Episode 264: a sowalong update - plus what's inside your seeds

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TRANSCRIPT

Jane Perrone 00:16 Jane Perrone, On The Ledge podcast and a whole host of houseplants - it's a match made in heaven.

Jane Perrone 00:30 Welcome to episode 264. And in this week's show, we're going back - back - back to the sowalong, catching up with how you're getting on with your sowalong efforts and running through some of the seed related jargon. Plus I answer a question about rust on a cactus.

Jane Perrone 00:54 What a week, my book is officially out there, it's been published, I'm going to head to my local bookshop for the weekend and see if it's there on display. If it is, I'll have a little cry. If it isn't, I'll probably have a little cry too. That's the way it's going. Thanks. Again, to all of you who've been posting about the book, it's been so exciting to see your comments and thoughts. And I'm like a sponge absorbing all of these kind words. I am not very good at receiving praise, but it's been really nice to hear your kind words about the book. And it really does help to spread the word to other people and build up a bit of a buzz around this book. So thank you. And if you haven't got a copy, you can check out legendsoftheleafbook.com for all the info.

Jane Perrone 01:42 Now on to the meat and drink of this week's episode - seeds. First an update on my own seed sowing efforts. It's not been without its challenges. I'm not going to lie to you. Where are we at? Well, my mixed cacti have just got to the stage of being tiny green blobs. And because it's mixed, I'm not sure what's what yet but I have got that far, which I'm kind of pleased with because I'm not using any heat this year, trying to save some pennies on the old heating bill. So they're in my south facing bay window hasn't been that warm here in the UK and the heating goes off at night. So I'm actually surprised that they've got as far as they have so far. But hopefully as they warm up, more will germinate. But they are in a clear plastic Tupperware box where they'll remain for quite a long time. So that's just a question of keeping an eye on their development and making sure that it doesn't get either to steamy in there or too dry.

Jane Perrone 02:44 I've been sowing tomatoes, my tomatoes have been patchy. My as always myself saved seeds from my own tomatoes, even though they're about six or seven years old, from a great variety called Yellow Scotland. They've germinated beautifully, but a couple of other packets I had that were a couple of years old - no germination at all. I've sown two different packets of coleus. And they've come up fine. Gosh, those seeds are fighters there is actually mould on the surface of the compost and yet, and yet, the seedlings have come up and are doing fine, I'll probably be picking those out. That just means transferring them into separate pots within the next couple of weeks. And indeed, today's newsletter, The Plant Ledger talks about how wonderful Coleus are to grow, do go and check that out. If you haven't subscribed to the newsletter, already, it's now coming out every Friday. And you can find the information on my website, Janeperrone.com. Top right hand corner, there's a link called newsletter.

Jane Perrone 03:46 So yeah, it's been a mixed bag with my seeds this year. I haven't done loads of sowing really, because I know that I'm kind of at capacity in terms of planting jobs right now. And seed sowing does take effort and time. So I might say some more things as I get the book launched and have a bit more capacity. And that is the great thing about seed sowing. A lot of things aside from maybe tomatoes and chillies really can be sown a bit later into the year if there's something that's going to stay inside all year round. So as you can see, things can go both ways when you're sowing seeds from the brilliant to the very disappointing. But the main thing is that you just keep trying and don't give up because everyone has issues when they're sowing seeds. And it's a great way of learning and a bit of learning for you today I want to talk about some of the key terms botanical terms when it comes to the seed structure itself. Some of these you might have heard of and wondered what it's all about. Some of them might be completely new to you, but it's useful to know these terms.

Jane Perrone 04:59 We hear them by bandied about, it's very, very handy to have a handle on what's what in your seed. So let's start with the seed casing, the outer layer of the seed it's skin, if you will. Now, you and I would probably call this, the seed coat. But the technical term is testa, the testa of the seed is its seal that keeps the environment outside out and stops the seed from germinating before the time is right. There is another even more unusual word for this structure, which is integument - integument. So if you don't want to call it a testa, or a seed coat, you can refer to the integument of your seed. And the etymology of the word testa. Well, it comes from Latin meaning shell, so that's kind of clear.

