Hello, I'm brand new to both gardening and this site, so please be patient with me, lol.

I traveled recently to Australia and New Zealand, and decided to begin my gardening hobby with exotics from those countries. Perhaps a bit challenging for a beginner, but hey. I planted 5 seeds of messmate stringybark, a cold-tolerant Tasmanian species of eucalyptus. To my total surprise all 5 seeds quickly germinated, but in the maybe 2 weeks since germination, 3 of the 5 abruptly died. I am growing in a large pot indoors, in cactus blend soil under a grow lamp, if that tells you anything.

Basically what I'm looking for is generic tips on growing eucalyptus. It's surprisingly hard to find consistent info online about growing eucalypts from seed, so any tips would be welcome.

Cheers

Hi and welcome. If you could please fill in your profile with your location, that will help us to help you going forward. It will appear in all your posts in the upper right corner.

Eucalyptus do like to grow in relatively dry conditions, so the cactus blend will be good, I would think. Possible cause of the demise of your seedlings may be over watering. Let the surface of the soil dry to the touch before watering again, but don't let the babies dry out to the point of wilting.

That's all I can think of to start with. Could you post some pictures of the seedlings for us to see?

Just added the location. I strongly suspect overwatering to be the case. They are being grown in an air conditioned environment, do I need to be tenting them to preserve humidity? Will post photos of the survivors when I get home.