Hi WIM,
I've used the Germination Primer on other seeds, e.g. psidium guajava(guava), cananga odorata, averrhoa bilimbi, various syzygium species, etc. With psidium and bilimbi, I had excellent results last year. 90% of the psidium and 100% of the bilimbi sprouted. Last month, together with some bilimbi and cananga, I tried the 2 year old seeds of the M. Glauca, some rollinia, some chili peppers. I've never sprouted cananga before, but this time after 25 days, 2 out of 72 sprouted. You might think that that's a low number. But considering that normally, this seed has a 40-45% germination rate, and can take up to seven months to sprout, I think I'm doing pretty well. Just have to wait another 6 months. (LOL) The Rollinia is not showing any signs yet. The M. Glauca, 2 out of 8 came up as I reported earlier. The chili peppers, 30 of 48 are coming up and 1 or 2 more coming up daily. On the same tray as the chili's, I sowed some "fresh" Cuban Scotch Bonnet chili's that were not soaked in the primer pad. The Cubans aren't showing any signs yet.
You are correct in your observation in the natural habitat of the fynbos genera and the banana habitat. But there must be a self-preservating ingredient (DNA, enzyme, or chemical) in the burned plant material that triggers the fynbos family seeds to come to life when the surviving seeds, after a forest fire, subsequently gets rain. I believe the governement of South Africa was the one that did a study that resulted in the discovery and development of the seed primer idea. The study was originally to determine how to increase the germination rate of the fynbos family seeds in order to prevent them from extinction. Those seeds, without smoke primer treatment, have very, very low germination rate - close to none.
As it turns out, the same ingredient(s) in the fynbos smoke also breaks down the dormancy in other types of hard to germinate seeds, esp. if they've been kept for a long time. This is apparently true for hard to germinate banana and palm seeds. I've read that they work for heliconia and ginger type seeds as well.
Here are a couple of links that might be useful:
http://www.springerlink.com/content/l4535q11q752r0w5/
http://finebushpeople.co.za/smoke_primer.html
I read several posts that "finebushpeople" are great to work with.
Hope this helps.
Chong
Quote:
Originally Posted by wim
Chong,
Have you experimented and had good results only with palms or also with Musa?
I am a carnivorous plant hobbyist, and it's common to use this smoke water to get certain seeds to germinate. But normally it only applies to seed from plants that grow in places where there are periodic fires (South-Africa, Australia). Does that happen also in area's where bananas grow? I'd say it's too wet and humid in their natural areas to have those periodic fires. But I probably have a very unfunded and mainly romantic idea of the locations where bananas naturally grow...
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