Saturday, November 26, 2011

Starting Adenium aka Desert Rose from seed

The Desert rose is one of my favorite plants to grow and I recently had quit a hard time getting my seeds to germinate. I think it is do to the fact it is winter time and just plain colder now. Even though I have an indoor plant room there is still a lot of difference between summer and winter sowing of seed as I am learning. So a kind man on an adenium group I am on suggested I use the 'paper towel method' to sprout my seeds.
He detailed it out for me and I tried it and it works wonderful and the germination rate is very good using this method.  So I am now going to take you step by step through this method of germinating Desert rose seeds! And I hope you have as much fun and success with it as I have.

The first step is choosing a nice plastic container with a lid to make into you germination container. I like to use empty salad mix containers from the grocery store. They are light weight plastic that have a nice tight fitting lid. And they are a clear see through plastic so I can see the progress of the seeds as time goes on.
 So once you have your plastic container then we take a sheet of paper towel and fold it in half and place it in the bottom of your container. Then place the seeds on the bottom half of the paper towel. At this point I spray the seeds down with water to hold the to the paper towel, then fold the top half over them and spray the top getting it nice and moist but not dripping wet. Place the lid on the container. Dont forget to label what seeds you are germinating and the date you placed them in the paper towel.

I place my seed in rows so that I can label my container easy on the front as to what seeds I am germinating. I also make a note of how many of each variety of seeds and will later note how many germinated successfully.I want to also note here that you will need to spray the paper towel a couple times a day to keep it nice and moist. So check it ever few hours to see that it does not dry out and DO NOT place t in the sun.
As the seeds sprout they will lift the paper towel and you will see bulges under the paper towel. Go ahead and lift the paper towel and take a peek, you will find nice sprouts growing.

I let mine grow till i see a nice green color then I simply gently pinch the seed case and it come right off exposing the flat first leaves that will open up in a few days. These are now ready for planting, but be careful they grow roots into the paper towel so you need to cut the paper towel around the roots and plant that tiny piece of paper towel along with the seedling. Be sure to bury the paper towel with the root in it, but be very gentle, these tykes are fragile..This one in the next 3 pictures is actually a couple days younger then I like to plant them now, I let them grow a little more in the paper towel and get a bit greener before planting.


And now it is just time to wait for the little plant to grow. Be sure that your seedlings get very strong bright light and stay warm! And do not let them dry out at this age. Enjoy the journey:)

14 comments:

  1. Many thanks for this.
    I have just used a small variation on this method - I germinated my seeds on a moist bed of sterile vermiculite, covered with 1 sheet of tissue. This allowed me to simply pick up the germinating seed, squeeze off the husk and transfer to a waiting 100 mm pot of sterilised (microwaved 30 mins) 50:50 mix of good compost/coarse sand. I am covering these pots with half of a 2 liter clear PET disposable bottle which is a snug fit for the pot - I keep the top on so I get two recycled mini-cloches from each bottle. The two Adenium seedlings so far are sitting on my S facing windowsill for maximum light, with the heating turned pretty much full up. I can water and liquid feed via the saucer with no need to remove the cloche

    I started 23 seeds on Dec 23 so I am hoping to be totally embarrassed by my need for old pop bottles in the coming days!

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  2. Do you have any seeds available? I would love to try! I have some seeds I could trade maybe if interested. Thanks!
    magnolia0328@gmail.com

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  3. common water you used?tap????????????????or distilled water used.
    what is the best substrate that you used, amount of each????can help me with this
    my email and ativosctbadisponivel@hotmail.com
    thank..........

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    1. Hey there...I used filtered water, I have a brita pitcher I use to make filtered water for my plants.
      I use a mix of aquarium gravel, coir and perlite equal parts each.

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  4. Hi there!


    Thanks for the instructions. I found this blog article particularly useful to kickstart germination of my adenium seeds after an unsuccessful attempt. Now, i am having like 20 of them potted and are loving the shine of the day in my balcony.

    Thanks again! :-)

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    1. I am very glad this helped you! i love this method, i have the most success with germination this way.

      Happy growing!

      Mary

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  5. You did an amazing job on your tutorial lesson for planting Desert Rose Seeds. I've never ran across any instructions and photo's to show each and every step of the way like I have here. Now I am all excited and wanting to start me some seeds ASAP~! One thing I didn't see you mention or maybe you did, but can you tell me about how long it takes for the seed to sprout?

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  6. The seeds will start sprouting within a week..some just a few days..and others can take up to 2 weeks...but most within a week. Thank you for the nice comments.

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  7. Can you clarify for me if they are potted once you pinch off the seed pod, or do you return to the paper towel and wait for the first leaves to open before planting?

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  8. Thanks for this great tip. Will have to give it a go.

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  9. Dont know how to growing rose from seed.waiting for 3months but never seen any sprout.I put in the soil directly like what seeds supplier told me..very bad...so now will try your toturial.tqvm.

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  10. Dont know how to growing rose from seed.waiting for 3months but never seen any sprout.I put in the soil directly like what seeds supplier told me..very bad...so now will try your toturial.tqvm.

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  11. Dont know how to growing rose from seed.waiting for 3months but never seen any sprout.I put in the soil directly like what seeds supplier told me..very bad...so now will try your toturial.tqvm.

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  12. Wonderful tutorial. Thank you. They are just beginning to sprout!!

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