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Having read DallasDad's topic on his little Baobab trees, decided I'd try and do the same with my own ones, hoping they fare ok.
So bought a packet of 5 Baobab seeds, just put 2 to soak. Hope that they'll have some reaction. The seed packet in the shop said "sell by date 2008" so don't know if the seeds are still good. Have to wait and see. Checked the packet and the specific species is Adansonia Digitata.
Now the mystery seeds.
On saturday I'd gone walking in the Bois de Vincenne in Paris, and picked up a large seed pod I found on the floor. Absent mindedly I picked the seeds out of it and stuck them into my pocket. On sunday I decided to soak them for a day or two to see what would happen. Put some damp cotton pads at the bottom of the glass, and layered up the seeds with more damp cotton buds (about 2-3 seeds per 'level'). This morning I went to peek at them. The seeds on the first two layers looked like they didn't change, but then I got to the third layer and got a huge shock: The seeds were HUGE! Two had a sort of seam along their length, and looked a little bit gelatinous, the third one just looked swollen up. On the fourth and bottom layer, two of the seeds looked normal, but the third one was again huge, with what was clearly the start of a shoot poking out the top.
Ran to the garden shop wanting to buy some pots (all I managed to get were glasses... they had NO small/medium sized pots :/) and some soil (Geranium soil. again, all they had.)
So two of the seeds are now in a pot in my room, the other two I gave to a friend down the hallway (live in halls), who happened to have a flower pot.
Re-placed the other seeds in damp cotten, curious if they'll get gigantic as well.
The Mint is more simple, just bought a seed packet for fun and planted them up in a 3rd glass. I wasn't sure whether they should be on the surface of the soil or underneath, so there's one layer of seeds with soil on top, and some seeds on top of the soil.
My big question is what could the mystery seeds be? I know the pod came from a tree, can't tell what shape leaves it has because it had none then. There were pods all over the floor, they're about 7-8 inches in length, about an inch wide and quite flat. Warm brown in colour, with a woody and slightly fibrous texture when you rip them open. The seeds are about the size and colour of apple seeds, but slightly 'fatter'. I looked on this website: http://theseedsite.co.uk/db18a.html and my best guess is that the seeds come from a False Acacia tree. Any ideas? I don't know how common the tree is in europe. I remember there being trees like this in the parks in Romania, you could find the pods with seeds in during July-August though. I'm sure they're the same though, they have a very specific smell when you rip them open. A sort of sweet and slightly aromatic sap smell.
Will keep updated on how the three sets of plants are doing :)
Upon asking my gran what those trees are called in romania, which is roşcovă. Translates as Carob tree. Looked up some images and the seeds seem to look more like the ones I had than the Falsa Acacia trees one.
Wikipedia says the dried seeds germinate very hard (there's even a suggestion to put them in acid for an hour or to boil them.) My 4 didn't seem to have any problems soaking up the water in the cotton pads.
I guess I'll know if and when leaves sprout, as the two trees have very different leaves.
One Carob tree seedling is poking it's head up! It's leaves are still half in the seed case, but it seems to have sent down one heck of a root.
The other seed is still just split down the middle, but no seedling popping its head out. Nothing from the Baobab and Mint seeds yet.
Took off the shell casing from the leaves of the carob seedling, was worried it would hurt the leaves. Should I put the plant in full sun or keep it in a partially shaded area? I don't know if full sun will burn it's leaves..
I'm not sure what the sun requirements are when this is full grown, but with seedlings you need to adjust them to light gradually. Indoor light is never as intense as outdoors, so even if you've got them in a bright window or under lights you will want to put them in a shady area outside at first, then you can gradually start giving them a little bit of sun.
They're going to be staying in doors for a fair bit of time though, I'm living in halls so there's no way for me to have them outside. I'm just worried that even indoors full sunlight will be too intense? I guess I'll wait a day or two before I leave it in full sunlight indoors. When grown the plant apparently loves sunlight since its a mediterranean species.
Sunlight coming through a window is nowhere near as strong as real sunlight, but if it's still significantly more light than it's getting now then I'd still adjust it gradually. I would definitely work on moving it to wherever you have that gets the most light--seedlings tend to get leggy and floppy if they don't have enough light.
I will do that. Very grateful for your advice :) Thankfully I have south facing windows, so on sunny days it would get plenty of light.
And I just ended up planting a small onion.. I went to cook today and found one of my onions had gotten a bit exhuberant and decided to sprout a huge stem. So since I had a spare glass full of soil I just stuck it in there. Probably going to pop it into one of the shrub troughs outside soon.
Lucky onion.
Onion could be Ok in the glass, but don't put your tree seedlings in glass containers without drainage holes. If you don't have small pots, any plastic food container can be used (yogurt cup or plastic drinking cups, etc). Just make large enough holes in the bottom, so that water drains well and the soil don't stay too wet. Good luck with your trees!
I was going to move the seedling to a pot, I managed to get one. I'd never thought of the plastic containers actually, I'll remember that for next time. I know there's no drainage hole, but I've grown seedlings in pots with no hole, and they've been fine. Just have to be careful with how much water they get given. Grew some jalopeno peppers like that, who would have still been alive had it not been for the spider mite infestation :(
The carob seed is making a third set of leaves already! I'll take a photo soon.
