Hi Kimmie, I started my seeds in a soiless mix (I used perlite and pine barks). Just lay them flat and cover the seeds with 1/4" of the mix. I then water the mix and seeds thoroughly (not soggy wet) and place them outside in part shade. Since you are in Texas, you have warm temperature to your favor. Just make sure the seeds and mix don't dry out until you see them sprouted. Once the seeds are sprouted, I let the mix dry a bit more before watering again.

HTH. Good luck to you.

Kuan

I presoak mine in warm water for 8 hours or over night. I place them on their side in a regular well draining potting mix that's lightly moistened and cover the tray and keep them somewhere warm. Once they germinate I remove the cover. They sprout fast, usually within a week. If they aren't up in a reasonably short time the seeds are likely not viable. I keep the seedlings well watered and warm for a couple months but do transplant to individual pots when they have a couple sets of true leaves. I keep them in the same soil for a few more months before transplanting into a grittier potting mix.

Thanks Kuan for the Info. Just waiting for their arival now and setting things up.

I forgot to add that I only cover with about an 1/8 of an inch of the potting mix.

Thanks Karyn1 for the Info.
So we don't transplant them for how long?

They are surprisingly sturdy little seedlings and can probably handle transplnting as soon as the first set of true leaves emerge but I usually wait until I have a couple sets, maybe 6 weeks for the 1st transplant?

Thanks I'll keep that in mind..

I will be planting my first Adenium seed ever. Assuming correct culture is given, what kind of growth can one expect in the first year? Will they just sit there, growing rootage, or will the caudex start to form and grow?

I can't wait for my seeds to arrive.

Frank

Frank we are on the same boat Lol this will be my first time starting seed also. I'm waiting for the arrival and getting info on what can be use and how to perform this.
What to exspect from them also.

These pics may help, but please remember my climate is definitely not as good as many of yours in the US. We have less sun, more cloudy days, and lower temps than most of you do. These seedlings are all in 3inch diameter pots to give you some idea of scale.
Ad. arabicums, seeds sown 20/06/2011, pic taken in April this year.
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Ad. obesums, seeds sown July 2011, pic taken April 2012....ignore the little fellah, he's having a real struggle, but I haven't the heart to euthanase him just yet!!
Gill from the UK.

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meant to post these, but forgot....the 3 arabicums and one obesum at an earlier stage in their lives, pic taken on 4/8/2011
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the obesum seedlings taken on the same date, 4/8/2011
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Gill from the UK.

Wow they all look great. Can't wait to start mine. Thanks for sharing the photos.

Thanks Kim. They are strong as babies and young plants and grow quickly in their early mths, slowing down as they mature, so best to feed/water/keep warm and grow strongly when in this stage as older ones tend not to put on growth that much.
For Bronx Figs....I would add that really early on and well within less than a year you should be able to see what the general outcome as regards caudex shape a given seedling will reach.
Am I making sense, it's morning here and I'm not fully compus-mentus yet, need another coffee, lol!
OK, I'm off to work.
Gill from the UK.

Gill I like the shape of your seedlings much better then mine. Most of mine get much leggier, probably do to lower lighting. I don't think I have pics of any year old plants but most are about 6-8" with a much thinner stem and swelling at the base. I do have pics posted of 2 yr seedlings. The one with the odd foliage and the just pruned plants are all 2 yrs old.

Hi Karyn, mine are just growing steadily away on the south facing windowcills. Only when they are tiny do I place them close up under a light during the long winter evenings...and it's only a regular standard lamp as we call them, (US floor lamp maybe?) you know one that stands on the floor about 5 ft high, with a low energy bulb in. Whether it's of any benefit I don't really know, but I like to think it helped!! lol!! Our light levels are very low on average as we are prone to a lot of cloud cover unfortunately. Maybe this has something to do with why one plant budded 2 years in sucession, only to drop them before opening...any ideas? I only had one that was getting leggy and branchless so I soon stopped that in it's tracks. I have in theory it's a combination of lots of variables such as seed parentage/source/climate/ fertiliser/heat/growing medium as to what shapes we get.
Gill from the UK.

I saw a video on Youtube, and it appeared that the lady was sticking the seeds on end and pushing into the soil. I lay mine flat. Should they be put on end? Also, I am only having about a 60% success rate of growing them longer than one to two months. They either shrivel and die, or simply fall over with no root. Can anyone give me some pointers? Blessings, Stephen

Howdy Karyn and Gill,

Gill, I love your sprouts. They're nicely-shaped.

