Mega Reset

So, last week I got 1 ounce of GS seeds from J.L Hudson in La Honda California. 1oz has an estimated 5-6,000 seeds.

Oct 19, 2012

I took a hundred and placed them on a coffee filter and put them into a zip-lock back as before:

I placed five 100 batches of seeds in a fridge for stratification and further use.

One week later about 11 seeds germinated. Eight of those eleven had white stems clearly visible and reaching into the filter paper.

Longest ones were placed in the prepared 15" tube in the order of their size, longest one into tube #1. The procedure for inserting was as follows. First about 10 ml of water was dropped in the middle of the  tube. Then the backside of tweezers was used to make an imprint inside the soil:

Then the seeds were placed "pointy side down" per the advice from http://trees.martinsvillenj.com/gsseedsummary.htm , meaning the little white stems went down into the soil:

First eight largest seedlings were placed in tubes and covered by about 1/4" of soil:

October 28, 2012

All eight tubes were sprayed with one squirt of fungicide based on Neem Oil:

And  reset.

I used my last cone to get 12 more seeds. I also removed the seeds from the previous batch that did not germinate into a new coffee filter. I made two new "pillows" with 12 seeds each.

October 14, 2012

Today the last of the germinated plants died. I found it lying slanted on one side this afternoon. When I touched it it fell completely out of the soil. Something either happened with the roots (since the top looked so healthy just a few hours before), or one of the kids, or the dog got a bit too curious.

This is the end of the story.

A new close-up of the sequoia to reveal more details of the tiny plant:

October 13, 2012

Size is 1.25"

Three germinated seeds were moved into one pot at the end of September to start growing some roots. Unfortunately, during the planting the pot was almost knocked off a table and the seeds got "lost" in the  top layer of soil and some was spilled on the floor.  The soil was carefully moved back into the pot and the waiting game began.

Just two weeks later the little trees found its way above surface.

October 4, 2012

The three seeds did not fare equally well over next few days. One of them had the original seed casing stuck to the green leaves. Fearful to damage the plant, I did not "help" it separate. It became very apparent that the growth of that plant was compromised and finally I used a needle to shake the casing off. Unfortunately it was too little too late and it perished.

Another plant got buried too deep into the soil during the spilling accident and its growth was also compromised. When the two remaining plants were moved into an individual pot this one did not survive the move.

This left one undamaged plant still going. At the time of planting into a pot it had the height of 1.25". It looked like a little palm tree.

October 10, 2012