Beginner Gardening: Fun with Baobabs, 1 by DallasDad

DallasDad wrote:
Okay, these things are nuts. Last night, around 7:30 p.m., I took the picture a couple of posts above. It shows seedlings #2 and #3, just barely poking up out of the starter cell. Since the roots on #3 (right) were already quite long, I went ahead and potted it last night. This morning (photo taken at 11:00), it looks like this! It's hard to get a good photo that shows the leaves and stem together, but the stem is fully extended, and part of the leaves (another 1/4-inch, I'd guess) are still buried. When the tips of the leaves pull free from the soil, the stem will straighten out and hold the leaves up like a fan.

Seedling #2 (on the left in the photo a couple of post up) didn't get potted until this morning. Its seed cover is still hard, but it's trying to crack it open.

Seedling #1 (the original one to germinate) is doing well in its pot by the window. It no longer opens and closes its leaves at dawn/dusk, but the leaves are larger than ever.

Seedling #4 is just about to poke itself up from its starter pot. I wouldn't have known it was there, except that I saw the tail end of the root sticking out from underneath. I gently poked at the top layer of peat, and sure enough, there's a fourth one coming up. If all six germinate and survive, I'm going to need to build an addition onto the house just to raise these things. (Just kidding -- they'll slow down and start acting like trees before long.)





This message was edited Feb 18, 2008 12:05 PM

This message was edited Feb 19, 2008 7:26 AM