What's up everyone. My seed order just arrived! A few different kinds of adeniums, pachypodium, and baobabs. Just finishing setting up my table top greenhouse, fingers and toes crossed.

Nice "collection".
Good luck with them. I am sure you'll also have lots of fun sowing them, watching for any green signs... I am always anxious when i sow special seeds

Thanks fix. Definitely a little anxious. About the baobabs specifically... the idea of filing down seeds that came from the other side of the world freaks me a little.

Don't try to file your seeds, rather, rub them on sand paper or an emory board. Try to remove as much of the outer coating as possible. When you see white, stop sanding.

Your growing medium needs to be really fast draining and you will need a heat mat.

Good Luck! Sounds like fun.

Daisy, thank you for jumping in not really filing, sandpaper was the plan. I have an old "klima grow" tabletop greenhouse, has a built in thermostat and auto lights (a super sweet flea market find). The stuff I got for the soil mix is; seed starter mix, vermiculite, earthworm castings, and course sand intended for bonsai mix. What do you think?

Your choice of potting medium won't work. ALL those ingredients hold in moisture. You want the moisture to be gone as quickly as possible. Find some soil especially formulated for cactus then add perlite or fish aquarium sized gravel (sand packs and becomes concrete). I would mix Cactus soil and perlite (or gravel) at least 1/2 and 1/2.

In the wild, the germination rate for Baobobs is about 30%. They live in the driest place in the world that still supports life. Water sparingly when the growing medium dries. Remember that the most water they will ever get in their whole lives is when they are waundering around inside an elephant. Germination time is at least 3 - 4 months.

CptBlight said: I have an old "klima grow" tabletop greenhouse, has a built in thermostat and auto lights (a super sweet flea market find). The stuff I got for the soil mix is; seed starter mix, vermiculite, earthworm castings, and course sand intended for bonsai mix. What do you think?

Hi, CptB! Wonderful that you found a tabletop greenhouse and at a sweet price! It will certainly give you a head start during your winter months and you will really enjoy watching your babies grow.

The soil mix you are considering...is it for germinating the seeds? I think the sterile seed starter mix will suffice for that purpose. If the soil mix is for transplanting your seedlings into when it's time, then your vermiculite and worm castings, together with compost and coco coir to make up a humus of 40% will be good. The remainder of 60% should be of perlite. I speak from experience and from experimenting. But then hey, I encourage you to experiment to suit your growing conditions, climate, and micro-climate.

Adeniums germinate pretty easily. Keep them warm and some of them will germinate in only a few days! I have germinated baobab before, I scraped it on sandpaper until I saw white (act like you are using an eraser lol) and then soaked in in a cup of water for 24 hours before I planted it in sandy soil.