Progress with the Conversion Effort

Hello Daylily Friends,


On Friday, January 23, 2009, I reported that I had treated a number of daylilies, and I said in my blog on that date, that I would periodically review the progress that was being made. Today is Wednesday, February 4, 2009, and this seems to be a good opportunity to review the progress. So, I took pictures of both daylilies. The first picture is of Seedling One, and the second picture is of Seedling Two. Seedling One was treated once a day for three consecutive days. This was basically an experiment to see what would happen with treatment being administered once a day. Seedling Two was an entirely different process.

Seedling Two did not absorb the Colchicine on the first day that it was treated, which was on Monday, January 19, 2009. So, on the morning of January 20, 2009, I removed all of the Colchicine that had been applied on January 19, I then again gently cut the plant using my pin knife, and I retreated the plant. Then, same thing happened again. That is, the plant did not accept the Colchicine that was applied on January 20, 2009. So, on January 21, I removed all of the Colchicine, I again gently cut the plant using my pin knife, and for the second time, I retreated the plant. Fortunately, on the morning of January 22, 2009, I could see that part of the Colchicine was absorbed by Seedling Two. This was encouraging. Even though there had been some absorbtion on January 21, I went ahead on the morning of January 22, and removed the Colchicine that remained, again gently trimmed the plant, and retreated.

On the morning of January 23, 2009, I could again see that not much of the Colchicine had been absorbed. This time I cleaned the plant, removing all Colchicine, and I took my pin knife and cut across the middle of the "growing tip." I did this to try to help Seedling Two absorb the Colchicine. It is my recollection that I again treated Seedling Two on January 24 and January 25, 2009. I am not precisely sure that I retreated on January 24 and 25 because I did not write this in my notebook.

It seems interesting that in the first picture above, of Seedling One, there is not that much of a split in the foilage material. With Seedling Two, there is considerable splitting. I do not know what this might mean because I have had different results with different appearing plants. We will just have to wait and see what types of pollen are produced assuming that both plants survive this treatment process.

Well, speaking about my notebook, you might ask, what notebook are you writing about? I normally make notes when I treat a daylily so that I will know what

I have done as I have gone through the treatment process. If you do not keep good notes, then you may forget just as I have forgotten about January 24 and 25. Two pictures from my notebook are attached hereto.

At this point you might also now ask about the "schedule of treatment" with Colchicine. The classic pattern is to treat three times a day for three consecutive days. I have been successful following this schedule, but I have also KILLED more plants than I can remember. I have heard that others working with Colchicine have gone to one treatment per day for three consecutive days. I have also heard that some apply Colchicine once on the first day, and then treat twice a day for the next two days. These new patterns seem as though they make better sense. One reason that fewer treatments may be more successful is that some, like myself, are cutting the daylilies closer to the growing tip. The closer we are to the growing tip, it would seem that less Colchicine would be needed.

Another point I would make is about the size of bottles I am using. On January 23, I mentioned a 400 milliliter bottle, and a 200 milliliter bottle. I also mentioned using a one milliliter device to apply DMSO. Finally, I mentioned an "eyedropper" type device that is used to apply the Colchicine to the plants being treated. Pictures of these items are attached.

Bill