Sowing Seeds

After letting the seeds dry out for a couple of days the novice can sow his seeds in containers specially prepared for them. The best medium for the novice to use for his seedlings is an African violet potting mixture sold at local nurseries. Fill a 15 inch pot with this mixture and firm it down. Have a good look at your seed. Somewhere on the seed you would find a little brown spot. Place the seed with the little brown spot facing down, halfway into the potting soil. Plant the seeds about 10 mm apart. Carefully water them, taking care not to wash them out of the soil. Place them in a warm but shaded spot. Depending on the day temperatures the seeds should start to germinate in two weeks time. At first some of them seem to have difficulty pushing their first root into the soil. Help them by picking them up and make a deep hole with a pen or thin stake into the soil. Put the little seedling back in its place by pushing the little root into the hole. You do not need to firm it down for the root will grow down into the hole securing itself. Keep an eye on the seedlings until you are sure that are all well established. Remember to keep the soil moist. Soon the monocot leaf will appear and after that the first real leave. Up to now you do not need to feed the seedling for it gets all the nutrition it needs from the seed. You can start feeding as soon as you see that the seed has shriveled up.

The expert who collected his seeds in May must supply his seeds with adequate heat to germinate. This is done by means placing the seeds in an incubator. Any small airtight containers can be used to house the seedlings while they are in the incubator. In these small containers a substrate is place that can hold the moister. Paper toweling that has been folded four times to cover the bottom is placed in this container. Do not use cotton wool. The root of the seedling usually gets entangled in it and is difficult to remove. Make the toweling moist by adding some water. Place the seed on top of the toweling, close the lid and put it into the incubator. (I am now using Perlite in stead of paper towling. You can re-use it each year.)

Set the temperature to 25°C. Usually the seeds would start to germinate after a week. Some will take longer. Do not worry about it. When the roots of most of the seed have reached the length of about 2 cm, plant them out. Some would be longer and some shorter. Don’t let the root get to long for it makes the planting process very difficult. Those seed that did not germinate by now can be left in the propagator, giving them a chance to germinate.