January 5, 2003, we started Victoria seeds "on purpose". We have had some sprout on their own, not included in these numbers but they will be part of our germination summary at the end of the sprouting season.

Our sprouting setup is a five gallon aquarium half full of city water, a 150 watt submersible heater set at 86F, a small airstone to aid in keeping the water temperature even, a thermometer and a hinged glass lid to slow evaporation loss, all in a sunny window.

Our kitchen counter doubles as the room temperature (76F) storage area for current year's seeds and the place where we make up orders to be sent out. On this day we were pulling out seeds to start ourselves. We only open one jar at a time and only work on one order at a time to avoid possible mixups!

Seeds are placed in labeled zip-lock bags about half full of water. They can each be weighted with a marble to keep them on end. In our case we have started enough that they are wedged in the aquarium on end. We keep them more or less in order to make record keeping easier.

We started 480 seeds, 20 of each lot that we have been sending out, 10 of each nicked and 10 not nicked. If you want to follow our progress, we will post it below. We plan to check the seeds every second day for sprouts and, at the end of three weeks, will renick those unsprouted among the nicked lots. We will also consider nicking those not nicked at the start.

Variety	Seeds	Lot Number	Start Date	Nick Date	1/8	1/10	1/12	1/14	1/16	1/18	1/20	1/22	1/24	Total	Pg2
'Adventure'
	10	03H01	1/5	1/5											10>
	10	03H01	1/5												10>
	10	03H02	1/5	1/5							1			1	9>
	10	03H02	1/5												10>
	10	03H07	1/5	1/5			1							1	9>
	10	03H07	1/5												10>
amazonica
	10	02A13	1/5	1/5			1	2						3	7>
	10	02A13	1/5												10>
	10	03A11	1/5	1/5		1	3	1						5	5>
	10	03A11	1/5				2			1	1			4	6>
	10	03A12	1/5	1/5				2						2	8>
	10	03A12	1/5												10>
	10	03A17	1/5	1/5		2	1							3	7>
	10	03A17	1/5				2							2	8>
	10	03A19RK	1/5	1/5											10>
	10	03A21	1/5	1/5		3		2	1		2			8	2>
	10	03A21	1/5			2	1						1	4	6>
cruziana
	10	02C35-60F	1/5	1/5											10>
	10	02C35-60F	1/5												10>
	10	02C35-76F	1/5	1/5				2						2	8>
	10	02C35-76F	1/5												10>
	10	03C34	1/5	1/5	1	2	2							5	5>
	10	03C34	1/5												10>
	10	03C36	1/5	1/5								1		1	9>
	10	03C36	1/5												10>
	10	03C40AL	1/5												10>
	10	03C43	1/5	1/5		2						1		3	7>
	10	03C43	1/5												10>
	10	03C44	1/5	1/5		4								4	6>
	10	03C44	1/5												10>
'Longwood Hybrid'
	10	03L51	1/5	1/5		6	2	2						10
	10	03L51	1/5			5	3	1						9	1>
	10	03L52	1/5	1/5		3	1			1	2		1	8	2>
	10	03L52	1/5				1							1	9>
	10	03L57	1/5	1/5		8	1							9	1>
	10	03L57	1/5			3	3							6	4>
'Atlantis'
	10	03HXA61	1/5	1/5		1				1			1	3	7>
	10	03HXA61	1/5												10>
	10	03HXA62	1/5	1/5		1	3		1	1				6	4>
	10	03HXA62	1/5												10>
'Challenger'
	10	03LXC63	1/5	1/5		1				1				2	8>
	10	03LXC63	1/5												10>
'Columbia'
	10	03HXC65	1/5	1/5			1	1		1			1	4	6>
	10	03HXC65	1/5												10>
'Discovery'
	10	03LXA67	1/5	1/5		4		1				1	1	7	3>
	10	03LXA67	1/5												10>
	10	03LXA69	1/5	1/5		5			2	1				8	2>
	10	03LXA69	1/5						1					1	9>

Sprouted seeds are transferred to other labeled, dated bags and moved to the 85F outdoor tank. When they have two hastate leaves and roots, they will be planted in 3 ounce plastic cups of sand. Not all sprouts develop properly from the initial nubs and those will be reported in our summary.

Results from George McKay, Anna Maria, Florida as of 1/15/03 Seeds started about 11/1/02 at 85F, none nicked
03H02 - 0/20	03C34 - 0/20	03HXA61 - 15/20	03HXC65 - 0/20
03A17 - 13/20	03L52 - 19/20	03LXC63 - 0/20	03LXA67 - 17/20

Some notes before we move on to Page 2: Nicked seeds were "renicked", the scalpel tip gently run around the opening January 24. We decided not to nick those not nicked at the start to see further comparisons. We will continue to check the seeds every other day and report the results on Page 2.

We should mention that some lots have required storage at 60F because they were sprouting too well spontaneously at 76F. These include 03C33, 03C34, 03C43, 03L51, 03L52, 03L54, all 'Atlantis' and all 'Discovery'. 'Challenger' and 'Columbia' have sprouted more at 76F than in previous years, amazonica less and 'Adventure' (as usual) almost not at all.