Makiko, I describe in my book, 'Fall and Winter Bloom in the Solar Greenhouse', how I used a condiment called Liquid Smoke to help germinate Erica and Protea seed (prompted by an article in Rock Garden Quarterly). With some species it meant a difference between zero seedlings and four or five of them. Granted, it sounds like sympathetic magic, but there the plants are, still going strong. Jim Jones -----Original Message----- From: Makiko Goto-Widerman <makikogotowiderman@me.com> To: Pacific Bulb Society <pbs@lists.ibiblio.org> Sent: Thu, Jan 2, 2014 8:33 pm Subject: Re: [pbs] Smoke-water and bulb growth Bill, I was thinking about using "smoke" method for erica and syncarpha vestita seeds from South Africa to stimulate their germination. How to prepare smoke water? Mixing with ashes? Thank you for your help. Makiko On Jan 2, 2014, at 4:28 PM, William Hoffmann wrote: > I have seen multiple posts on this list about using smoke water to > stimulate germination of certain species. Does anyone use it to > enhance growth after germination? I recently came across an > interesting article in which commercial onion seedlings were watered > regularly with smoke water. It had an impressive effect on growth, > compared to plants that did not receive smoke water. After 175 days, > the plants receiving smoke water had more than twice the bulb mass of > the controls. If this response is common among geophytes, it would be > quite a benefit. Have any of you tried this? > > The article citation is Kulkarni et al, Effect of smoke-water and a > smoke-isolated butenolide on the growth and genotoxicity of commercial > onion, Scientia Horticulturae, Volume 124, Issue 4, 1 May 2010, Pages > 434-439. > > BTW, I am a new member of PBS. So far I don't grow any bulbs that are > particularly interesting or difficult - mostly just easily purchased > things. > > Bill > > -- > William A. Hoffmann > Associate Professor > Department of Plant Biology > North Carolina State University > Raleigh, NC, 27695-7612 > Phone: (919) 513-7668 > http://www4.ncsu.edu/~wahoffma/labhome/… > _______________________________________________ > pbs mailing list > pbs@lists.ibiblio.org > http://pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php > http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/