It's been years since I sowed Adenium seeds.
My method.

Various seeds came from Thailand.

I ordered a mini-green house that consisted of plastic base, clear, plastic dome w/vents, (vents opened and closed,) heating mat and 36 shallow, plastic containers.

Unfortunately, the dome didn't come with a light, nor would it hold one.
GH sat a few feet from south windows, under a lamp.

Containers didn't have drainage holes so I had to hand-drill. The first few cracked. After getting a feel for the drill, they remaining containers were successful.

I made a batch of medium using perlite, coarse sand, tiny pea pebbles, and very little black soil.

I pre-soaked the seeds, about 24-hours. Moistened and added SuperThrive, placed in containers, then in the gh. Vents were left open for air circulation.

It took about 8-months for seedlings to reach 1-4". Some germinated sooner.
I believe the heat mat sped up germination and growth.

I was told non-grafted Adeniums had problems. Disease, 'x' years before flowering, less hardy and prone to root rot.
I never should have listened. They ended up with a friend who killed each and every seedling.

Adeniums have the prettiest flower colors. One bloom looked black. Two others I like were purple and peach.
I wonder if colors in the pictures were true.

Maybe I'll try again. If it's not true ungrafted Adeniums don't have so many issues. Toni

From experience I can tell you pushing the seeds in on the ends and NOT laying them flat can cause issues. I had a few that I placed in the wrong way. The roots came out from the top and went down while the leaves had to push there way from the bottom (soil) to the top. It is hard to explain. I place all mine in a horizontal position now.

Hi Toni, so you love my sprouts eh?! That's a good conversation opening line!
Well all I can say is there are only 2 survivors of said sprouts (+3 of my original 4 older DR's) See the attached link to find out what happened to the bulk of my collection. ...hint, our holiday house sitter even tried to water a solid jade peach tree ornament and then wondered why the water flooded out of the pot as he said it 'looked' similar to the DR's!!!!!
Thanks to a good friend on here and a winning bid on Ebay, I have been able to replace them with some lovely strong growing seedlings that are doing just fine and dandy at the moment.
I'm not aware that non grafted DR's are particularly disease prone, or take that long to flower given good conditions.
'Root rot is more common in non grafts'...I have not heard that one either.
A lot of DR pics and especially on Ebay are photoshopped, named grafted hybrids are the best way to go from a reliable supplier. If you want a specific flower colour seeds do not always come true however much the seller tries to convnce you they will. Proven seeds from a reputable source will give a better percentage of certain flower colours, but even then you will not get 100% all the same, there will always be 'rogues'. Mr Ko is one that has been highly recommended on here a lot for a good %age coming true.
Gill from the UK.

Here is a link that might be useful: the 'unmentionable incident'

OOOOps!! forgot to mention....most of us suggest that 2-3 hrs is usually long enough to soak DR seeds, they are relatively soft and don't really need a long soak to plump them up...more chance of rotting them that way ;)
You may have been lucky Toni, but I forgot some when I first started growing them and left them for 12 hours and almost all rotted in a day or so.
Gill from the UK.

My adenium lotus seeds & super moon seeds just came today and I planted 1 each in same plastic seed starter container. It's big enough so once they sprout I'll move them to there own containers. I have them under grow lights, in the same seed tray with my arabica sprouts, and tea seeds. The small closet gets warm in there and this week there calling for 90'degree weather so AC will be on!! I was laughing because seeds look like dried rice, well the ones I have 4 each in a pack, thin, light brown, and cylindrical. I said which way is up or down to myself and just dropped the seeds on top of soil and watered. So glad I seen this forum Becasue that's exactly what y'all suggested. So I pray they grow and my barefoot white angel adenium is shipping seperately so I'll get that this week also. Keep us updated :))

Picture of the seeds that come in the mail from the online site and see it looks like dried rice lol

FYI lilce51286 I just got seeds from there a couple months ago (I picked them up though, I only live about a mile from there :) They had a great germination rate, I think all of them sprouted. It was my first try at growing from seeds though so I lost some due to my own learning curve mostly.

My advice to someone new is be careful before and when they first sprout, letting them dry out can be deadly, and be super careful if removing the seed sheath.....easy to manhandle them too much and pop their little heads off :(