Some Notes on the Effect of GA-3
on Paeony suffruticosa seeds
In September of 2014 I purchased a pitiful specimen of Paeony suffruticosa "Shima daijin'
[more often spelled as one word]. The price was reduced, for obvious reasons,
to just $1.00, a bargain. Well, with a good deal of 'tender loving care', it
recovered nicely, and has bloomed quite well the last three years, and produced
seed.
Previous attempts to germinate the seed have been disastrous,
due mainly to neglect once planted, so, in 2016 I decided to take a little more
care and try to keep track of them.
On September 17th I divided thirty seeds into three groups
of ten. These I subsequently soaked for 24 hours in one of three solutions:
distilled water, hydrogen peroxide 3%, and GA-3 (1,000ppm). The seeds were then
placed in plastic bags with damp vermiculite and put in the refrigerator. I
began checking weekly for germination after a couple of months.
On December 18th one of seeds soaked in GA-3 had produced a
root (92 days), and on January 3rd of this year I was able to transfer 6 seeds
with substantial roots to individual pots. The pots were covered with plastic
and placed on a seed mat under fluorescent lights.
As of today, January 29th, none have produced a shoot above
ground. Of those soaked in water or hydrogen peroxide, still in the
refrigerator, none have shown any evidence of germination.
More study/experimentation is needed, but I think I will be
using a GA-3 soak in the future for Paeony seeds, varying the concentration.
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