So here are two Sinningia
leopoldii hirsuta seedlings. Three had sprouted about Nov 1. One died early on. Kept in a closed bag with ample water, they hardly did anything for sooooo long.The cotyledons were far less than half the size of the smallest leaf you see in the last pic. Finally after such excruciating patience, I gave the tiny (tiny!) seedlings a bit of fertilizer - something I would never do to anything so minuscule, but I felt I had nothing to lose. Though they didn't really grow, they looked a lot better. That was the start of my regular dilute fertilizing, every other time I water. Ever so slowly opening the bag, for the last three weeks the ziplock bag has been completely open with the pot still snugly inside.
So the two survivors sprouted right next to each other, and they were already crowding. Again, something I would never normally worry about with a seedling at this stage, except they grow so slow! So today I decided to move the larger one farther away in the same pot.
Sinningia
leopoldii hirsuta is a tuberous species, and when I oh-so-carefully dug, no wonder it responded to the more frequent watering and fertilizer! It had one 1 to 2 mm single strand root! Actually not unlike the Sinningia concinna seedlings I am growing. But with S.
leopoldii hirsuta being a much larger plant at maturity, I kinda expected it to be a bit more robust. I am certainly learning a lot!
You can see the tiny tuber.
