A Germ of an Idea
Germination of a difficult to germinate native plant.
Capacity building
The issue
While some plants are quite easy to grow from seed some require treatments to overcome dormancy mechanisms. The most well known of these is “hot water treatment” used for things such as peas, wattles and Kurrajongs. “Smoke water” works for the same species as well as smaller seeded plants such as Flannel Flowers but there’s a lot of species which require more complex treatments and there’s ones that haven’t been figured out yet.
The solution
One of the species which has usually been a “chuck it in and wait a few months” species is the Mock Olive (Notelaea microcarpa) which can take months before popping it’s head up, this makes it difficult for nurseries to plan ahead for orders. Luckily at Hunter Region Landcare Network’s upper Hunter nurseries we stumbled on a treatment which can see the Mock Olive popping out of the ground in a couple of weeks.
With fresh or refrigerated seed place the seed onto a large flat board (piece of ply or old chopping board), grab a bit of timber, about 10x5x20cm and staple some rough sandpaper to it (80-120 grit), press down firmly on the seeds and scrunch away (no need to break them), throw the seeds into a jar and soak overnight with a 1:1 mix of “Plant Starter” and water, drain and sew the seeds and they should pop up in a couple of weeks.
The impact
This technique results in a reliable and timely germination with most of the seeds germinating around the same time allowing better planning and timing of propagation as well as supply for plantings.
This technique has worked with the Notelaea but further work is required on other species.