I hope this is the right area to post this. My sister just gave me some packs of seeds she picked up in Edmonton. Hope to get some help here. Apparently all can be planted at any time of year. Canna indica - instructions say to soak in water for 24 hrs. Bixa orellana - Same as above Enterlobium cyclocarpum - instructions say to pour boiling water over the seeds, leave for 30 seconds before removing seeds form water. ??? really? boiling water? How do they germinate in the wild? General info for all of them say germination can take 10-40 days. When seedling get their second set of true leaves, transplant into permanent pots 5" to 24" in diameter. That's quite a spread! Fetilize once a month with a complete fertilizer. So, if the germination instructions are right, what else do I need? What type of soil? Light? water? temperature? I haven't Googled any of them yet, but am hoping to get some good help here. Thanks, Kevin
I grow many aroids from seed and all those are tropical. The rain forest is a strange place and seeds often require a bit of "strange" treatment. Enterolobium cyclocarpum (Jacq.) Griseb. is from Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean and a few South American countries and grows into an enormous canopy tree. All are very humid and hot during the pollination season so the seed provider likely wants you to duplicate those conditions for 30 seconds to get the seed to germinate. Chances are something about the large "elephant ear" shaped seed pod almost boils them before a rain forest animal carries them off to grow into a tree. In the case of all aroids we start seeds in a bed of dampened sphagnum moss. We do that to similate the canopy floor which is often covered with leaf litter. Take an old clear salad container from any of the fast food restaurants and use it as a miniature greenhouse. Fill the lower part of the tray about 1/2 full of the moss and mist it well. Don't drown it. Evenly spread your seeds, close the lid and place it in moderate light where it will stay warm. You've just created a little green House and should only mist it again once the moisture no longer forms on the lid. I've seen seeds take up to one month to germinate so your description isn't uncommon. However others will come up in days. I keep the plants in the tray with the lid closed until they begin to push up against lid. Once that happens I take scissors and remove the lid. The plants stay in the moss until they are at least three or four inches tall and then I move them to soil that mimics a rain forest. Sorry, Miracle Grow alone will not work! You will need to mix a "jungle" soil to make them grow. Rain forest soil is typically very fast draining and porous. Some plants love to grow near water and others literally grow on stone so you'll need to look up the plants in a scientific source to duplicate their natural conditions. I make the soil by starting with about 40% Miracle Grow Moisture Control Mix and add about 20% peat moss and mix well. To that I add another 10% Perlite, 10% orchid bark that contains charcoal and gravel (Schultz is fine), and the balance is well chopped sphagnum moss and compost. Tropicals may be very slow to grow and I've grown many Canna indica. Those will need very bright light to grow but don't grow them in full sunlight. Canna can be very slow so don't be disappointed if they don't look like what you think they should look like for two years or more. The others I'm not aware of so you'll need to do some homework. Anthurium species often take three years to be large enough to really know what they are going to look like! I tried to add a photo but that function doesn't appear to be working now. Twice today the function has failed. You can see my atrium on the homepage here: www.ExoticRainforest.com
Thanks Steve. Your greenhouse is amazing! You gave some general germination info on tropical seeds - does this apply to all tropicals, including mine, even though they aren't Aroids, as the example you gave? Anyone have specific info in the ones I mentioned? After germination, how do I care for these specific species that I have? I'm thinking the Enterlobium and Bixa will be just curiosities, and if I can grow them, they will outgrow my area in a short time, as the first is a huge tree, and the other is a shrub. Would they need more shaded conditions as seedlings? Do they need it hot, or cool, but still tropical (many different temperature zones are called 'tropical').
In general I think the method I was taught by some great growers and botanists will do fine. I would suggest you check any and all scientific sites for better info though. Once the germinated seeds are up and growing well then move them to 3 or 4 inch pots and then progressively up wards as the roots are established. The soil does change form area to area in the rain forest so it would be good to check the specific growing areas to see if a plant prefers wet, semi-wet or drier conditions. I do that by going to TROPICOS which is a service of the Missouri Botanical Garden. Type in the scientific name and then look for "specimens" on the top of the page. Click that and if the garden has info it can be found by going over the the accession number on the right of the page. Click that and they'll tell you where the plant was observed. http://www.tropicos.org/ Sometimes I grab the GPS coordinates when available and then look up the location on Google Earth. You can learn a great deal about how to grow the plant if you know where it originates in nature. Good luck!