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sbrow156

My seedlings

sbrow156
11 years ago

Hi everyone!
As i have mentioned in various other posts my red (dark pink really) flowered plant made two seed pods. They have now matured and i have the seeds. The first pod opened and i didnt realise and lost half the seeds around the yard but i found a few and i have all of them from the second pod so I had about 40 maybe? i dont know i didnt actually count them but anyway i planted them yesterday in a big polystyrene box hubby got from work. (with holes poked in the bottom for drainage of course :) ) Anyway i know there are probably many ways to plant them but the way i was told from a grower here in cairns is to leave the fluffy bits on and to scatter them over the soil and then cover them and water. So thats what ive done. We will see how this method turns out because im not about to dig them up lol. Here are some pics.... I will continue to upload to this thread with my progress with them. Hope you all enjoy. This is a very exciting and new experience for me :)

Sarah

First pic : seeds sitting in an empty pot ready to plant

Comments (38)

  • sbrow156
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    Second Pic: seeds ready to be covered

  • sbrow156
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    Third pic: Seeds covered and watered all ready to grow

  • kodom087 z9a
    11 years ago

    Good luck with the seeds! I know I've been having fun watching mine grow.

    Kirk

  • greenclaws UK, Zone 8a
    11 years ago

    I find it's always a good feeling to see the first one sprout. It amazes me as to what comes out of such a small seed, the newly emerged baby plants seem huge in comparison! Hope to see your follow up pics of a box full of babies real soon....good luck!
    Gill from the UK.

  • sbrow156
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    Follow up on seedlings :D

    I now have a ton of new babies!!! :D

    First pic is of the first 3 to sprout...it was 2 or 3 days after i planted them. I was so proud!

  • sbrow156
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    This pic was of them a week later....lots more have sprouted! about 3 or 4 a day were turning up :O

  • sbrow156
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    This was this morning...so thats about a week and a half after planting the seeds....there was about 3 or 4 less then this yesterday...more are popping up every day! :D

  • sbrow156
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    You can see some albino ones here...they are kinda wierd and that makes me like them but i have heard they usually dont survive? is that true? i dont want to let myself love them and have my heart broken if they die? :(

  • greenclaws UK, Zone 8a
    11 years ago

    Wow, you're gonna be real busy with all those babies!lol! Usually true albinos of any plant species do not thrive, it's a fact. They lack the chlorophyll so do not grow on very much if at all. I had one, once, it grew a couple of leves and then withered away. That said, with all those little 'uns, look out for a variegated one, it would be stronger than an albino.
    Hope you don't mind me commenting but...the soil level looks rather low down in the box, make sure they don't get too drawn towards the light source. Once they get 'etiolated' they may never go on to make a strong chunky plant which is what DR's are all about IMO. To save up-rooting them all now, if you decide to do something about this, (raising the soil is obviously not possible) however, as the box is polystyrene you could slice a few inches off the sides to leave it about an inch above the soil. Just a thought which may help you (and the babies)out ;D
    Gill from the UK.

    This post was edited by greenclaws on Thu, Jan 17, 13 at 19:04

  • sbrow156
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    Ah yes thats a good idea....i will see how they go...at the moment they are right on the edge of the patio so they have alot of sun during the day...i was worried they might even have too much :S

  • MRI_Guy
    11 years ago

    Gill - you are a wealth of information and I enjoy reading your posts!

  • sbrow156
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    Was away in melbourne for a week and a bit and just got back and look at my seedlings now! the albino ones died off :( but the rest are looking good! :D

  • greenclaws UK, Zone 8a
    11 years ago

    Well don't they look good, all very green and healthy, just shows you what a bit of Ozzie sun can do!!
    Gill from the UK.

  • Neysa
    11 years ago

    That must be so much fun to watch all your babies develop over time. Thanks for sharing your pictures of them developing. Please post more when you can.
    Neysa

  • sbrow156
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    Babies are getting alot bigger now! but some of them are getting white leaves....im afraid they might not survive like the original albino plants that unfortunately died. What do you all think?

  • rcharles_gw (Canada)
    11 years ago

    If they started with green and are getting some white on leaves that just might mean that you are going to have some variegated plants. Sometimes they do not retain them as they grow older, but they might and that is good.
    Many feel that the more white variegated do not take the intense full sun that plain green leaf plants can take. Just do not have them in the hottest hours of sunlight during the day.
    Nice growing,
    Rick

  • Marie Tran
    11 years ago

    Sarah, they are looking great...if 90% babies desert rose survive, you good.

