Day 8: Heat Pad

My heat pad and thermostat came in. The seedlings spent the day outside and tonight they will be warm. I just need to monitor the moisture level of the soil.

If all goes well, the 20"x20" heat pad should be large enough for all the seedlings and my already rooted tree for the winter.

Please germinate little seedlings.

1 Week Later

I decided to plant the rest of the seedlings. They didn't do the root thing and I was worried that they were going to rot or something, so into soil they went. Today was their first day outside. It was nice and warm and hopefully they enjoyed some sun.

The container in the upper right hand corner is the one I potted last week. It was the one I used the towel method with. It's getting dried out pretty fast and I'm worried I'm going to over water it. I mean, when they say keep the soil moist, but not wet.....at what point is it now wet and no longer moist? Yikes!

Either way. Let's hope we see something over the next couple of weeks or so. I believe it says it takes up to 21 days to germinate and sprout those first (non-real) leaves.

I also ordered a heat pad for them. I was reading that they really like warmth. My apartment has been dropping down to 60 degrees, so I'm concerned they're getting cold. It should arrive tomorrow. I'll probably just turn it on overnight since I put them outside during the day (high 70s to low 80s) and they come inside during the evening and it's still mid-70s inside.

I don't know if they need more light. I put them outside around Noon and back inside around 7ish. I read that they need up to 12 hours of light. Yikes. I mean, yes they're near my window in the AM, but they don't get that much light.

Please sprout little guys.

Day 2: Sunlight!

I decided to give my little seedlings some sunlight. It's kind of cool in my apartment at 68 degrees. I probably should put them outside, but it's not much warmer. I'm surprised at how fast the sun moves out of my window. I may need to rethink where to put them. I read that they'll start rooting in about 4-7 days and that with sun and/or a heating pad, it moves them right along. No heating pad, so hopefully the sun will help warm them up and coax them out.

I also planted the seedling that started out in the towel. That too got some sunlight.

The Seedlings Arrived!!!

I received 5 seedlings today. Thanks Ranaye! She has a ton of different varieties of Plumeria's and one of her tree's had a seed pod on it this year. I was lucky enough to get some of the seedlings.

I've never grown Plumeria's from seedlings, so this should be an interesting journey. I have grown some from cuttings, but that's easy, right? I had four gorgeous trees. When I moved to Oregon, I cut them all up and distributed them among my friends. I brought my favorite one with me, which surprisingly, I purchased from Costco.

Since I didn't have any pots or soil, I decided to try the terry cloth method as seen here:

Basically you keep them wet for 24 hours until they're nice and plump, then you put them in soil. Then I read about the styrofoam peanut floating method. Decided to give that a try too. Below is 4 of them floating. I left one in the towel because I think it's "broken". The shell seemed to have come off before I did anything with it.