Biological realism avoids
growing disappointment

© 2000 Streamline Publications

A picture can cause a thousand unfulfilled expectations, Paul Albright remarked, summing up his position on the matter.

According to Albright, unrealistic expectations is the reason he hesitates to employ photographs in advertisements and product information sheets. It is especially problematic for wildflower seed mixtures such as Insecta-Flora, Albright's popular and highly effective orchard and vineyard cover crop.

If we were discussing artificial flowers then it wouldn't be a problem to put in a dozen of this and a dozen of that. But nature is full of surprises. Like Forrest Gump's box of chocolates, you never know what you're going to get.

We are very careful about the types and quantities of seed that go into a mix, Albright continued, but even plants from the same seed lot can look entirely different planted in different places or in the same place at different times. For some people that can be pretty disappointing.

Infinite Variability

In developing seed mixtures—whether for cover crops, revegetation, erosion control, landscape color, or any other purpose—compatibility of species is important to consider. For example, we generally won't use Alyssum in a mix because it tends to dominate, Albright said.

Beyond simple compatibility, the outcome of a mixed seed planting is dependent on a variety of factors—hereditary (genetic) and environmental—that conspire against duplication of results. Indeed, there is little chance that the same patch of flowers will look the same two years in a row.

The difference in survival, appearance, and vigor of each wildflower species begins at or before germination and depends on how each of these factors affects seeds individually and in concert. The permutations that impinge on a seeds development multiply exponentially with each alteration in its environment. And there are many to consider, among them:

• weather
• soil moisture
• soil temperature
• soil preparation
• insects
• disease pathogens
• birds and other pests

Germination and growth also depend heavily on the amount of time needed to reach each stage of plant development. Common varieties of wildflowers germinate, typically, in ten days to three weeks. During that period moisture and temperature changes will favor some seeds more than others. Seeds requiring less time to germinate may have greater success simply because that particular period of vulnerability is shorter.

Sudden Death

Damping off may effect some preemergent seeds and not others. This condition can occur during the germination period, killing the seeds, or later, causing the newly emergent plant to rot and die. Certain types of fungi are responsible for damping off, but viral and bacterial diseases also damage or kill.

The effects of damping off tend to vary with temperature. Warm season plant seeds that need higher temperatures to germinate are especially susceptible to damping off.

Soil nutrients, particularly nitrogen, can have a dramatic effect on the types of plants that dominate. In revegetation seed mixtures that contain annual and perennial grasses, high soil nitrogen favors the faster growing annuals. The slower growing perennials do better when nitrogen levels are lower.

Biotic Factors

Competition for seeds and seedlings is reduced, but not eliminated, by creating a compatible seed mixture. Biotic influences on new plantings come from other living organismsplants and animals. Many birds and mammals earn their living eating seeds and plants that have survived germination.

Perhaps the greatest biotic threat is from weeds that suck up soil moisture and nutrients and crowd out young plants.

Other Environmental Factors

The soil, itself, to support new and sustained growth must contain adequate nutrients—both the major elements and the micronutrients, or trace elements. (See Soil Health, LEAF-let, May/June 99.)

The proper moisture level in the soil for germination is affected not only by irrigation or rainfall, but by local humidity and wind, which draws moisture from top layers of soil.

The soil must be loose enough to allow oxygen to reach roots while still remaining in good contact with seeds.

Plants which function on photosynthesis need light in the right intensity and duration. The color of light is important as well, with the red and blue ends of the spectrum being best.

Its a Hard-Knock Life

No pictures please, Paul Albright says with a grin. Unlike celebrities escaping the paparazzi, he's only thinking of his seeds. They have a tough enough time of it without being compared to some photographic ideal.

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