usually do. I
did change the water daily and kept a very low level of water in the containers.
Last but not least, it's possible they will still germinate (They've only
been planted 2.5 months). I have Hibiscus brackenridgei seeds that are
still germinating after three years.
Anyway, here are the other details:
| Species | Source |
"Date collected" |
Storage |
"Date planted" |
Seed Pre-treatment 1 |
Seed Pre-treatment 23 |
Media 1 |
Media 2 |
Media 3 |
| Melicope knudsenii |
Pu'u Mahoe Arboretum |
7/1/ 2003 |
dry storage room temp paper envelope |
11/11 2003 |
six day cold water soak (all 56 seeds), water changed each day, glass container, water just to top of seeds |
sandpaper treatment (1/2 of seeds:28 seeds; 9-10 seeds to each Media) after six day soak |
black cinder fines (1/4" to 1/16") |
vermiculite/ perlite, 1/1 |
black cinder small (1/4")/Sunshine #4/sifted topsoil, 6/3/1 |
| Results (after 75 days) |
no germ. |
no germ. |
no germ. |