Saturday, June 23, 2012

Singh & Srivastava: Germination of Lavendar with HCl

One thing I read from an online site, refering to a scripture in the Bible which I wondered about, is "Plant your seed in the morning..."

I planted the entire border of English Lavendar at night.

Maybe planting at night is not what plants like, as maybe they need to feel the earth warmer from the start, to think they'd like to grow there, or maybe it's just a good tip because in the old days people were sabotaging crops at night. I don't know. I don't think it should make that much of a difference because some seeds you place in cold water, in the dark overnight to give them a start, so why should soil at night be any different?

Anyway, I reseeded the border yesterday morning and then it's possibly ruined again, for the second time, because it appears someone has possibly been in my garden and taken some things. Like I said, I'm not completely positive yet, but I think so.

If it's not someone sabotaging, it's maybe something with the batch, but there shouldn't be anything wrong with it. I had the idea come to mind to take a few and puncture them with a fine needle and then take another few and leave alone and then place both in separate water to see which sprouts better. I haven't ever punctured a seed before but it came to mind. I've gone through my little pots of starters recently, with a knife, and gently made light holes to aerate the soil, wondering if this helped. First I was just looking for seeds, and then thought to aererate (msp).

Aha. I learned something new today. It's called "scarifying" the seed (to puncture it first). Then it says "stratification" is when you prepare the seeds with a cold treatment first, or other (I think) temperature related ideas.

Aha! Here's a link about specifically scarifying lavendar:
http://site.cleanairgardening.com/info/start-your-lavender-from-seedlings-not-seeds.html

In the past, I think I've planted lavendar in my garden, but maybe not. I might not have ever tried lavendar actually. I planted a lot of herbs for cooking, but maybe I didn't start lavendar, though I feel like I may have, in St. Johns maybe. If so, it was from seed. I know positively that I started echinacea and had those flowers. So it's new I guess, to try lavendar. My french lavendar looks very good. I got it as a start already though so it was doing okay. I have noticed a couple of lavendar-looking plants in the wrong place, and maybe it's possible some of the lavendar high-tailed to other sections rather than the border. It was night and raining when I first seeded it, so maybe the rain or wind somehow blew it. I don't know. But I think it should have come up awhile ago, I think, so I tried reseeding all the same.

I might wait a week or two while I see what happens if I scarify the lavendar in water indoors. Maybe because the soil is so clay-like, it needs 'something' usually, like, more acidic? To naturally have lavendar germinate I mean. I used a tiny bit of miracle potting soil (organic) to help it with the start, but this also made my planting and their location stand out to any saboteur. The spots where the lavendar was planted stood out like little darker round spots along the border. But maybe too, that potting soil was just still too alkaline.

Everything else came up, even the carrots that I couldn't see for weeks. It's just the lavendar and then I think either my cauliflower or broccoli was heisted. They were both there and I could tell there were two different plants, and now one of them is gone.

The lavendar seed does seem to have a very hard hull (exterior). It reminds me of the milk thistle seed, with the lavendar being much smaller and shiny.

It says the lavendar likes gritty too, and there wasn't much grit. I think germination would have more to do with PH balance of alkaline and acidic, but also, the clay doesn't help too much and maybe the little bit of potting soil, which was sort of fluffy and lighter, either wasn't enough, and they wanted more of that, of they wanted some gritty texture.

I'm still interested in the lavendar because I know it works with deer. I put one little started-already pot of french lavendar out and the deer never went back for more. So I am sure it will be good to figure out how to get my English lavendar to start too, and keep them out when the plants are bigger and look more enticing. The onion helps right now bc I think the deer see green and the onion spires are tallest and over the green leaf stuff, so it tricks the deer into thinking it all tastes like chives, and the scent of the Corsica mint really works. I think marigolds are fantastic for aphids and slugs.

I found a huge ball (larger than golf ball size) of a spider nest near the garden and I'm leaving it for now. They might be good-for-the-garden spiders, so I have to wait and see.

Just looked at lavendar again. I think too, all the lit says to plant right after last frost and I didn't plant until a month later so maybe they need a cold start. And then it says they don't keep long and to use within 2 weeks. I might try refrigeration start, scarifying start, and sprout as normal in water start. What else? apple cider vinegar start? there's no sand here except at the beach...start? sand isn't going to germinate them or convince the hull to be penetrated and then produce a growth. I guess I could medicate them. Just kidding.

But I have some seaweed and lots of vitamins and collodoil silver and all kinds of "stuff". Tea might work. Maybe our leetle english lavies need a spot o tea.

I think the seeds look fine. I mean, they look healthy. It's probably that I started them late in the year. I thought about waiting with the second packet I bought, and starting that one next Spring at a better time, but I opened it and have tried other things. I guess I'll have to use extraordinary methods at this point.

I had hydrochloric acid come to mind and it looks like some chemists have had success with this.

Have a look-see!
http://www.cabdirect.org/abstracts/19910304698.html;jsessionid=1FD73B625345FEB9B05C7CAA981A4718

It came to my mind, hydrochloric acid, because of some of the vitamins and minerals and things I have here with me, one is betain hydrochloride and I thought the English Lavendar germination might perk up with some of this.

The study above is about specific strains of lavendar but it's still a possibility for the other kind. You're looking at the same effects on the hull essentially.

Anyway, funny that one of the scientists on this study is someone with the last name "Singh" because that's the name of the SWOCC financial aid Director who I was told (supposedly) is the person holding up my financial aid.  Avena Singh.  My correspondence has been with Tom and he's given me a lot of contradictory information, but then someone told me the main Director, who was kept unnamed and unmentioned for over 1 full year, while I had constant problems with SWOCC financial aid everytime, is an Avena Singh.

I don't know what she would be holding against me personally.  I have never met her and I have no idea what her background is and what kinds of people she knows or is connected to, politically.  I know Trish McMichaels didn't want me to be in college, and that my communications with Tom were always putting me in a crutch at the last minute.  But they all kept her name out of it, for 1 full year and now I'm supposed to talk to HER on Monday.

At least they did say go ahead and start classes Monday, so maybe there was a mix-up about something and it will be fixed.  One thing, for example, was that one letter was lost and then found, so maybe there was a confusion about something else too, but it causes huge amounts of distress when I've been planning to go all this time.

It's not just college and classes and making sure I get through courses on schedule, it's my income, as this is the case for any student.  Once you're enrolled and in college, unless you're working a second job aside from college studies, you're entire income and ability to support yourself while in college, is coming from your student financial aid.  So, pretty much, dumping on a student at the last minute, knowing they have no alternative or other options, is pretty much like saying everything is okay and in place and then, "Oh, guess what.  Now you're going to be homeless."   Whether a student is homeless, or suddenly has their income for rent, bills, food, and medical and other things cut off, doing this to a student puts them in a situation of extreme hardship.
********************
Back to lavendar, if alcohol only works for distilling milk thistle (hard hull) for the silymarin substance and water preps don't work (I don't think even vinegar works for milk thistle) on the same principle or idea, is where I got the idea for lavendar needing something besides water if maybe it's planted at a different time or is older.

Making a tincture and getting a plant to germinate healthfully are two different things though.  I think alcohol would ruin the structure of the lavendar seed.  Vinegar might be okay, for germination.  I might try a small amount of hydrochloric acid too, or another form (betain hcl) but it's probably not a great idea to soak the lavendar in alcohol, though...hmm...if nothing else works, I guess you could try it for a short time and see what happens.
*********************************
Well, I just prepped and washed 6 hard lids (for my petri dishes)...

And I'll describe in my next post.

No comments: