[APWG] What caused surprise results in Poppy Project?--None of the guesses so far got it.

[Robert Layton Beyfuss]

I think I pretty much covered all the possible reasons. If they died due to a lack of a mulch, the answer would be desiccation/heat stress ie drought.

________________________________
From: APWG [apwg-bounces at lists.plantconservation.org] on behalf of craig at astreet.com [craig at astreet.com]
Sent: Monday, September 16, 2013 7:56 PM
To: apwg at lists.plantconservation.org; craig at ecoseeds.com
Subject: Re: [APWG] What caused surprise results in Poppy Project?--None of the guesses so far got it.


Dear Robert and All,

Thanks for your guesses.  The two pots were set touching each other, getting exactly the same amount of water, heat, light, and the same number of seedlings popped up, but in one pot they all died, and not from damping off or heat or lack of water or overwatering.

It is something that is very, very rarely looked at when sowing native seeds, and is also a major cause of weed infestations here in the arid West, and perhaps also in the East.  We have assumptions about native plants and weeds, those erroneous assumptions can be proved completely wrong by doing some of these ex situ pot tests.

I got the exact same results in 1993 with the Great Basin soils with the ex situ flat tests that you can see at http://www.ecoseeds.com/good.example.html that I used as one of my exercises for my California DOT native plants for roadsides classes across the State in 2000.

Now these ex situ pot tests are a regular part of the Caltrans roadside native plant revegetation projects.

Sincerely,  Craig Dremann (650) 325-7333

=========

> Pot studies are very useful for determining the way things happen in pots.
> That information may or may not apply to the real world. I would not bet
> the farm that what happens in pots will actually happen in the field.
>
> Your question of why the seedlings all died is most likely answered by the
> complex called "damping off". The only other reasons I can think of might
> be not watering enough, in which case drought is the answer, heat stress
> that cooked them, cold that froze them, or watering too much, in which
> damping off is still the "actual" cause.
>
> If your previous pot studies have accurately predicted that way things
> will happen in the field, good for you!
>
>
>
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