Milk weed seeds and sprouting

[texas butterfly]

Do milk weed seeds have to be chilled before sprouting?

Or is it certain species? Or when they are purchased they have already been chilled?

I had planted some 72 seeds and was surprised with how quickly they started sprouting. The packet says 14 to 28 days to sprout.

I also ordered the 4 packet of milkweeds from Monarch watch. I'm going to try to get those started as soon as possible also.

[Mona Miller]

Annuals don't need to be chilled, but soaking makes them sprout faster. 12 hours warm water, change water 12 more hours, plant or wrap in wet paper towel.

Perennials usually need cold treatment, but if they are native to Texas, does your area get cold. They may need scarification (roughing up) some people put them in a plastic jar with stones and shake.

[texas butterfly]

Sometimes we have very mild winters and weird winters.

For instance, this past year.... we had a hurricane in Aug/Sept.

We had snow on one day in December.

It never got cold enough to bring my lemon trees in.

So, in general we don't really get cold enough to be called winter. On Tulips, etc,,, I have to put them in refigerator to chill them before planting and they keep best in fridge over winter. I usually don't keep tulips due to this.

[Mona Miller]

But, I know that common milkweed, swamp, and butterfly weed need cold treatment. I'd do an experiment. Plant some without any treatment, give some cold treatment, soak some and then see which germinates best. I do know that you shouldn't cover them very deep.

[texas butterfly]

The seed packet don't say if they need chlll treatment.
I'm looking at the Butterfly Flower (Asclepias tuberrosa L) and it doesn't mention the chilling.
This is what sprouted in 5 days. I do have a self-water seed starter and it keeps the soil moist.

I may have read about chilling on the swamp seeds that I planted.
However, they both are sprouting.

I'd say that the butterfly flower is sprouting much quicker. Probably after 5 days, I saw sprouts.
The swamp milk weed is a little slower, but seems to be getting a large number that are sprouting now.

The seed packets that I received from Monarch watch, all saw except for one to cold-stratify for at least 6 weeks before planting for best germination. I guess, I should go ahead and put them in fridge. At least if they are only there a week, everyday helps. LOL, more unidentified things in fridge.....

Cold-stratify recommended:
Butterfly weed: Asclepias tuberosa
Swamp weed: Asclepia incarnata subsp. incarnata
Common Milkweed: Asclepias syriaca

No mention of cold-stratify on packet
Tropical Milkweed: Asclepias curassavica

The more you learn about the Monarch butterfly, the more you find out there is learn. It seems learning about the Monarch butterfly covers so many topics.

[Mona Miller]

Plants and habitat go along with learning about butterflies.

When I put milkweed in the fridge, I know that it is time to take it out when my husband says what is this molding. I also put a date on my calendar.

[Wyvern]

If you are using seed from a packet and it does not specifically state anything about cold-treatment, then chances are it was pre-treated already or it's a type that does not require it. Even milkweeds that are "supposed" to need pre-treatment don't necessarily have to have it. - all the stratification is doing is just increasing the potential germination rates is all.

Example: Cardinal flower seeds (wild - not the commercial hybrids) are another notoriously difficult plant that is supposed to "require" stratification. I am finding that my germination rates are about equal whether I do it or not. I was lucky in that my existing plants last year provided me with about a 1/4 pound of seed so I could go crazy on experimenting with different locations, conditions, and how the seeds were handled this year. My only problem now really is getting some of the thousands of seedlings I have now to make it into full-fledged plants lol. I've been playing with wild cardinal flowers for almost 25 years and only grew two from seed. LOL.

Now, my Spicebush seeds.. totally different matter. Those have to be stratified. I have tried many times without doing it and no success. Also, how the seeds are dealt with apparently plays big on success. Year before last I collected seeds and planted them with no special handling and allowed them to stratify naturally outside over the winter. Out of 24 seeds, only 4 germinated. I don't think our winter that year was really cold enough. So I decided to do things differently for this year. Last September, I collected the seeds as soon as they turned red on the bushes (rather than waiting for them to fall to the ground). I then spent a couple hours peeling the flesh off of the seed (note: red berry flesh turns fingers ugly brown for days on end). I washed and dried the seeds and mixed them with some damp vermiculite in a ziplock bag and stuck them in the refrigerator. I had intended to pull them out at the end of March to plant, but forgot about them. It was not until the 2nd week of May that I took them out and examined them before planting. 70 of the 72 seeds were split and showing signs of early germination; the other two had molded. I planted the seeds and now I have about 40-45 seedlings standing about 3 inches tall with leaves starting to come out. Not bad really. I don't know if the others that haven't come up are going to be slow starters or if they just didn't have it in them to grow. I will probably dig through the containers to see if the seeds went bad or not.

[Mona Miller]

I can tell you that I get better germination, if I give cold treatment to those milkweed species that need it. In the summer, I grow tropical milkweeds, too.