Dont paper towel any poppies unless you check the towel really frequently, they root quickly and tend to not like a forced seperation from the towel. Also 20 - 25 degrees is way too high for good rates in most poppies, altho its highly dependant on the species and also the climate the parent plant grew in. The same P. Somniferum grown in N-Africa and Sweden for a few generations for example will show great difference in peak-germination-rate-temperature.
IMO: Sow your poppies (I guess its Somniferum) either in the place you want them to sit in finally, or choose a LARGE and especially DEEP pot and sow only a few, or you'll be thinning them alot (wich always is an ethical problem to me I feel so like Hitler when thinning plants
)
With mild winters you can try to sow them in fall and they'll have a good head start. They can even be sown on snow in winter but I have better experience with sowing them after last frost, most will germinate at around 15 C (highly dependant, some sooner some later). Also keep in mind a few seeds will germinate at random times the year round and poppies have been observed to take about 3 years to germinate with rates around 90 % - I imagine this is a survival strategy, if the crop is destroyed two years in sucession theres still chances the population will show up again. This indicates a multiple dormancy could be present in some seeds.
If you think its worth it or you dont plan on sowing many you can even soak the seeds in water, some will already start germinating in the water after a few hours and it does even work to let them germinate in water as long as theres a strong bubbler ensuring they dont hook up to each other.
Another method thats similar to paper towel but wont affect the roots negatively is to sow in agar or similar, agar without nutritional value wont need sterilisation or a cover, a petry dish (or whatever) full of agar with the seeds sprinkled or arranged on top works good and is used in most Papaver germination studies. (Obviously they must be transplanted before they die, since the pure agar isnt prone to rot its no problem to transplant a healthy portion of it with the plant.
Henbane: You will have to wait for someone else to comment on this but my guess is the same again: Too warm, literature indicates that Henbane did very well in continental europe for a long time, the temperature in central E. go at least close to 0 if nor below freezing. Chances are that it needs stratisfication or at least germinates in the cold to have a full growing season, when exposed to humidity the first time in warm temperatures it will remaind dormant and rather wait for the next season, so it wont flower too late and not be pollinated anymore or even freeze to death before flowering.
1st photo is P. Setigerum germinating in a 1:1:1 mix of perlite vermiculite and sphagnum for hydroponics experiments
germinated ~ 15 ish
2nd photo is (transplanted ^^ ) P. Rhoeas (or Dubium, I found them when already dead so hard to tell until I see them alive) germinated in a realm of approx. 10/5 day/night) still some germinating (as stated above in 3 years this will still happen even if they arent allowed to self sow.
3rd photo shows Meconopsis Aculeata germinated in the same 10/5 on a top sowing layer of coarse sand.
4th photo shows seeds in agar without cover / sterilisation whatsoever - its not my photo.
All temps are in C. Lower the temperature and dont be in a hurry, some germinate on the first day, some like to take a month or two. Most are delicated about root disturbance so repot carefully or sow in situ.
Maybe you should clean up your list of species the towel method works for, afaik it is general consensus on here that we don't want to mention certain species as there is already enough forums dedicated to them and also they draw heaps of attention, We don't trade them either.
Edit: Popppppieeeeessssssss !!!
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Topic: Henbane and poppy (Read 10070 times)