Jane Perrone 05:57 So the seed needs this coating just to keep it safe while it's waiting to germinate. And sometimes the test can be quite thick and substantial for seeds that might have to sit around for quite a long time before conditions are right. And that's why some seeds will need either soaking, or sometimes people, Nick seeds with a sharp knife, or even put them in their pocket for a week to rub around in there just to get that testa to break. It depends on the seed - the size of the seed and the thickness of the testa and whether that is required or not. But it's worth remembering when you do sow seed, this is the first thing that's happening is that that testa has to be breached. How and where does that happen? Well, there is a point on the testa called the micropyle. That's micro p y l e, and that's the point where the testa are can be breached, the seed will start to take in water. And that begins the process of germination.

Jane Perrone 06:58 And what is germinating? Well inside that seed is the embryo, which is just the baby plant - the structure that that is going to burst forth and create a seedling. And within that we've got the radicle. Now that is what turns into the root. And interestingly, the word radicle which is spelt r a d i c l e has the same roots as the word radical ending in a L. And in fact, the word radical has different meanings, including something relating to a root. But obviously, it also can mean a dramatic change. So I think that's an interesting thing to bear in mind that the word radicle has its roots in the word root. And the other part of the embryo is the plumule. That's quite hard to say p l u m u l e. And that's what turns into the shoot and eventually the leaves of the plant.

Jane Perrone 07:57 And the last term that I wanted to familiarise you with is hilum - h i l u m. And that is the point on the outside coating of the seed - the testa - where the seed is attached to the fruit. So if you think of a bean, like a kidney bean or a black eyed beam, you get that little oval shaped mark. And that's the hilum and the micropyle is basically at the end of that hilum. So that's the point where all of the action starts to happen first. And the other major components of the seed is the cotyledon. Now, depending on whether we're talking about a monocot, or a dicot seed, there might be one cotyledon or two and the undefined just means the seed leaf of the plant the very first leaf or leaves that emerge after germination, that is all within the seed. And if we want to know the difference between a monocot and a dicot, monocots - mono, one - have one cotyledon when they emerge as a seedling whereas dicots have two.

Jane Perrone 09:08 There are lots of other things that divide them. Usually monocots have got parallel veins whereas dicots have a net-like vein structure. And there are also differences between their flowers and the structure of the flowers and their roots as well. So dicots tend to have more of a tap root system whereas monocots tend to be fibrous examples of dicot and monocot houseplants? So a good example is Sansevieria, the snake plant it's a monocot it has parallel leaf veins and it produces just one cotyledon orchids are also monocots as are palms. And the dicots? well that includes the begonias, euphorbias and Mimosa pudica. That's another dicot.

Jane Perrone 10:00 There's loads of examples out there. So do take a look at your houseplants today and have a think about whether they are monocots or dicots. One small caveat here, as with all things, it's a bit more complicated than it l looks. So you can't just say that something just because something has a net like vein system that it its a dicot. But yeah, we could go deeper into all of this, but I'll link to a good page. I think it's from the University of Berkeley, which goes through the basic differences between the two and why it's a bit more fuzzy in terms of definitions than we might hope it would be. And I'll also link in the show notes to some lovely diagrams that show seed structure and also monocot seeds versus dicot seeds in detail which I think you'll find useful if you want to get deeper into this.

