When you're building an airplane or a sky scraper or a highway
bridge, you'd better get the numbers right. It's the only way to rest easy when
factors we cannot control take over—earthquakes, storms, meteors, personal
injury lawyers. America runs on numbers, precise numbers, and it's the accuracy
of these numbers that keep us safe and strong and leading the world. Whether it
is a nuclear submarine or an eye surgery laser, effective design must consider
the numerical consequences—tensile strength, machine tolerances, internal
and external pressures, damage awards by sympathetic juries.
We love numbers, especially if we
happen to be of the engineering persuasion.
Then there are seeds—where the only sure numbers are when you count
them one by one. Doesn't do any good to know there are 15,000 seeds in the jar
unless there is a prize offered for the most accurate guess. Perhaps it is our
devotion to the numbers that gives us a level of comfort when we can specify "X"
or "Z" in a contract and then measure whether compliance has been
achieved.
Then there are seeds. Purity and germination numbers turn out to be only
approximations of what can be expected of a given lot of seed. Normal variation
in germination can run ten to fifty percent. Even careful controls cannot
guarantee how seeds will perform. Each seed represents an incredibly complex
biological system which can—without seeming reason—burst forth into a
healthy, beautiful plant or just sit there in complete disregard of contract
requirements and the legal profession.
Testing should help us weed out these
defiant ones but all testing can make us sure of is that consistent analysis is
an elusive goal, that resampling the lot will do little to allay frustration but
produce a lot more numbers.
A Solution
We'd like to see seed specifications
lean toward identifying the proper genus and specie for the location. Calling
for the right ecotypes—seeds that fit the soil and climate of a site—will
do more to assure success of the installation than anything else. Pure live seed
(PLS) count may be certifiable but until each plant has taken hold in the soil
of its new home, even live seed may not produce desired results. Contracts that
call for "industry standard" purity and germination will save money
and frustration—maybe legal bills too.
Read about Seeding and
Hydroseeding.
Choose from more articles from Albright Seed Company.
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