Where are the Shea seedlings?

It's been a couple of weeks now since the sprouted Shea seeds were potted up, and there's no sign of life as yet. It's difficult to tell sometimes if seeds are just taking a while to sprout or whether they've rotted off. It's even more difficult given that I'm still in the territory of the fairly unknown in terms of compost and water requirements with these exotic seeds. So the waiting game continues with the Shea for now.

In the meantime I've planted up some of the Dawadawa and Tamarind seeds that arrived from Africa with Philip. They were given about six hours to soak this time, as the germination of the last sets of seeds seemed to be most successful after 5 hours in hot water. When I opened the flask and poured out the seeds the Tamarind seeds had gone really slimy! They had quite a bit of stringly, clear slime with reddish bits in around some of the seeds. Now if they'd been in to soak for 24 hours or more it would be more understandable as the seeds would risk rotting and breaking down, but is that what's happened after just 6 hours? I guess the only way to find out its to plant them anyway and see what happens, which is exactly what I did. I've planted about 10 of each in total, so hopefully we'll see some shoots soon.

I also planted up a whole lot more Baobabs, hoping tp get plenty germinated to take to Sculptree, the festival of the tree held at Westonbirt Arboretum from the 23rd to 30th of August this year. The germination rate from the last batch was about 1/3, so I've planted 40 seeds and will see how they go in the run up to the festival.

More shoots, and leaves too!

It's been about another week, and there are three more shoots, and the first one has leaves now. The new shoots are both Baobabs as far as I can tell, and two are in the same pot as the first shoot, but surprise surprise, the other one has germinated outside of the propagator.

When I planted the seeds I ended up with ten pots in all, only eight of which would fit in the propagator, so I left two just out on the windowsill to see how they'd get on. This new shoot is also from the batch that was soaked for the longest; that is about 24 hours. So I wasn't necessarily expecting one of them to have germinated so soon, if at all - especially seen as the building certainly isn't over heated. Perhaps the heat from the sun in the past week has been enough to keep the soil temperature suitably high.

It's also really interesting seeing the first leaves of the Baobab shoot, which are called cotyledons. The cotyledons are not 'true' leaves, but are formed from part of the seed of the plant. This means that they often look quite different from the leaves that develop afterwards, and can cause havoc in pots and gardens when it comes to identifying intended seedlings and weed seedlings, and knowing which to remove! The Baobab shoot has two of these 'leaves', each about the sixe of a two pence piece, which means they are called dicotyledenous.

Still no news on the Neem seeds then, but really good progress with the Boababs; good to be seeing leaves, and watching how they're developing. It is certainly a learning curve, a return to basic biology, and after the last two weeks I'm expecting big things over the next one!

The first green shoot

I arrived a couple of mornings ago, and found a note on my desk, which said 'Don't sit down! Check on your trees!'. So I didn't, and I did. In the days I'd been away since planting the seeds, germination had happened!

I had a look, and one green shoot was just beginning to push through the soil. It was one of the baobabs, in one of the pots marked '2' in the propagator. This means that after five hours of soaking in hot water before planting, this baobab seed has taken about a week and a half to sprout. It also suggests that the sharp sand and compost mix, combined with just a good soaking after sowing and one light watering since then has provided tolerable conditions for germination, for the Baobab seeds at least.

Now I think this is pretty amazing stuff, and it has happened a lot quicker than I expected it to, although those expectations had no basis other than caution. More than anything I'm just relieved that something has happened! Now granted, this is one seed of the 30 I planted, and the Neems are now one point down so to speak, but it's great to see signs of life. It's also great to see that seeds from a climate so different to our own can be nurtured into leaf given some fairly basic right conditions.

Hopefully there will be more Baobabs sprouting over the next week or so, and maybe some Neem seeds too, although we shall have to wait and see to find out if, and how long, they take to germinate. It's exciting stuff though, and to someone who's not an experienced seed grower or gardener really quite amazing to see.

Seeds in soil

This afternoon I have been planting tree seeds! As I mentioned, the seeds are very hard and woody, so their dormancy had to be broken. This can be done by soaking in hot water, nicking the seed coating, or using acid (to mimic a passage through an animal's intestinal tract). With acid seeming a bit much, and the ready availability of a kettle on hand, I went for the soaking option. I've soaked three batches of the seeds for three different lengths of time; one that I put to soak yesterday, one this morning, and one just before sowing, so about 24 hours, 5 hours, and 15 minutes. I marked each batch, and I've marked up each pot, so I'll be able to see which are more successful.

I commandeered the kitchen floor, put a layer of old paper down, and got on with the business of sowing seeds. First things first was to mix my soil and sharp sand to make sure that the seeds are in a soil that drains well. I decided to use small pots, rather than a seeds tray, as these are dryland plants and so might need more space for roots to grow down, rather than across. I've put 5 seeds in per pot, covered them over, and given them a soak. I've also borrowed a propagator, so they are now settled in that on one of our sunny windowsills, and hopefully will get enough warmth with the wonderful rise in temperatures we've seen in the past couple of weeks.

I'm feeling a little bit apprehensive now, mixed with excitement. I really hope to get at least a few of each, Baobab and Neem, germinated, and will be so disappointed if nothing happens! I've sown thirty seeds in total, fifteen of each, so it's fingers crossed for the next few weeks!