Jane Perrone 11:00 Now let's have a look at what you've been up to with your seed sowing. It's been really lovely to see people getting on with their sowing, please do let me know if you've got some exciting seed activity to add to #OTLsowalong so you can use that hashtag or you can drop me a line to ontheledgepodcast@gmail.com Let's kick off with LJ who got in touch via ontheledgepodcast@gmail.com to tell me about some Coleus seeds that have been sown on February 25. I think Coleus seedlings often have the best names. The two that LJ sowed were 'Wizard Merlin', and 'Kong Empire'. Epic names - and LJ has also gone down the popular route of chilli seeds to do love chilli I haven't sown any this year. I could have a go it's a bit late but I might just swap some of my tomato seedlings for some chilli seedlings but with any luck. Kev's orchids has been busy as ever sewing various things including Microchirita lavandulacea. I'm fascinated by that. I'm guessing that's a gesneriad - I've just looked it up. Yes, it's a genus in the gesneriaceae and it's a lavender microchritia. Wow. If you get some of those Kev, I need to do some swaps with you to get one of those because that looks amazing. It's got these beautiful pale lavender flowers. I do love the gesneriads as you'll know if you've listened to the show for a while. Kev has also been propagating a Dendrobium 'Green Surprise' and is wondering if this qualifies for the sowalong. Well yes it does Kev, because we're not sticklers around here. And anything that you propagate really we'll bung it in the category of the On The Ledge sowalong. Now meristem UK on Instagram, aka plant nerd on YouTube is one of the most dedicated, so long as I know, and I'll put a link to their YouTube video channel in the show notes because they've got done some useful videos on sowalong matters. And the most recent one, I think was sowing ten, yes, 10, types of succulents including Ariocarpus, and Gymnocalycium, or seeds from the British Cactus and Succulent Society, which, if you have listened to the show before, you'll know is a fantastic source of cheapie cheapie seeds. If you're a member, you can sign up for the seed scheme and I think they're currently maybe 50p a packet. That's a really good deal, so do check that out if you don't know about that already. I talk about that more in my On THe Ledge sowalong episode with Ian Thwaites. All of those are listed in the show notes. And the thing I like about meristems video is that they've used a single maybe it's a sort of what would be classed as a half sized seed tray, but they sold 10 different kinds of seed in there and they've divided them up using wooden lolly sticks. This is such a good idea. You don't have to have lots of iddly piddly pots, you can just have one tray, but you've divided them beautifully. So top tip there meristem UK. Leafyexotics on Instagram is another dedicated sowalonger and I was very interested to see that Leafyexotics has been growing Begonia x torsa t o r s a from bulbils. Now I looked this up on the American Begonia Society website, because it wasn't a hybrid that I had heard of, but this is apparently a tuberous first generation hybrid tall growing plant. And according to the ABS, the leaves get up to 18 inches across. If culturally happy that's 45.72 centimetres for any Europeans or other metric users - that's incredible!

Jane Perrone 15:05 I'm also fascinated by the fact that this is supposed to be quite a hardy begonia that apparently can survive freezes. You might lose the leaves but it will should grow back. So, fascinating to hear about that one. I'll put a link in the show notes to Leafyexotics' post if you want to take a look at that. Some of you are still playing the waiting game Louisa has sown some succulent seeds mostly Aloes but is still awaiting germination. I sympathise Louisa. And Chris has collected and sowed spider plant seeds from a plant that looks beautiful. So that's interesting that you're going the seeds route Chris, I'd love to see how those seedlings turn out. They don't look variegated at the moment like the parent plant so it'll be interesting to see what you get. And Marcelle's been doing great with a load of lovely edibles like tomatoes and peppers, as well as zinnias and sunflowers.

Jane Perrone 16:04 And Kathy - Kathy is a dedicated succulent grower and has got some wonderful plants grown from seed over the years. I know from following her exploits on houseplant our over on Twitter. But Kathy updated the houseplant fans on the ledge Facebook group with a picture of a baby Aeoniums sown back in January and also has planted seeds of a mystery spider plant species this week. So again, more mystery spider plants coming right up. And then finally, Dr pod on Instagram has been growing Spanish mandarins from pips sewn last June 2022. Now this is definitely the kind of sowalong activity I can get into my son sowed some lemon pips, and the seedlings of those plants are doing nicely, I just put some outside because they definitely needed more sun. And they're magnificent actually. So definitely so much fun to do. If you get any kind of citrus, you can give it a try. The other thing my son tried was sowing the seeds of a passion fruit that we got. In our vegetable slash fruit box delivery. I tried doing what I do with self saving tomato seeds. Because the passion flower fruit has this mucilaginous covering around the outside, just like tomatoes do. And what I do with tomato seeds is stick the seeds fresh out of the fruit into a jar of water. And that helps to break down that mucilaginous coating for the ease of sewing and also the speed of germination. We tried that with the passion fruit. Unfortunately, we haven't had any germination yet. I'm wondering if it's because it just isn't warm enough? Has anyone had success growing seeds for passion fruit that you've bought? I'd love to know.

