Often the weather may be
hurtful, especially during the earlier stages of the plants. I protected
my beds during several trials by covering them with glass for a few
weeks, until the young plants reached the glass covering. I got a normal
number of full crowns, some 55%, at a time [397] when the weather was so
bad as to reduce the number in the control experiments to 10%.
It would be quite superfluous to give more details or to describe
additional experiments. Suffice to say, that the results all point in
the same direction, and that pistillody of the poppies always clearly
responds to the treatment, especially to external conditions during the
first few weeks, that is, during the period of sensitiveness. The
healthier and the stronger the plants the more fully they will develop
their anomaly.
In conclusion something is to be said about the choice of the seed.
Obviously it is possible to compare seeds of different origin by sowing
and treating them in the same way, giving attention to all the points
above mentioned. In doing so the first question will be, whether there
is a difference between the seeds of strong plants with a bright crown
around the head and those of weaker individuals with lesser development
of the anomaly. It is evident that such a difference must be expected,
since the nutrition of the seed takes place during the period of the
greatest sensitiveness.
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