Link to pdfs of Dr. Denos seed germination books.

[Weiser]

These links to Dr Deno's "Seed Germination: Theory and Practice" and the two supplemental books are free downloads at the USDA National Agriculture Library online site. I know this book is out of print and nearly impossible to find. I hope this information is useful.

Title: Seed germination, theory and practice.
http://ddr.nal.usda.gov/dspace/bitstream/10113/41278/1/CAT10633450.pdf

Title: First supplement to the second edition of Seed germination theory and practice.
http://ddr.nal.usda.gov/dspace/bitstream/10113/41279/1/CAT30988245.pdf

Title: Second supplement to Seed germination theory and practice.
http://ddr.nal.usda.gov/dspace/bitstream/10113/41277/1/CAT30988246.pdf

The web sight might sometimes be down for maintenance, if so check back later.
MMcD: web site is working now, tested on Monday, 10-25-2010

[McDonough]

This is a excellent resource, thanks for posting this John!

I don't have the book, always wanted a copy, so its fantastic that it is now freely available online.  I edited you alert regarding the site being down, as it is working now.  Because of the importance of this topic, I am setting it to be a "sticky topic", a NARGS Forum term which means to pin the topic so that it always appears at the top of the Propagation topic.

[Weiser]

Mark
You are welcome.

[Mary Ann and Chuck Ulmann]

Has anybody told Norm that his handbooks are up on the USDA site and that the links are posted in the NARGS forum?  I'm sure he would get a kick out of it!

[Weiser]

Mary and Chuck

I do not know Dr. Deno personally, it would be a pleasure to meet him. Please pass the word along to him with all of our thanks for writing such good references. I use them all the time.

[Lori S.]

Me too!  Thanks to Dr. Deno for an essential reference and completely fascinating reading!

[Chris Chadwell]

I have had the good fortune to meet Professor Norm Deno on a couple of occasions.  Firstly, he arranged for me to give a talk to the Department of Horticulture, when visiting a cousin who was then Professor of Material Science at State College, PA (who played an integral part in the development of ultrasound equipment) during a lecture-tour in the mid-1980s.  Secondly, I was driven across from Philadelphia, whilst being hosted by Joyce Fingerut in 1990.

Whenever I cover cultivation in my lectures I state that his books should be required reading for anyone taking a serious interest in seed germination.  I learnt a lot from his seed germination experiments approached from the perspective of a chemist. Cannot be read from "cover to cover" at one go - even for those with a Scientific background but are well worth "dipping" into on a regular basis and persevering with, even if they appear "heavy going" initially.  Full of gems of wisdom - and amusing comments about us botanists!

I regularly draw attention to his recommendation that the word "stratification" be abandoned and that it is not a period of "freezing" but "chilling" which some seeds require - most species from the Himalaya (at least after a period of dry storage) have no such "chilling" requirement and can be sown in Spring or early summer with perfectly good rates of germination.