Jane Perrone 18:01 So if you're listening to this thinking, gosh, I have not yet own a single seed or than a single bit of propagation. First off, I would say deep breaths, give yourself a break. It's okay. I haven't done an enormous amount of seed sowing this spring either. But there's still plenty of time to get going. I just found another packet of Coleus seeds, which I'm going to be sowing this weekend. There are lots of things that will still be fine. I think the only thing I would say if you're in the northern hemisphere, and you're planting things like Chili's and tomatoes, you might be a little bit late. As I've already hinted at, if you've got a packet, there's no harm in trying. The trouble is with these species that they need a long season to sort of power up ready to flower and fruit. So if you do so them too late, you might find that you don't get them to the point of fruiting. That said if you can, if you are growing them indoors and they're under a grow light, probably this won't be an issue - it's more of an issue if you're growing outside in the northern hemisphere where the weather is going to start deteriorating come say end of September, and there just won't be enough heat for any baby fruits to fully ripen. It's a common story for tomatoes and chilies in the UK even if you do so them early. But everything else like cacti and succulents. Definitely yes keep sowing those Monstera deliciosa seeds, ferns from spores, Mimosa pudica. I've done episodes on all of these things. And it's definitely still plenty of time to get going with those. So go and listen to those episodes. They're all in the show notes and that way you do not have to miss out on this sowalong.

Jane Perrone 19:44 Now it's time for question of the week which comes from John and concerns a Ferocactus hystrix - rather beautiful plant. This is a kind of a barrel cactus. I think we'd describe it as and this one comes from Central Mexico as do so many cacti and this one came from Ikea now this is probably a subject lesson in why I would always try to buy plants from specialist growers. The plant is not looking great. John has found that although it started out with what looks like stains, these have now turned into orange spots. And John is wondering what to do. I think John has correctly diagnosed the issue as being a rust fungus and the plant is genuinely looking sort of deflated, the ridges are looking very pale, it's not looking healthy, can this plant be saved? I'm pretty sure this is some kind of fungal infection that you are suffering from that comes under the category of rust. Other marks that can look similar can be caused by spider mite damage. So it's worth getting a hand lens out and having a look for the signs of spider mites, which might be things like the white grainy marks of the shed skins. And if you get a hand lens out, you can look and actually see the spider mites themselves on demand. under magnification, they're not usually visible with the naked eye, but you should be able to see them with a 10 times or 20 times hand lens. But once you've ruled that out, the likelihood is this is rust.

Jane Perrone 21:26 So rust is an umbrella term for a group of fungal conditions that can affect all kinds of plants. And with varying degrees of severity and likelihood of subsequent death. And the difficulty with obviously a barrel cactus like this is it's not like you can see rust on a couple of leaves - those orange round marks - and pick those leaves off to slow and stop the spread. Because you've just got a barrel shape so there's nothing you can do to remove the affected material without affecting the whole plant. With a cactus like this that's come from IKEA and probably has cost maybe under five pounds, there is an argument to say it is not worth saving this plant, separate it away from your other plants and dispose of it because you're going to pay probably pay five pounds to buy some fungicide to treat it. And at the end of the day, you may well not succeed. If you do want to treat it, I would buy a fungicide spray. You can find them quite a lot in the garden centres doesn't really matter if it's not specifically designed for cacti, there are a range of fungicides that you can find in the UK. Certainly, I'll link to an RHS page which lists what those are. Some of them will be just pure fungicides. Others, particularly ones for roses will include both a fungicide and an insecticide. So read the packet carefully and check what you were doing.

Jane Perrone 23:05 Because you want to get the right treatment for your plant and apply it to the right dilution and, and time of day and so on. But uh, yeah, I think for me, given this isn't an expensive plant, and it's looking pretty miserable. I think I personally would probably not spend the time and money to try to save this plant. And this is another reason to buy from specialists because this plant has probably been sat, kept too damp with poor air circulation stuck in a box with dozens of other cacti given too much water in the store, not enough light. And a cactus is going to struggle to fight off a fungal infection under those kinds of circumstances. So I think it's one of those things where you might wake up and decide that you should cut your losses. And there's nothing wrong with that at all.

Jane Perrone 23:56 And I wonder whether if you did take that cactus out of the pot, you might find some root rot, which is causing the plant to look so kind of shrivelled. I wonder whether - I don't know how much you've been watering it but it may be that even if you haven't watered it at all, there's root rot going on because of historic watering issues from when it was in the shop. And yeah, there's could be multiple things going on with this plant that mean, it's not really worth saving. It's a depressing kind of outlook. But again, you have to weigh up the time and effort that you're going to put into it versus the outcome. And maybe just chalk it down to experience and consider buying plants from specialists if you can in the future. That's not to say that you never get problems from plants raised by specialists but you're just giving your plants that sort of fighting chance to start with if you do go down that route. So if left unchecked rust will gradually spread across the whole plant and lead to its demise. And I suspect this is probably the likely outcome with this characters.