    By the way, I am going to visit Australia next week for 3 weeks and will be in Cairns for few days.

    Marie

  • sbrow156
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    Oh thats great Marie! Are you going to be doing any touristy things while you are here? You could check out the botanical gardens or go on the skyrail or train up to kuranda or go to one of the couple of animal zoo exhibits. There is tons to do! :)

  • greenclaws UK, Zone 8a
    11 years ago

    Hi Sarah, just wondered how the Qld seedling forest is progressing, are the green/white ones still alive? I hope so as variegated ones are quite special really. Time for some more pics maybe!
    Just been checking your weather, seems rather on the warm side at 86F (says it 'feels' like 95F though, how can they say that, it's either one or the other surely???), but it's just right for your Adeniums and should give you some really speedy growth. It's 35F here, sigh. Love Cairns by the way, has special memories for me.
    Gill from the UK.

  • sbrow156
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    Hi everyone! Heres an update on the seedlings...they are getting bigger and bigger....Gill, the white leaves all seem to have died off..,..the plants are still alive and some are sprouting new green leaves above where the white died off...hmmm....well that was a strange experience i must say. Anyway the pic is abit blurry but here we go....also what they mean by it is 30degrees but feels like 35 is that we have alot of humididty here. For example my dad and other members of my family live in melbourne. They are always saying "Ohhhh its 38degrees today! its SOOOO hot!" Well i went down there recently and there was a 38 degree day and in the sun there was still a cool breeze and i still had to put a cardigan on because of that breeze. They dont have the humidity that we have up here. There a 38 degree day felt like a 29 degree day here in cairns. When i got back from melbourne though we had some VERY hot weather. The hottest I think i have ever experienced here. It was 38.5 degrees one day and with our humidity it felt like 45! We thought we were going to melt or die or something! thank god i spend most of the day in aircon at work. Anyway yes has cooled down back to 30 now so good weather for adeniums :)

  • greenclaws UK, Zone 8a
    11 years ago

    Things are looking good there, it will soon be time to give each one a pot of its own befor they get too tangled up. Just keep them in a fast draining gritty mix and all will be well.
    BTW, it's currently -1c here, wish I was back in Oz again whatever the humidity! Darwin was 40c plus 95%humidity when we were there in Nov, even the locals were complaining!!
    Gill from the UK.

  • sbrow156
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Thought i better update everyone on my seedlings. I see alot of people are growing seedlings at the moment. Its so fun isnt it! :D anyway I repotted them into little plastic cups. I pinched a couple of the bigger ones to see if they would branch out. only one so far has made one side branch so i will wait abit longer before i do some more pinching on the others i think. One has made branches down lower all on its own. I rather like that one :) There are some runts which almost died off but now seem to be branching off from the died bit. They are very small though and in a separate pot which i forgot to photograph. I dont know how well they will go. I also started some seeds sent to me from another member here. God i cant think of his name right now. Im so sorry. But he sent me some pinks and some black beauty or some different sounding like that. The different ones are all really small with bits of white on the leaves. I have them also in another pot. I will take a picture of these two pots later. I dont know how these ones will go either but im hoping they will be ok. Anyway heres an updated pic.

  • sbrow156
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    oh i just realised u can just see a couple of the runts in a pot on the left there...anyway thought id upload this as well. Its a pic of my pruned red and black grafted plant. Pushing out some new branches :)

  • kodom087 z9a
    10 years ago

    They're looking great! Good job!

    Kirk

  • divij
    10 years ago

    hello people im new and cant figure out how to ost a new message......
    Wanted to check from where does the adenium plant gives seeds ???

  • greenclaws UK, Zone 8a
    10 years ago

    Divij, hello there and welcome to the forum, I hope you enjoy it here!!!
    To post a new message....just hop over to the forum home page, you know, where the list of 'thread titles' is listed, scroll down, and down, and down till you get to another section where you can do a 'search', then under that is the 'post a message to the forum' section...that's the bit you need...any probs come back again.
    About the seeds, they are produced in a long, thin, double, horn like seed pod...same as a plumeria/frangipani seed pod if you know what they look like.
    Gill, UK.

    Here is a link that might be useful: pod thread

  • ladylotus
    10 years ago

    Sbrow,

    Your little seedlings are really putting on some nice growth. Great job on growing the on. Did any of your seedlings remain variegated?

  • sbrow156
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    No the white leaves died off and some of those then became the ones I called runts as they are small and not growing much (I will upload a pic later) and some kept growing green leaves and are in this lot in the pic above. The black beauty or whatever they were seedling that someone sent me are kind of a mix of white and green on the leaves and not growing very fast. I will take a pic of them too.

