So, after spending some time playing Dwarf Fortress and reading this awesome blog I’ve decided to try and grow my own plants from seeds. I am learning to grow bonsai, but all 4 plants I have so far are bought in local nursery.
It has a number of problems. Most frustrating one is nursery sells mostly things that are already larger than bonsai should be. They also do not sell a big variety of species I’d love to try growing. Growing stuff out of seeds is also fun, so I decided to give it a go.
My previous two attempts failed miserably.
I’ve tried doing what is known as cold stratification – put the seeds on a wet paper towel, get it into a plastic bag and put it into a fridge for 2-3 weeks.
I was successful in growing a mould colony. None of the seeds germinated in 2 weeks. My first run had same results.
So I’m moving on to something else now.
I’ve bought these peat pellets and some biodegradable pots made from coconuts. The picture has shown this one pellet filling the whole pot after getting soaked in water. As I expected, that was not exactly how it works, I needed 6 of these to fill my pot.
Now, I’m going to use some seeds from the supermarket apples, some seeds from 2 apples I picked on recent vacation and some crabapple seeds that survived the mould to see if pelt works better.
I’m not sure how the seeds will react given the +14 temperature outside and approaching autumn here in Wroclaw – but that is what experiments are for.
In the meantime, acorns that I’ve tried to germinate in other pots did not change a bit(I suppose they are either dead seeds or I’m dramatically underestimating time for them to sprout). I do have two maple saplings grown from seeds to boast though.
(no) idle thoughts 