So the official numbers, as of this evening:

Crimson Moon: 13/15

Jade Pendant: 10/15*

Shanghai Night: 10/15

Bumblebee: 10/15

Kiseki: 0/15

Also, because I'm incapable of leaving well enough alone, I went out to pop off seed coats. This is where the asterisk on Jade Pendant comes in. I have a set of twins!

I'm hoping the Kiseki sprout!

The soil is horrible. I'm used to gritty mix, but that didn't work for my previous batch of seeds (only Billy No Mates made it) so I tried "regular" potting soil this time, with a little bit of perlite (which is nearly impossible to find here). Once they come out of the egg carton, they're going in a gritty mix. Hopefully they'll survive a few months. It doesn't get cold here & it is about to get really hot. We'll see.

Did you find Kiseki to be slow to germinate? I may email Rinoa, but I don't want to be too impatient.

ariel,

Wonderful seedlings and definitely would be worth finding a loser starter mix, but they are doing well and with your warm weather the added water retention may not be an issue. Other than the soil drying to much on top.

I do not think it would be out of place to drop a note to Rinoa. When you start as many seeds as you have all at the same time, same condition, soil, etc. and one particular packet does not do well. Could definitely be the seed.

Rick

I agree with every word Rick says. My first batch of seed from Rinoa had very mixed results and less than half germinated, some nearly not at all. Though I imagine she'll ask you to wait another week first to see if some germinate late. She did replace mine and my second batch had 100% germination or close enough to it. Kiseki for me was no slower than the others.

And yes, super gritty mix isn't great to start seeds so when you transfer over, do it slowly by gradually mixing the two types in a couple of transitional pottings. Jumping hard from one to the other with tender young plants may kill them as their fine roots need time to mature.

Twins are good not a bad idea Egg carton for seed propagation I would keep them moist if it is dry were you live try to get coco coir it keeps the soil little bit moist it resistance to fungal growth is very good also cow poo they love it all the best u have got to name twins lol

Forum contest for naming the twins :)

The egg carton idea is something I got off someone here, I think Maria Elena. She's probably got the most similar climate to me (other than Honolulu), so I'm hoping her success will carry over to me.

i used gritty mix to start some adenium seeds before, but that was in DC, so vastly different conditions. AND, my particle size was closer to ideal back then.

Also, Peter, the rainy season just started here. I won't have to worry about dryness until November.

Oh! I think I MAY have some slight soil buckling in the Kiseki area--possibly 3 sprouts. 3/15 isn't fantastic, but I'm really only going to complain officially if I get zero. I'm going to have way more seedlings than is good for me if all of my sprouts survive (some Mr Ko seeds are coming as well if the Mexican postal service ever decides to deliver them).

Best of luck mate you can never have to many DR i have a couple of hundred I've stopped buying seeds for now I've got to sort them out this spring I'm going to half them

I have only a balcony at the mo, so space is going to become an issue when these little guys become toddlers!

Sounds good, Ariel. Seeds germinating can be exciting. I hope you get some Kiseki seedlings. If you are able to grow them to blooming size then you can always thin out most of them later and only keep your favorites.

Mini-update:

None have stood up yet, but I can see roots starting to burrow on at least 5 of the Kiseki. There's still the potential for some others, as well. While not a fantastic germination rate, I'm happy with that.

The Jade Pendant twins are doing well. Their baby caudices are reddening

My RCN's and mixed obesum trays are doing very well and all stood up now as well. One of my two DHA seeds is no good but the other one is getting green and fat. Leaves haven't unfurled yet so I don't know if it'll be regular KHZ or also DHA (I actually kind of hope it won't be DHA because I want a regular KHZ, silly me).

The rarer adeniums are going to be in my next order, but I want to wait until at least the end of August before ordering anything else.

Ahhhh... the Mr Ko seeds I bought at the same time I bought the Rinoa seeds arrived today, 2 months to the day after he sent them.

Clearly, I did not think through the logistics of having an Adenium neo-natal until!

Ariel, you said that the seeds arrive two months after Mr. Ko sent them. When did you order them? I am waiting on an order so the information would be helpful. Thanks! Carol

Hi, Carol.

I bought on eBay on 16 April, but it took a day to get the combined invoice & pay, so that should really be considered the 17th. Shipped 2 days after that. Once it gets to Mexico, everything takes a really long time to be delivered.

Thanks, Ariel.

I'm resurrecting this thread to give an update on my babies & introduce the new ones from Mr Ko.

First, the ones you know already. These are from Rinoa seeds. They'll be transferred to yoghurt cups within the next week or two. Crimson Moon seem to be doing just fine. There's a volunteer *something* in the tray with them. Any ideas what it might be? There are two runts. In the last photos in this group, you can see an interesting sort of leaning caudex.

Volunteer and one of the runts:

Recliner:

My thumb looks really weird here:

The other runt:

Recliner again... I think it will show better when it moves into a cup

The lighting isn't great but if I don't take photos early in the morning it is too bright.

The Jade Pendant twins:

Shanghai Night (10/15) & Jade Pendant (11/15): the one just above the N that is all cattywampus kept jumping out of the mix, so I'm curious to see how it does.

Kiseki (9/15) & Bumblebee (10/15):

I decapitated one of the Bumblebee. On closer inspection, it looks like maybe I just failed to get the transparent sheath off. It looks like there are leaves trapped:

I'm really happy with my germination rate from Mr Ko! One of the 5 sets is 15/15 and the others are 13/15 or 14/15. Given that the sets are advertised as 10 seeds, I'm considering it better than 100% of the seeds for which I paid. These were sown 1 July, so there's a chance some haven't pushed up yet. I think this was a much better mix. It is commercial organic c&s mix I found at HD here. It seems to have lots of perlite.

Sometimes still have hats & im trying to leave them alone.

Still some just barely pushing up:

ariel, when my seedlings had trouble shedding their hats, I found a little misting with the squirt bottle helped the process. Maybe moistening or softening it so it enabled the seedlings to shed them a bit easier. Plus it helped me to feel like I was doing something to aid in the process without doing something potentially damaging.

Tyler

Hi i helped with the husk on my first lot of seeds and damaged some of the seedlings try not to pick or be careful

That happens if they aren't wet enough, Peter. If the seed coat sticks and isn't easy to slip off, it's too dry and you need to soak it and make sure it's nice and slippery first.

Thanks I will try next time I have another 300 seeds to sow, I know I'm keeping the farmers going I'M An addict I need more colours.

I just don't have the space for that many!

I'm buying neighbours yoghurt to eat so I have enough cups to transfer the existing seedlings when they leave the egg cartons.

So, no more seeds for me until I whittle down these two batches.

Yeah I've been there to just bite the bullet keep the farmers in a job in Thailand any old pot sprinkle them around magic happens it's an addiction lol