Jane Perrone 25:00 Whatever you do, it could limp on for a while longer, but unless you separate it from all your other plants, it could spread to other specimens which is obviously far from ideal. Now if you had some rust on another type of cactus or succulent where it's got a different structure: so, say you've got I don't know rust on a Crassula or an Opuntia, you might be able to remove the affected parts of the plant and it grow back absolutely fine. And that's definitely worth considering, but obviously with this barrel shaped cactus, there's nothing you can do into short of like taking a teaspoon and digging out the affected material which is not going to work. Well I do hope that helps. And if you've got a problem with your plant, do drop me a line to ontheledgepodcast@gmail.com pictures. Lots of details will really help me to help you with your plant.

Jane Perrone 26:09 That's all for this week's show. Thank you for listening. Keep the On The Ledge sowalong updates coming. It's fantastic to hear all the ways that you're bringing new plant babies into the world - have a great week.

Jane Perrone 26:36 The music you heard in this episode was Roll Jordan Roll by The Joy Drops, The Road We Used to Travel When We Were Young by Komiku and I Snost I Lost by Dr. Turtle. The ad music is Candlelight by Jahzzar - all tracks are Licenced under Creative Commons - visit the show notes for details.


I update you on the seed-sowing exploits of both me and a bunch of listeners, plus I talk about the botanical terms of the different parts of a seed, and answer a question about a cactus with a fungal infection.

Check out the show notes as you listen….

Seed terms

  • The seed coat - its outer layer - is known as the testa or integument. This testa keeps the seed protected from the elements while it is waiting to germinate. The seed coat can be really thick in some species which means the seed will need to be soaked or nicked with a knife.

  • The micropyle is a weak point on the testa where the seed will start to take in water when it is ready to start germinating.

  • The embryo of the seed is the baby plant. It contains the radicle - the structure that turns into a root - and the pumule, which turns into the shoot.

  • The hilum is the point on the testa where the seed was attached to its fruit - most obvious on beans.

  • The seed will contain one or two cotyledons - the seed leaves that emerge first before the ‘true’ leaves. The number will depend on whether the species is a monocot or a dicot.

  • Houseplant monocots includes orchids, Sansevieria and palms, and dicots include Mimosa pudica, begonias and euphorbias. This page explains the differences between monocots and dicots is explained here.

  • Check out these diagrams of monocot and dicot seeds here.

QUESTION OF THE WEEK

Jon has a Ferocactus histrix bought from Ikea that is suffering from rust - an umbrella term for a number of fungus species that affect plants and can eventually kill them. Rust can often be treated by quarantining the plant removing infected material, along with use of fungicide sprays. In this case of a barrel shaped cactus, it is very hard to stop the spread, and may prove not economic given the original cost of the cactus and the small likelihood of recovery when you cannot remove infected parts.

Cacti that are kept in damp conditions with poor air circulation are prone to fungal diseases, and this likely set in even before Jon got hold of this plant. If you can buy from specialists, the risk of these kinds of problems are reduced.

Have a look at this RHS downloadable PDF for information on fungicides licensed for use in the UK, as well as this page on rust diseases.

Want to ask me a question? Email ontheledgepodcast@gmail.com. The more information you can include, the better - pictures of your plant, details of your location and how long you have had the plant are always useful to help solve your issue.

THIS WEEK’S SPONSOR

Thanks to True Leaf Market for supporting this week’s show. True Leaf Market have been supplying of superb seed since 1974: check out their website for a huge choice of seeds including vegetables, herbs, flowers, microgreens and seeds for sprouting, plus their free growing guides to help you get started. Get $10 off when yout spend $50 off now at trueleafmarket.com with promo code ONTHELEDGE10. Limit one use per customer.

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CREDITS

This week's show featured the tracks Roll Jordan Roll by the Joy Drops, The Road We Use To Travel When We Were Kids by Komiku and I Snost, I Lost by Doctor Turtle. The ad music is Candlelight by Jahzzar.

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