Cindy's Heart

[helixturnhelix]

Gratz Kristen!  Maybe by the end of next summer we will see those first blooms!

[blupit007]

I don't remember how deep I put them... Should I pull them out and re-set them?  I went and bought the seed setter heat mat and thermostat.  I will hook it up tomorrow.  I think I can set a temp, should I set it at 80?

[Charlie]

Kristen, I would find them and plant them again because going too deep is often fatal. Don't do anything else to them except replanting as shallow as you can but still be covered. 80F is fine.

Charlie

[blupit007]

OK thanks, will do right now.  I went out and bought a meat thermometer and it is saying it is 80º.

[Charlie]

Good, Kristen. Now you just have to wait patiently, kind of hard at times!

Charlie

[blupit007]

Charlie, I was just wondering.  I don't know enough about hybridizing, or gardening in this respect.  But the seeds I got for CH, were they pollinated by another plant, ie: Saffron, Belle, Baja Breeze or Sunny Wind?  Or is it something that the plant did from itself?  I don't know how to ask this question and make me not sound like an idiot, or if I am saying what I am thinking...  Anyhow, I ask this because my hardy Lord Baltimore has seed pods all over it one being from me taking one LB and brushing it against another LB flower on the same plant, and the others had to have been from its own flowers as well because there are no other hardys around.  Do you get what I'm saying?  I was just wondering if these tropical hybrids can set their own seeds from themselves like LB did?

[Doll]

Your LB is self pollinating. Since you said the seed pod on your CH was not one you tried to pollinate it is hard to say whether your seed pod was a result of self pollination or cross pollination. At least that is how I understand it. Of course Charlie would know better than me.

I believe CH was a result of a High Voltage self pollination.

[blupit007]

I also forgot to add that CH has 3 more pods forming on her right now... one might be a Simple Pleasures cross...  not sure. 

[Charlie]

Kristen, the most likely cause of the seeds is that you pollinated the flower with pollen from one of your other exotic hibiscus plants. A cross with Lord Baltimore is very unlikely because it is a different species and does not have the same number of chromosomes. A less likely but possible scenario is that pollen from the Cindys Heart bloom reached the staminal pads of that same bloom and a successful pollination resulted. This would be more likely if you placed the pollen on the pads yourself because the original pollinators of wild hibiscus are tropical creatures (no one knows exactly what they were although Chris and I have some speculative ideas) and are unlikely to be living in Connecticut. Another remote possibility is that the hormone in Wake-up spray caused this to happen, but that is only possible if you have been spraying Wake-up on this plant.

You can successfully pollinate a hybrid hibiscus using pollen from another flower on the same plant or from another plant of the same variety. It is less common than cross pollination with a different variety but does happen. By coincidence, a seedling grown from one of Kerry's seeds just bloomed for me and she reported it as a self cross of Gators Pride - Gators Pride x Gators Pride. Unfortunately I did not have the camera with me to get a photo. The just opening bloom looked a lot like Gators Pride but darker in color.

My suggestion is that you should usually cross pollinate when you have 2 or more blooms open at the same time.  But, if you only have 1 flower open then why not try a self cross - sometimes it may work!

Doll is correct in that Cindy's Heart is High Voltage x High Voltage. The seeds came from using a growth retarding hormone on a High Voltage plant followed by a high dose of a growth promoting hormone. This caused all the flowers on that plant to form seed pods that contained viable seeds. I read an article later that explained why this can happen but don't remember the details. The problem with the technique is that it is very hard on the mother plant and may ruin it so I don't do this technique any more.

I sure hope you see a little seedling peaking up out of the soil soon!

Charlie

[blupit007]

Thanks for all the information.  I guess that the humming birds and bees must have pollinated it with Saffron or Belle.  Not with herself as I inspect each bloom I get and have never seen any pollen, ever.   I am keeping the seeds warm and moist.  Hope to see them sprout! 

 I don't have or use wakeup spray.  The only thing I have sprayed on them is the Bondie oil for mites, and Bondie systemic insect control, but only once.  I use fertalizer every week with HVH boost, HVH fert, Super Nova, peroxide, vinegar, and a drop of soap.  Cindy was talking about tweaking that recipe, but I haven't found where she posted it to change it up.  So I just keep on with this.  BTW, can I use this fert every week through the winter?

Thanks so much for your help Charlie, couldn't do any of this right without you!
~Kristen

[Charlie]

You've done an excellent job, Kristen! Growing hibiscus and/or hybridizing involves a lot of seemingly simple steps but if not done right lots of problems result. The CH seeds remain a mystery to me. I have always had many bees, wasps, and hummingbirds in the greenhouses used for hybridizing but have never had a pod with seeds that I did not hand pollinate. Pollination of flowers is a fascinating subject but the bottom line is that plants and the creatures that pollinate them evolved together in the environments where they are naturally found. Hibiscus have been moved from their native environments and if it was not for humans they would die out in much of the world. I guess you could say we have become the pollinators for hibiscus - tricked us with their beauty to do the job for them! We also propagate them by cuttings and grafts but without us few hibiscus seeds would ever be made. There are so few wild stands of hibiscus remaining in their original environments that most are on the endangered species lists. As land use shrinks their environment the creatures that pollinate them also disappear. Anyway, it's very neat that you got these seeds, however it happened.

By the way, please check your email for one from Cindy about shipping the plant Dee picked out for you at the Open House. Thanks.

Charlie

[blupit007]

So I had 3 out of the 4 sprout within 10 days.  The 4th one is finally showing.  BUT....  I did a horrible thing today.  While giving them some water, I hit one sprout with the stream and caused the tiny 1" stem to tip over a bit.  I righted it gently with my finger.  Then I left the humidity dome off while I went to the barn to ride for a couple hours.  When I got back, the one that tipped looks bent over and wilty.  I don't think that when it tipped it snapped.  I think it was OK.  I misted it with plain water and put the dome back on.  It doesn't look any better yet and it had been 8 hours.  What should I do?  I was thinking I could take a tooth pick and erect the little sprout and use the tooth pick as a crutch?  Or is it a goner.  I will get my camera so you can see what I am talking about.

[blupit007]

Here they are.  In the big picture, the damaged one is in the back, the one just starting to sprout is in the front, the best is on the right, it is prolly 1  1/2" with 3 tiny leaves and the one in the middle is about 1"  about the same the damaged one was.

[Charlie]

4 out 4 - that's really good! Seedlings lead a precarious life, from mice eating them to something knocking them over to fungus disease attacking the point where the stem enters the ground. Yours are looking good so far. I don't know what will happen with the knocked over one - if new true leaves emerge it should be fine. It's best not to transplant them until they are much larger.

Charlie

[blupit007]

Charlie,  the damaged one died... but then the one that was struggling came out of its shell.  And the one that first sprouted is doing great! 

First question.  These all sprouted differently, at different times, and now are growing at different rates.  They all have the same conditions.  Hypothetically, Does that mean that will be their growth habit for that particular cv?  Like the one that took forever to come up, will it be a slow growing cv, compared to the one that is going nuts?

Also, two (and this may have something to do with the lack of growth) are stunted, and I noticed some brown spots, and some tiny holes, and the leaf curling a bit.  I took my mag to look but couldn't tell what was wrong.  I took a Q tip and swiped both sproutlings.  And on each I found a tiny microscopic larvae looking thing.  It was cream colored with a black spot for a face.  Almost looked like a micro grub...  I have no idea what that may be, and what to do now... I can't put any systemic or spray on them yet?  What do you suggest?