  • sbrow156
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    sorry for taking so long with an update but not much has happened to the seedlings since my last one. The majority will be finding new homes at a school fete on the 3rd of august. i am keeping 5 for myself and friends. After several attempts at pinching them a few tried to push out more branches but they died off or stopped growing soon after. hopefully some people will give them some loving homes :)

  • sbrow156
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    also heres an updated to the vegregated seedlings...only one survived and it dropped all its leaves and is quite small (runt) the other ones in this pic are the black beauty seedlings that survived. They are also small and dont grow fast or very much at all...i dont have very much hope for them....but we'll see i guess...the other plant in the pot is some type of succulent thing my mum said...we found it down by the lake..

  • sam401
    10 years ago

    hi sbrow156! I'm new to growing Adeniums and I also live in cairns. I'm going to try my hand at growing some desert rose seeds.
    I was wondering what potting mix you used? was it a general seed raising mix or can you get a well draining variety specific for cactus type plants?
    I can't wait to get started. .... Not sure if I'm going to have much luck with all this rain we're having at the moment though.

  • sbrow156
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    I planted mine around this time of year they should be fine just keep them undercover but still in a fairly lit spot. You want them to get sun if possible....i just used normal plant soil...which isnt optimal. I use cactus soil with all my bigger adeniums. I also only water them once a week. With the seedlings they like more water as they are young and growing so i found they didnt mind the normal potting mix. I also watered them about once a week or more if the soil felt abit dry. good luck! and keep us posted :)

  • greenclaws UK, Zone 8a
    10 years ago

    Hi Sam401, welcome to the forum, good to see another new face here! Hope you get some good info from the good ppl on here...you will, I know that! As Sarah pointed out, DR's love fast draining mixes, but seeds and very young ones like it to stay fairly moist. Do a search using the search box on here for seed sowing, tons of info for you...any probs come back again, we like to help.

    Sarah, great to 'see' you again...how is the Qld DR forest coming along these days? Are they all surviving...hope so! Post some updated pics if you can, you know how we all love to see pics :))

    Gill UK

  • sam401
    10 years ago

    Thank you!
    I have found HEAPS of helpful information on this site, it's been awesome! I ended up planting my seeds last week in regular seed raising mix. Nearly all the seeds sprouted after 2 days, I even have twins! They're so cute..... not sure weather to separate them or just leave them for now though.... I want to give all of my adeniums some liquid fertilizer, can anyone recommend a good one? I have seasol powerfeed, is that ok th use on them?
    Thanks
    Sam.

  • ladylotus
    10 years ago

    Sam,

    If I had twins I would leave them as I would be interested to see how their roots/caudex work together to perform something spectacular.

    As far as feeding I would use 1/2 strength for any fertilizer you chose. I will let others answer which ones they use as I've used so many different varieties and the results seem the same to me.

    Also, I'm not sure what your weather is like but it is cold, with less sun here, so my adeniums have gone into a dormant phase. I won't water them much OR fertilize them again until early spring when I start seeing them begin to wake up.

  • sam401
    10 years ago

    Hi ladylotus.

    We're in our summer/ wet season. Its hot and humid. We only have VERY mild winters here, it'll probably get down to about 10-15degrees Celsius on the coldest night and winter is very short. So I dont think my adenium has had a chance to go dormant in the 5 years I've had it. I usuall water my big plant every second day, when the soil is dry.

    As for my twins, I think I will leave them to see what mother nature has planned for them, I cant wait! They're all so cute already!

  • ladylotus
    10 years ago

    aaawww, you have some really wonderful weather for adeniums. I hope they do well for you and I'm glad you are leaving your twins. I will look forward to seeing a photo of them.

  • sbrow156
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Hi Gill and others :) DR's are going good. i have 4 big ones now (a dark pink, a light pink, a pink white and a medium pink), 2 smaller ones (my original which still has not bloomed and my red black one), also one i am trying to reroot after alot of rot (a friend from work found it in her garden when she moved house) and i kept 6 or 7 of the little seedlings...the rest found homes at a school fete a few months ago. The black beauties and the vegregated seedlings died...the seedlings i kept dont seem to have gotten much bigger but we did just have our couple months of cold weather...they do seem to be trying to push out new branches though. I will give some to my mother and mother in law and then keep 3 or 4 myself :) Will uploaded some pictures at some stage...have been busy lately at work and now with the end of the year and i started a new hobby! roller derby! its alot of fun! but practices are 2 times a week so its taking up abit of my time but all good :)