Just an update, I'm alive and well. And how does my garden grow? With silver bells and cockle shells and pretty MAIDS all in a row. Had a few hermies, but again about 90% were female again this year.

My theory is the colchicine applied to newly sprouted seedlings stress them in a way that makes them switch on the genes to develop into female adults.


Since colchicine is an alkaloid, it degrades with exposure
to sunlight and weather. Only a tiny fraction of a single
pill is actually applied to each seedling. The chances of any
residual colchicine in the harvested material is almost nil.

(your mileage may vary)