I started a new batch of adenium seedlings on Mar. 13...3 days later one sprout came up...now all the seeds have sprouted.
I am amazed and surprised that all 10 seeds germinated! I stored the seeds in the refrigerator since I bought them last July. The batches that I had planted 3 months ago did not all germinate, so I had expected that even fewer would germinate due to the age of the seeds.
I learned from
@DavidLMO about treating seeds (of any kind) with H2O2. Thanks, David, for this terrific tip!
So before planting, I soaked these seeds in a bowl of filtered water with a few drops of H202 for 24 hours. Then after treating the potting media with rain water and H2O2 (another tip from David) and allowing the water to soak and settle the media, I planted the seeds. Another thing I did differently...I poked holes in the treated media, placed the seeds in the holes, scraped media over, then sprinkled perlite on top (perlite tip from
@Adeniumgirl) and sprayed more H2O2/water to moisten.
In previous plantings, I had placed the seeds on top of the media then covered with a thin layer of media and watered thoroughly. When the seeds sprouted, the roots were not deep enough into the media that the seedlings would lean over. Then I would have to put more media around the base in order to support the stem. The above new method shows that it's okay to have the seeds slightly deeper than advised.
These are the smallest adenium seedlings I have ever seen...just hope they grow up to look like these:
