Beginning the germination process!

I haven't really had time lately to take the skin off of my t. fortunei "Hayes Stiffie" seeds:

But when I opened the bag of seeds, I saw that some of them decided to germinate anyways 😆 :

Hi Cameron

Shut the front door! You just soaked these and they sprouted? How long . . . I tried growing T. Fortunei and it took 4+ months with the ziplock bag method.

Looks like I'm going to have to learn your Jubaea chilensis trick too!

Paul

Hi Paul,

Those seeds were already sprouted without me soaking them! I think the reason was because they were very fresh, Hayes shipped them to me the day after he harvested them.

Cameron.

haven't really had time lately to take the skin off of my t. fortunei

There's spare time between 2 and 3 a.m. 😆

Do you have a link for Hayes seeds?

I discovered a trick, but only for those NOT YET SPROUTED.
If you've got seeds that are hard to clean, i.e. a bunch of fruit still stuck to every seed, this'll work as it did for me.

Take an old (very old) pillowcase, place seeds inside, tie very tightly twice, then run in washing machine, heavy duty cycle, hot water.
Worked like a charm for my 50 big Wodyetia seeds.

Oh...and throw pillowcase away.

Paul, that baggie method is rendered useless with the de-lidding technique. 😀

Barb

Thanks for the tip! 😀

Barb I really need to learn more about this de-lidding, wow i'm so new to all of this.

I spent around an hour tonight arranging all of the containers by how much heat the seeds will need:

I've used up all of the room! And I still haven't set aside any space for the many euc seeds 😆

Hi Cameron,

keep the updates coming.....very interesting reading. I haven't started any seeds yet. I tend to start seeds indoors in late April so when they sprout I can keep them outside.

Looks like you'll need some more heat tape 😆

Thats a MUCH better use of that critter cage ( very bottom of last pic). People put gold fish and reptiles in them, and they are way to small for most ( except a betta)........ They would work great for germinating seeds ( FYI, most stores pay a dollar cost on them)

Thanks guys 😆

Canadianplant, I always knew that their cost on them was low, but I didnt know it was $1 !! At least pet stores provide them as an option, because in many cases I've seen betas confined to spaces slightly larger than a shot glass...

Ive always thought that cruel.... untill i realized betta live in shallow rice paddies, or small pools of water, with less then an inch of water 😯 But I agree, the fish wouldnt thrive, which is mean to the fish.. Man did I ever sell alot of those fish LOL

Too bad they charge us to much for them (at retail), they are very useful things to have..

You can buy little lights for them too..

need some more heat tape

And a sky hook so you can get around in there to tend them.

So where are the potted-up ones going to go? :laughing6:

I like the organized pre-labelling!
Good to see someone else who's "anal". 😉

Great work, Cameron!

Paul, we're all pretty amazed at what de-lidding can produce timewise.
If I recall, it started on a European Palm site by somebody trying it with very old seeds that had been expensive.
They were reluctant to throw them out and thought it couldn't hurt to try opening the seed coat a bit to allow water in.
And Cameron took it a step further with fresh seeds...why wait? And it worked.

Barb

Barb, I'm going to have to put all of the potted plants on the rest of the floor! Once this room is completely full, I'll have to move on to the basement! If I have many cold-hardy plants left over by the time next winter rolls around, I'll keep them under my deck, and cover them with leaves etc.

Wonderful dilemma Cameron! :thumbleft: