Kinda coerced my dad to buy that fuzzy cute succulent I always wanted. NO THORNS! =D Still waiting for an ID from any GCSers, but in the meantime, here are some pictures:

It’s known as the starfish plant, Asclepiadaceae stapelia. The flower looks weeeeiiiird:

Okay, I found a large mealy bug on my mint plant the other day. So I thought I’d try my diluted garbage enzyme on it. From this single experiment (need to test more to draw solid conclusions), I’ll say that the G.E. does work in killing mealies – I sprayed on it before work, and about eight hours later when I came home to check the mealy’s carcass was just fluffy cotton.

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First batch of white sage didn’t sprout.

Re-heated second batch directly on the aromatherapy burner and re-sowed.

Now let’s see how this batch does.

10 October – sowed white sage seeds.

This post will be more of a pictorial update on some plants.

Butterwort giving out flower stalks. I’ve cut off two of them and only let one grow. It has a cute purple flower.

My lemon myrtle now.

And my lemon eucalyptus growing all the way out.

Reeeallly growing out/up.

My grapefruit mint with runners. Wow.

My variegated peppermint – wow, “worse.”

Please DON’T over fertilize your plants…

Rosemary. I can’t decide if it’s doing well, or not.

Looks okay from afar.

Sorry for the silhouetted pic – some leaves curling up; some curling down.

Everywhere.

Two more just put out tiny sprouts. So it’s eight days and nine days…

Four tea tree seedlings finally germinated today.

Since I did the heating and warming, and sowed the seeds on 25th September, that’s…EIGHT days these took to germinate.

Hm…

24 February to 7 March. That’s about ELEVEN days for my first ever batch of tea tree seeds to sprout.

So, I guess that the heat did help germination by a little bit. It’d take more trials to verify this.

This is my lemon myrtle in May 2009, I think about half a year after I bought it. When I first bought it, it was about 2/3 of the size now…for $10. Go Kwang Kee okay? =)

1st batch of trial seeds have not germinated at all – this has increased my suspicions that I have severely cooked them.

2nd batch of trial seeds – German chamomile has had about five seedlings germinate this morning; still no show from the tea tree seeds.

Still monitoring.

I think I cooked my seeds the first round. Heh. I capped the lid on totally, and after heating the seeds up, I find that the paper wrapping them was soaked through with water (presumably from the seeds).

It’s been three days and the first batch hasn’t germinated. I’m treating them as a 50/50 chance thing now.

Started a second batch today. I left the lids on the tins slightly open and the papers remained dry. Checked on the temperature and it feels warm instead of hot.

Let’s see if this second batch succeeds. Used the same seeds – tea tree and German chamomile.

I need to give Sandi credit for sharing her method with me. This is my first time testing out heat germination, and I offer a very simple pictorial guide to it.

Stuff you need:
1. Aromatherapy burner
2. Tealight candles
3. Small pieces of paper – to hold extremely fine seeds. If your seeds are larger, you can skip this item
4. Vermiculite
5. Small metal tins to hold the vermiculite and seeds

All the items needed.

Fill the tins with some vermiculite.

Place the very fine seeds on paper so you can use them easily later.

Fold the pieces of paper carefully and place them into the tins, and then cover them up.

Light the candle up, and put the tin on top.

That’s about all.

Sandi reported extremely fast germination rates for seeds warmed up by heat. Sometimes, as fast as overnight. The vermiculite acts as a buffer of sorts so that the seeds aren’t cooked.

I’ve prepared my typical semi-hydroponics set-up for these seeds, and am trying this out with the tea tree and chamomile seeds. Will report progress hopefully as soon as tomorrow.

Do note that for really easy-to-germinate seeds such as say, basil, you don’t have to use heat to germinate them. Just surface-sow them on soil.