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[fairdinkumseeds]

Never seem it mentioned before so figure I should say a few words.
CSIRO and several African scientific study associations have shown that KAR1 etc in smoke is a cue for germination of many species.
The first dodgy pic is a copy of the original contraption used by the CSIRO ect in their studies.
Its what I use to make my product>>>
"Australian Native Germination Accelerator Smoke Treatment" and it works awesome on pretty much everything especially Acacia.

BUT, if you want to make something similar yourself and don't have a heap of room you can just bodgy it like I did in the second pic.
In my studies so far it is about 60-70% as effective as using the correct longer, slower, lower temp method, and its cheap and easy for anyone anywhere.
Sometimes it works better than GA3, sometimes it kills the seeds, just like a GA3 soak can.
Always have a control in your studies so the results have meaning.

To use it the easiest way is just plant the seeds as per normal and put a tsp of smoked vermiculite ontop.
Or soak the seeds in water with a tsp of smoked vermiculite, then plant as per normal.

With really rare, valuable, or hard to grow species I generally do this experiment below to be sure I get some survivors and can establish the species>>>

X seeds with a soak for 24hrs in rainwater. (This is the most important and my "control". Provides a baseline to compare results.)
X seeds with a soak for 24hrs in 500ppm GA3
X seeds with a soak for 24hrs in 1000ppm GA3
X seeds with a soak for 24hrs in 2000ppm GA3(This is often fatal, but sometimes its the only thing that works.)
X seeds with a soak for 24hrs in smoked vermiculite and water. (Amazing effective across a huge range of species.)


I believe the resulting plants that received smoke treatment at germination are more drought hardy too.
Some studies back this belief, some dispute it.

4 Likes Frog Pajamas, ONandONandON, BubbleCat and nikshaz like this.

[fairdinkumseeds]

HA, just found this!
http://sharetheseeds.me/forum/index.php?topic=3021.msg23842#msg23842

[fairdinkumseeds]

Oh, one last thing.
It is important that the plant matter be a mix of live cut grass, woody annual weeds and the tips new growth and fine branches of oily resinous species like Acacia and Eucalyptus.
Nothing more than finger thickness, or it won't smoke well, but it must be live when cut live and dried fully to get good results.
Grass alone, or woodchips like pine don't work well at all in my studies, at least not on the species I have tried.

[Bigbadwooof]

Oh, one last thing.
It is important that the plant matter be a mix of live cut grass, woody annual weeds and the tips new growth and fine branches of oily resinous species like Acacia and Eucalyptus.
Nothing more than finger thickness, or it won't smoke well, but it must be live when cut live and dried fully to get good results.
Grass alone, or woodchips like pine don't work well at all in my studies, at least not on the species I have tried.

Would sage brush work for the resinous component?

[fairdinkumseeds]

Can't see why not provided if it was cut fresh, but that said, only one way to find out. 

I use a mix of stuff because when I did my first tests using single species I could collect or buy commercially with ease the results were very poor.

When I tested just grass, pinebark, eucalyptus chips, hickory wood chips, or coconut husk alone, single material, it worked 0-20% better than the control, nothing spectacular.
But a mix of live cut grass, acacia, eucalyptus tips cut fresh then dried was ~80% better than the controls and with a heap of species the only thing that worked.

I suspect different chemicals are produced in live growing fresh, vs old dried, vs fast growing annual grasses, vs woody growth and if you get a mix of everything then that's a broader spectrum/chemical profile so more effective on a larger range of species.