Subject: Re: Growing Cattails from Seed

From: [email-masked] (John Pedlow)
Date: Fri, 9 Dec 1994 19:02:12 GMT

In article <[email-masked]>
[email-masked] (Deborah Pearce) writes:
 
>>        I know this seems like a stupid question, what with the acres of
>>cattails that one finds in every marsh, but I have a variegated version of
>>cattail that produced two "tails" this year and I'd like to get more of them.
>>        I pulled one of the tails apart and all I see is fluff. If there are
>>seeds there, they must be extremely small. Assuming I have seed, how should
>>I germinate them? Just float them on water? Sow into a pot sitting in water?
>>Use regular potting soil?
>>        Any suggestions would be appreciated.
 
i collected cattail fluff in march/april (following a buffalo, ny winter)
and spread it as thinly as possible on the surface of vermiculite, dirt
and sand in a container which was in another container of water (to keep
it constantly wet).  i then sprinkled a few grains of (dry) sand on top
in case the seed required covering.  and then i sprinkled some additional
fluff on top of that (very sparsly) -- in case the seed didn't want to
be covered.  the cottage cheese container with the seed was then placed
6" under "everyday" florescent lights (with pepper and tomato seeds/
seedlings).  i seem to recall it took about a month for grass-like shoots
to appear.  then another month for them to attain any kind of size at all.
i transplanted the entire container into the garden (where i have cattails
growing).  unfortunately this clump of seedlings died during a dry spell
(i forgot to water them).  they were s-l-o-w growing... probably would
have preferred a swampy area in which to develop.  i only did this as a
lark to learn if the fluff would germinate.  it did, so i was happy.
john pedlow   in buffalo, ny        tksjohn at ubvm.cc.buffalo.edu

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From: [email-masked] (Gerald W. Roe)
Date: 9 Dec 1994 06:51:58 GMT

But if what you want is the variegation, you don't want to 
propagate via seeds; you want to propagate asexually in order to
get exactly the characteristics of the mother plant. Sex is about
mixing up traits. Pull the variegated shoot, with some roots on 
it, apart fromthe rest of the plant and let it grow by itself, 
dividing it whenever it gets big enough. Cut off all green, that
is, non-variegated shoots. Pray a lot. I recently saw a discussion
of variegation, and I'll try to  remember where.
-- 
Gerry Roe    Trans-Pacific Nursery    Rare & Exotic Plants
Email catalog available.    [email-masked]