My friend's experiment with seed sprouting

My friend's family had a get-together connected with the wedding of his nephew. For that occasion, many people had presented quite a few cut flowers [which is a fashion these days here]. With that 'flower vases' came a thing that use to hold moisture to keep the flowers fresh, longer. After display, he thought of using it as a sprouting medium and sowed many seeds of a fruit which name [in English] I am not aware. It is a tropical round fruit having a hard whitish brown shell holding a brown pulp and seeds inside it, with its typical smell. To his surprise, so many seeds sprouted! And so well too. Hope you understood what this medium is.

Great photo and idea. I use the water crystals in my planter boxes to prevent them from drying out so quickly. I never considered them for sprouting seeds. I think it would work well for me, especially for the plants that come up with fine foliage, they dry out so quickly.

BTW, do you know what exactly the medium my friend has tried?

I have purchased it under different names. The product looks like white sand and absorbs water, making a gelatinous material that slowly releases the moisture to the plant. The material listed is polyacrylaminde copolymer. It is available in most garden supply stores.

It's like a sponge, but not soft. It's hardish and comes in green colour but has very tiny pores that hold moisture for long time. The florist cuts it with a knife just enough for a set buyers purchase, then pierces the cut flowers into it before packing and giving to the customer. These are usually for vases and baskets.

Floral foam?

Could be. I have no idea till now, what name it is called here. Will have to inquire now.

I just remembered the name - Oasis! If it does turn out to be Oasis, I buy mine in the flower department at one of our local stores. It is very cheap here.
Good luck!
Jenny

Thanks Jenny for the info.

Lost my message....Jenny is correct. I use Oasis in floral arrangements. In stores around here, have to read label,,as the one for fresh flowers looks a lot like the one made to hold dry/silk arrangements. I made that mistake and ended up with the flowers in a vase instead of the basket that was planned for.

Thanks for posting your question Dinu, I thought you meant and Oasis when I first read it. But I learned that there are two kinds, I would probably have picked up the wrong green block without noticing. Thank you MG.

When its job is over, my friend says it becomes powdery.