Hoodia gordonii seeds

[faslimy]

Has anyone grown from these before? They are 6mm long, brown and flat.

I need some advice on how to sow.

[Rev]

They are easy but i would recommend waiting till about november when its getting hot

they germiante within days and shoot up to a considerable size in the water leaf/dicot stage

And they are fast growing too - much fatsre than any cacti seedlings ive grown

Like cactus they like it warm and moist to germinate and for a while after but then they like the humidity to drop off

It seems they are more tolerant of moist roots than of humidity clinging to their skin

I used pure riversand and planted the seeds into a tray with a humidity dome and sat this in a tray

I kept it quite moist for the 2 maonths it took them to get past the sedling leaves and into adult veg

then i took off the dome but kept them moist until the cooler more humid weather started and i let them dry off completley

they wont get any more water from me till it gets hot again

shitty photos but teh lights bad

[ 15. May 2005, 08:56: Message edited by: Rev ]

[caludia]

nice Rev

[faslimy]

The young ones look quite fragile perched on the cotyledons. If they are sown flat on the surface of the soil is what I need to know. Perhaps if I posted a picture of the seeds we could postulate which end the root would emerge, then I could slightly bury that end of the seed for efficient germination.

[Andrew]

I know this may sound silly to some but if I,m unsure of which way up a seed prefers I,ll drop it from a metre or so and see which way it falls.Hopefully if the seed is one that matures on the tree and falls when ready this can give a hint as to its preferred orientation.Of course this is,nt going to work with everything but the idea is to try to copy what happens naturally ie. winged seeds will fall a certain way,usually wing up.

[Pisgah]

These seeds are a no-brainer. Here's what I did:

Sprinkle seeds on top of a coarse sand/peat mixture in pots resting on a heat mat inside a humidity dome.

Mist them with a sprayer.

Watch the seeds pop open. The root end pops out of the side, close to end where the the inside ridge is closest to the outer edge of the seed.

If the seedlings look a little spindly, some more coarse sand built up around the plant isn't going to hurt.

[smogs]

i only ended up with 1 outa 5 seeds! but that 1 is goin strong... i think the seeds were a bit old

no real trick just treat it like a cacti.