Germinating seeds and cuttings

My maple, joy tree and pear seedlings and chili cutting

A couple of months ago, I bought some seeds off ebay because I wanted to see if I could grow some plants along the fence. I've not been known to have a green thumb and I think every green thing that I touch dies - ask my husband. So I have no idea what made me think I could germinate seeds - another one of those random great ideas that just popped into my head I guess... So when my fresh seeds arrived, I wondered what I had gotten myself into... I had lots of seed - there were Joy Tree seeds, Peach Blossom Tea Tree seeds, Manchurian Pear seeds, 2 x Japanese Red Maple seeds and Field Maples seeds. I went a bit Maple crazy because I just love their Autumn colour and thought they would look amazing in my garden - probably 100 years later! I had no idea what to do and had to read up on how to germinate them. Here's what I did...

The fresh seeds

I had to get some plastic storage containers from the local supermarket and did a bit more online shopping to buy some peat pellets to plant the seeds in. First thing I did was soak the seeds in warm water overnight. The next day I was ready to plant them in the pellets. The peat pellet came in dry flat disks, about 10mm thick and all I needed to do was soak them in water and they expanded to approximately 3 inches high! Then I just popped 4 or 5 seeds in each one and put the pellets in the plastic container. Next, I put the containers in a freezer bag and then in the refrigerator where they needed to stay for the next 2 - 3 months. I think this process is to mimic the winter seasons. I also wanted to try another germination method just to increase my chances, so I repeat the planting process, but for these seeds I just left the containers in the freezer bag on the back balcony (no fridge). I setup 6 containers but guess what I did, I forgot to label them, so I have no idea which seeds I planted where - ooops!

Peat pellets in plastic storage container

About a month later, I checked the containers, the ones in the fridge, nothing, I checked the balcony and saw some sprouts in my pellets - cool! I checked the sprouts and monitored the moisture for the next month and only had to added a few drops of water once. The container and freezer bag did a great job keeping the moisture in.The second month I check the pellets in the fridge and saw some sprouts! I quickly took them out because they were a bit yellowish in colour and put them on the balcony to give them some sun light.

The seeds warm and moist in the freezer bags germinating

By this time I had about 4 containers of seedlings and I needed something bigger because they were starting to run out of room to grow. So I went to the local hardware store and found a seed propagation container for only $8 and move my seedlings to their new home together. Four months later, they are still growing in their mini green house. They still look too fragile to move to their pots. My little seedlings, they're still too young to leave home and live on their own.

Sprouts transferred to their bigger home

Mini greenhouse only half full at 1 month after planting

Mini greenhouse full at 3-4 months after planting

Around the same time, I also planted some herbs and a Chilli plant. The Chilli plant grew really tall and skinny too quickly so we cut off the top. For some reason, my husband put the cutting in water and we just left it on the kitchen window sill. After a week I noticed that it wasn't dead, in fact it was growing new leaves and flowering! So I left it and changed the water for a couple more weeks. To my surprise it was still healthy a couple of weeks later and when I changed the water, I saw roots! How cool was that - I had no idea Chill plants could grow from cuttings.

Pot for the Chilli cutting: before and after

Mother Chilli and baby Chilli

So I found a pot, painted it and planted my Chilli cutting. And there you have it, now I have lots of seedlings (which I can't tell what they are) but I also have a baby Chilli plant - not bad for my first go at planting!