Carol sent me a seed pod of cv Optimistic. It arrived today, and oh, what an awesome site!! The "hoya silk" is incredibly soft! Here they are, all spread on some loose, watered soil, on a heat pad, in the hoya hut!! Oh please, oh please, oh please let some germinate!! And THANK YOU Carol!!
Karen
Here's my "hoya hut" set up - actually my almost 16 year old grandson just wanted his picture posted!!
Here's my only other attempt at starting hoya from seed - Milan (where is he?) sent me 6 seeds about a year and a half ago - out of 6 seeds only this one germinated and grew. It's publicalyx "pink silver."
Karen
Yes, Karen...Awesome!!! Mine haven't germinated yet either and I put them in day #1. Then walking around the garden I noticed a whole mess of seeds on the ground (in the road) when they must have burst open when it started to rain...I am leaving them be and see if any of them germinate. I have looked all over for the seed pod that let these lose....can't find it. No idea which plant it came from!!
I am really curious about the cv. Optimistic seedlings... Being a hybrid the results could go either way more like mama or papa....or maybe it wasn't selfed and perhaps a neighbor pollinated it...like Ruthie, or ciliata... I wonder if we will we see something SOON?
This message was edited Jul 10, 2007 4:39 PM
I've got itty-bitty little seedlings coming up all over the tray - WOOHOOOOO!! Hope some of them make it! Hey Hoya_24, how are your seedlings doing? Any new pictures of your seedlings growing that would inspire mine to follow suit??
Karen
got all of mine planted as well. Hopefully they will germinate and something new and exciting will come from them.
Thanks for the seeds Carol!
dmichael
I hope you don't mind if I join your seedling thread here.......but I'm so excited that I have some hoya seedlings growing from the seed pod that came with hoya co-op order from Carol!!!
It was a H Australias.... I'm a complete newbie but I gave it my best shot and for now I have about 35 to 40 little guys growing rather well with more that are smaller. I'll give a little running picture show here to show my steps...First is a picture of the seed pod when it arrived on June 8th.
~Brenda
Then this is the exciting find I had on the morning of June 21st!!!!
Another angle of the burst seed pod just for fun :))) I took a ton of pictures but I'll spare you too many angles. LOL
This message was edited Jul 16, 2007 9:44 PM
I had just gotten an order in from Park Seeds with some domes and those little spongy plug things that came with them. I took tweezers and I picked up 120 individual seeds and planted them each in their own little deal. Then I put them upstairs (the warmest spot in my house) on a table under the grow light that came with this set up.......
So just 7 days later on June 28th I could see green popping up on a few of them, it was amazing to me!!!!
This message was edited Jul 16, 2007 9:45 PM
Then I took some pictures on July 10th....
The second container on July 10th also.....
I should run upstairs and take some pictures right now and compare them 6 days later. They are amazing little growers and I am having so much fun with them. What happens after this who knows but it has been a blast so far!! Thanks Carol!
~Brenda
WOW - what a labor of love!!! 120 individually planted seeds. IMPRESSIVE!!!! They should grow very well in those plugs.... Not to rain on your parade, when you 'pot them UP' you might want to remove as much of that styrofoam as possible from the roots...even if it tears at some of the tiny hairs: those styrofoam plugs are IDEAL for rooting and/or for seedlings...and when the plants start to be 'teenagers' they really need more air around their roots/stem than those plugs afford them...sometimes bad rot sets in.
In the meanwhile...GROW ON!!!! Good on yer, great job!
Carol
Brenda - awesome to "watch" your seedlings progress!! It is fun!
Karen
Karen, I don't have my camera today, but I have 40 australis seedlings that are puting on their 4th true leaf. I am now confident that they are all going to "make it." It has only been 5 weeks since they germinated; they grow very fast. Brenda, I am very impressed at all the effort that you put into your seeds - way more effort than I put in. If you include dmichael's planted seed, this forum is going to be overrun with seedlings!
Doug
Those are SO cute! Don't you just love babying "babies"!
GREAT Growing!
Yes, me and my tweezers were behind the couch on the floor for a good long while that morning :)))).
I think I realize now from watching the discussions here that the reason more than half of mine didn't do anything is because I put them too far down into those plugs. Sounds like they just like to be scattered on top of the soil so the ones that barely got into the plugs are the ones that came up good. Oh well, live and learn.
Carol I will try my best to time it right and get the seedlings lifted out of the Styrofoam before their roots start clinging to it too tightly, I've torn into some of the little plugs to see if I could tell why the seeds didn't germinate and they basically just fall apart so I'll be pushing them up and out from the bottom.
Any advice at how big these should be before I attempt to plant them in their own pots?? This is a picture from this morning of the biggest one....and as you can see two pots behind him there is one just starting to emerge, one of the deep guys!
~Brenda
This was very interesting. I hope I get a seed pod one day!
dawn
Brenda...I would let them stay in there until second set of leaves....no rush since they are in a medium, of sorts. If you don't get allthe styrofoam off the roots, no worries...just water less... and it will eventually be a mute point. It is when left on and close to the stem that it gets dicey!!!
OH heck...the world needs more H. australis!!!!!
I planted mine one by one in small trays that i had bought some mushrooms in from the grocery store. I covered them with about a 1/4 of soil so I hope I didnt plant them too deep.
I then placed the trays(4 of them) in my hoya rooting aquarium to which I added a few inches of pea gravel to the bottom of with just a small amount of water to keep the humidity up.
I'll try to get a pic later on today to post here. Carol could you give me the name of this cross again so I can tag the trays just in case any of mine germinate??
dmichael
Checked mine today and they have begun to sprout!!!
Woo Hoo! Your going to have a ton of them I bet!! Send pictures when you can.
~Brenda
