Although I had no intention to grow anything this season, an interesting sutiation forced me in one way.
A numeric year ago, in December 2014, I received a leaf sample from jojjas. It travelled around Europe and landed on my hands. While examining the leaves I noticed that there were seeds stuck to the leaves.
A considerable part of the sample.
After brushing down all the leaves one by one, I found 35 seeds in total.
Tiny seeds that are hard to handle.
Samples belonged to mostly upper leaves of an Oriental variety, a Basma type. As very well known topping is not a common practice for Oriental tobaccos so the seeds spread to upper leaves, probably while priming when stalks were shaked while leaves were picked, and thanks to sticky leaf surface seeds stuck to leaves.
A leaf from the sample.
Even the sample belongs to a new crop; seeds were most probably suncured with leaves where temperatures may rise up to 140 [SUP]o[/SUP]F and after drying they were rehumidified with leaves to a proper case that allows handling without damage. All these conditions are unfavorable for a proper seed storage so I was expecting low germination rate.
Seeds in the petri dish, on Jan 15.
Filter paper was used for germination for an easy observation. After few days first seeds were "hatched" and others followed them, germination rate was approximately 60% which is quite good for these seeds which had really hard time for months.
Due to winter conditions and lack of sunlight they grew slowly. Actually, they were ready to transplant in the second week of April but due to compelling reasons they had to wait few weeks more.
Seedlings on April 25.
Now they are transplanted to their final place. I'll try to make more observations on these plants, I hope. Stay tuned.
Seedlings in the "field" on April 29.
A numeric year ago, in December 2014, I received a leaf sample from jojjas. It travelled around Europe and landed on my hands. While examining the leaves I noticed that there were seeds stuck to the leaves.
A considerable part of the sample.
After brushing down all the leaves one by one, I found 35 seeds in total.
Tiny seeds that are hard to handle.
Samples belonged to mostly upper leaves of an Oriental variety, a Basma type. As very well known topping is not a common practice for Oriental tobaccos so the seeds spread to upper leaves, probably while priming when stalks were shaked while leaves were picked, and thanks to sticky leaf surface seeds stuck to leaves.
A leaf from the sample.
Even the sample belongs to a new crop; seeds were most probably suncured with leaves where temperatures may rise up to 140 [SUP]o[/SUP]F and after drying they were rehumidified with leaves to a proper case that allows handling without damage. All these conditions are unfavorable for a proper seed storage so I was expecting low germination rate.
Seeds in the petri dish, on Jan 15.
Filter paper was used for germination for an easy observation. After few days first seeds were "hatched" and others followed them, germination rate was approximately 60% which is quite good for these seeds which had really hard time for months.
Due to winter conditions and lack of sunlight they grew slowly. Actually, they were ready to transplant in the second week of April but due to compelling reasons they had to wait few weeks more.
Seedlings on April 25.
Now they are transplanted to their final place. I'll try to make more observations on these plants, I hope. Stay tuned.
Seedlings in the "field" on April 29.