I am a new member with a full packet of seeds :)
I have years of experience with cactus and succulent seed propagation and one of the keys is best time of the to sow them.
I really don't want to list all 20 of the seed packs I have, mostly to avoid someone spending time looking up something that I can (besides this I guess).
thanks
Peter
Conventional wisdom is to sow your seeds at the beginning of the growth period of the parent, so winter rain plants in fall and summer rain plants in spring - which will mostly be useful for those not needing a cold stratification.
Basically there are 2 requirements: the conditions that break seed dormancy, and the conditions allowing for good development of the young seedlings. As for the dormancy part, Professor Deno is still a very good reference - unfortunately, the source we link in the Wiki has deleted the 2 supplement files and only the base document is still available (https://www.scribd.com/doc/44360991/SEED-GERMINATION-THEORY-AND-PRACTICE-by-Professor-Norman-C-Deno) i'll google for new sources of the supplements.
Hmm. Supplements on an US Department of agriculture .gov site - as deeplink - not sure if I like to put that on the Wiki:
https://naldc.nal.usda.gov/download/41279/PDF
https://naldc.nal.usda.gov/download/41277/PDF
Peter, have a look at this PBS wiki page:
https://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/HowToGrowBulbsFromSeed
I always found the Ontario Rock Garden Society, germination guide useful:
https://onrockgarden.com/index.php/germination-guide
Very helpful, thank you both.
The Deno book is available online as a pdf.
Peter
guessing you already knew about the Deno....
Thanks
@David Pilling for uploading the Deno files to our own server, now we're safe from dying links.
@petershaw : Deno is really useful but always keep in mind: his experiments are all about germination, not about growing things on, so he only solves one of the problems.
Good point that Deno did not usually grow on his material. Also, he got a lot of the seeds he used from the NARGS seed exchange, meaning that they had been harvested, cleaned (sort of), and stored in an uncontrolled way. I think he was too sure of his conclusions, but that was his manner. I remember hearing him pontificating to someone, saying that no one could say he was "growing" a plant until it was self-sowing in the garden. He once had me convinced that most Ranunculaceae had very short viability in storage, but now I try them all, and I have currently four species of Trollius growing well from the NARGS seedex leftovers.