I DON'T BELIEVE IT!!

Hello everyone.

I am a newbie to this site and what a brilliant site it is. I have decided to have a go at sowing some exotics from seed this year and I just had to share this with you.

I received some Erythrina Crista Galli (Coral Tree) seeds last week and decided to sow 4 of them. As per instructions I soaked them for 24 hours but they didn't look any different afterwards. So I cut the outer shell (like bullets) and poured boiling hot water from the kettle over them! (One went very wrinkly) and potted them in perlite. To my amazement one has sprounted 3 days after and not only that, but the sprout went from nothing to 1" in the space of an afternoon. I am so proud - I can't stop looking at it! Has anyone else had experience of these seeds, and if so, what do I do now? It is at present in its own pot with the plastic bag open on a shelf above the stove. I will be getting a greenhouse very soon but it won't be heated. Also, I live in Ireland which is not known for its great weather!

Many thanks in advance

Sue

thanks

Welcome Prudence. It's great to have you here. I can't say that I've done what you did with the coral tree seeds, but I'm sure proud of you for taking the chance and having such good luck. Hope to meet you in the garden again soon.

Congratulations, I'm glad that you are not afraid to use your head and experiment. Small seed I put between damp paper towels, small? Crassula seed. Hoya seed now these are small and difficult to germinate.
We score most of our large seeds before sowing. On small seed we put on a fine white gravel like the type you use on the bottom of bird cages, about a #5 I think. We then put them 4" under artificial lights, a cool fl. bulb and a warm fl.bulb. We mist them daily with a little fertilizer added. Watch for damping off problems. I forgot what is used to stop this problelm, I think it was Chamomile Tea? I just know I spelled that incorrectly. Sorry.
Crasulady2

Great stuff Prudence! I've just done something similar with some Hardenbergia seeds, when they sprout they'll be put into pots with seed compost and kept on the kitchen windosill which never receives direct sun.

Crassulady is right, Camomile tea is great to prevent damping off and if you get fungus on the soil, a pinch of cinnamon powder works wonders.

Come and say hello to us on the European forum too :)

Congratulations Sue
There is nothing so satisfying as a successful experiment!!! Not only are they fun to do, but you end up with something wonderful in the end.
Welcome to DG's and look forward to seeing other posts from you.
Alice

Thank you all for your encouragement. I'm glad I'm not the only one that goes mad with excitement when a seed sprouts. I now have another coral tree seed germinated, yippee. I still have them potted in perlite and they are doing fine. I will pot them on into soil when the leave appear but I do have one question. The first seed that germinated (now about 3" tall) has the seed pod (bean size) sitting on top of the perlite. When I do plant into soil, do I cover the seed pod and if so, how deep? Any suggestions?

Sue

I would think that you would want to cover it, but that is just an opinion on my part. I am sure not an expert, everything I do is by guess and by golly!!!

Do you have a digital camera so that you can share photos, it always helps to be able to see what things look like.

I am wondering if you can push the seed pod down into the perlite without damaging it, I would think it would be better for it, but like I said that is really based on my guessing, not on any actual facts.
Alice

Thanks Alice. I do have a digital camera but it's not working very well at the moment. I'll see what I can do.

Sue

Personally I'd wait til the seed leaves appear and you're ready to pot them on. If you move them about too much in these early stages you risk damaging the all important radicle. Damage that and you risk roots not being formed properly.

Thanks Baa. I am now going to pop to the european forum as you suggested.

Sue

I wonder if I could try pouring the hot water over a buckeye tree seed to try and improve it's germination success? Is that too weird? Would you nick it first if so? Just a thought...

Morph, I'm not familiar with the seed that you mention. I poured boiling water over the coral tree seeds because they were so hard. Having said that, one of the seeds did go wrinkly and one of the 4 that I sowed went rotten (might have been the wrinkly one). I know that for Canna seeds (which are like bullets) if you pour boiling water on them, they pop and crackle and germinate pretty quickly afterwards (I've done this and it works). You don't have to nick the seed that way. I do tend to wrestle with hard coated seeds, with knives, files, chisels and toenail clippers (it's like a doctor's surgery in the kitchen!) I am trying banana seeds at the moment which I boiled - I'm still waiting - might have another go at them.

My coral tree sprout has got 2 leaves and is now potted up. I have made some makeshift coldframes out of veg boxes and plastic from the carpet man. I covered the boxes top, back and sides with plastic with a slight overhang on the top but have left the front open and placed them right in front of the house which faces south. We had a very hard frost yesterday but all seedlings in the boxes were fine and the coral tree is doing very well out there. Also have seedlings of Geranium Maderense, Buxton's Blue, Splish Splash, Salvia Patens, Cannas. I don't have any special light to grow them under and the cottage is quite dark and they started to look a bit spindly but since they have been outside they have grown new leaves and appear happy!

I shall keep you all posted and try and get a pic sorted.

Sue

Prudence,

How did your Erythrina Crista Galli grow for you? I have started 2 seeds of it and am on the journey of growing it out. Just curious.

Joseph

You could try soaking 24 hours in hot, but not necessarily boiling water, a little bit of hydrogen peroxide and a few drops of superthrive. That has worked for me w/ seeds that have been difficult to sprout- I have never tried E Crista Galli though.

bing

This message was edited May 29, 2006 12:11 AM

My Erythrina christa-galli germinated in about 2 weeks, but I only water scarified. I just pushed the seed onto the soil, and those seeds did better than the covered ones. I sowed in a jiffy peat thing, and then potted it into a small pot. No cover, no misting even, on a 75 F heat mat under grow lights.

I agree; SO exciting! Especially when it's an unusual plant that no nursery stocks!

Ya'll said to pot them up after they sprout. Do I wait until they have several leaves? Some of mine have started to sprout too