tl;dr pics of plants for attention, long winded waffle about the finer points of growing from seed below…
For the first time in a number of years I've produced a good crop of Dioscorea elephantipes seeds. I've grown plenty from my own seed (and from other sources) and never really had trouble germinating them before, but I got wondering about A; what the ideal time of season for sowing them would be and B; if it really matters. I've sown three different lots and put one pot in my greenhouse (Southern hemisphere winter, temps fluctuating between about 5-25C, but more usually between 10-18C), another inside the house (will range between about 17-25C depending on when I light the wood burner) and the third lot on top of my hot water cylinder which keeps them around 25-28C (where I usually germinate seeds). I followed my usual low-key practice for sowing, no soaking, same soil mix as always etc. The seeds were picked about a week ago. But I'm still wondering…
-In habitat how long do they sit dormant before germinating? What are the seasons like?
-I know with some species (eg my other favourite genus, Pachypodium) fresh is always best and sometimes they're even germinating in the seed pod, is this the case with Dioscorea or is there some benefit to letting them dry and have time resting to better mimic the seasons?
-Are there any other factors that would be interesting to test side-by-side? Soaking them, using different growing mediums, bagged or open etc etc?
Lastly, I know they can take ages to germinate and my experiments using small numbers of seeds aren't particularly scientific, but (surprisingly) there's a limit to how many Dioscorea I actually want to grow! Good problem to have huh…
by notmyidealusername