JARG's Sinicuichi, Wild Dagga, Calea, Catnip continued at www.MichiganSalvia.com

[JustAnotherRegularGuy]

Plants: Sinicuichi, Wild Dagga, & Dream Herb
Started From: All 3 from Seeds
Quick Notes: Got the seeds...

I have become interested in other herbs besides Salvia and ordered some Sinicuichi, Wild Dagga, & Dream Herb seeds to grow which got from Bouncing Bear Botanicals. Shipping was fast and I got them in just a few days. I picked these 3 herbs because they seem to have some effect when consumed and are legal without a doubt. The seeds for Sinicuichi and Wild Dagga are super small and at first glance I thought someone had taken the seeds out of the plastic bags and there was just particles of plant matter left....but on closer inspection I noticed the seeds are just really, really, really and I mean really small! I've got a pretty busy week ahead of me and don't know if I will have time to plant them yet, but will post again when I finally do. Here is a picture of what i received:



JARG

[JustAnotherRegularGuy]

Report Day: 1
Temp: 72° F
Humidity: 80%-90%
Height: 0"
Note: Seeds planted...

Cool, I had a few hours and got my 3 new seeds planted tonight. I have this nifty seedling starter kit complete with a heating pad. I filled 15 of the containers with some damp Jiffy Soil-less mix. The dream herb seeds were pretty easy to pick up by hand and drop in a hole. However, the other two types of seeds (Wild Dagga, and Sinicuichi) were impossible to handle with my bare hands. The only way I could think to pick them up was to wet the end of a toothpick and touch about 5 seeds to pick them up, and then wipe the toothpick in the soil to get the 5 seeds off. I wasn't even sure I was picking up seeds as they were soooooo small. That's why I picked up 5 seeds for each container, plus I want to start with two good plants of each kind so I planted more than I needed to allow for the probability that some won't germinate. I didn't bother posting pictures of the other two seeds because my camera just couldn't take a picture to see anything worthwhile.

After I got the seeds in the soil, I spritzed the damp soil to make the seed area wet to start the germinating process (hopefully)...


Breaking open the seed pack of the dream herb. Bouncing Bear wasn't kidding when they say there are thousands of seeds in the package you buy! Notice in this picture you can actually see the grain of the computer paper! These were pretty small as well, but manageable with bare fingers.



This is the seedling starter kit I planted my new seeds in.



In place sitting on the heating pad. Now I wait until I see sprouting of some kind.....


JARG

[DrYRHead]

I've been trying to grow some Calea too. However thus far, I have not been able to get it to germinate.   

[JustAnotherRegularGuy]

It's been a week and nothing has popped above the soil. I have turned off the heating pad under the tray and will try germinating new seeds in moist paper towel to see what happens. Do the seeds have a short shelf life?

JARG

[JustAnotherRegularGuy]

Well, no luck with the wet paper towel either.... This is frustrating. I sent an email to Bouncing Bear to ask them if they have any suggestions on getting the seeds to germinate. hopefully they have something positive to tell me. in the mean time, does anyone know a good place to buy a live Wild Dagga (Lion's Tale) plant? That is the one I am most interested in.

JARG

[MstryShovel]

thats a sad event when none of the seeds have germinated, some things to keep in mind although im not sure if it directly relates to the seeds you have.
1) some seeds have to go through the digestive system of animals to germinate.
2) a good idea with seeds if you are trying to get them to germinate mid summer or off season is to put them in the fridge for a day or two, this tricks the seed into thinking winter passed, and becomes easyer to germinate
(some seeds need this trick)
3) seeds get less potent with time and you could have gotten the short end of the stick and gotten old seeds.

though i have heard good things about bouncing bear, ive never ordered from them. this spring i ordered  Silene capensis, Mimosa Hostilis, and kanna (Sceletium tortuosum) from IAmShaman.com and even though there was a disclaimer on the mimosa and kanna for low germination rates, 50% of what i tried germinating, germinated (30-40% increase over warning) though the silene never germinated i didnt germinate it the way i should have.

also seeds like the dream herb produce so many seeds because of 2 main reasons, they are prone to being eaten/destroyed by the environ and the validity(likelyhood of producing a real plant) of each individual seed is very low, its like common grass, it produces 1000 seeds because half are going to be eaten, and half of that leftover half are never going to germinate and of the ones that do germinate 25% of those are going to survive past infancy so when your dealing with a 5% survoival rate.... anyways i got off topic with my point my point is plants that produce 3000 seeds arent going to germinate much. so its a tossup, especialy with grass-like plants like "the dream herb"

its funny how plants like this get simmilar names my silene capensis seeds are also known as the dream herb, its a grass like plant that grows in swamps the roots are chewed among other things to increase the potency and lucidity of your dreams.

my last bit of advice is this, when buying things like seeds, even though its from a reputable vendor things do get "out of season" its like buying fruit at a grocery store, buying strawberries in january is going to be expensivve an they probably wont taste very good, meaning buying seeds at the time of year when they are fresh is best, aka try bruing them in early spring as apposed to middle of summer (though i know you started this topic a while ago) Also great seedly chamber, you should have started all rows of that chamber with your new seeds, playing along with my 5% survival starting 20 pods of each seed will give you better chances then 5 pods you feel me? when i was starting all types of my seeds(more than i wrote(things like pepermint catnip ect) i had about 10 of each,  and the strongest pods i kept alive and actualy planted. its like growing pot, you germinate 15 seeds and the fastest growing 4 of those you keep alive and replant and by the 5th node you can tell sex and you destroy all the males, survival of the fittest and all that.

anyways good luck on the seeds in the future, fold them in a paper towel and set them in a small amount of water for 2 days, if any have changed/cracked/sprouted a tap root, plant them and you know you have a new live plant.

also another good rule of thumb is something the indians taught us (if your american) plant 3 seeds 1 for the crow, 1 for the meal worm and 1 to grow, aka if you are not pre germinating them(water soak) increase your odds and put more seeds per pod.

[JustAnotherRegularGuy]

Thanks MstryShovel, you've given me some ideas to try. I have just put the seeds in the fridge and will leave them there for 2 days. Then fill up every position in my seed chamber with dirt and plant 3-5 seeds per hole. That will give me 24 holes for each type of seed and with 3-5 seeds per hole I should have 72-120 seeds of each kind planted. Hopefully something from that will sprout. I am also going to place the rest of the seeds in a paper towel in some water for a few days and see if any start a tap root that way. And if none of that works, I'll order seeds again in the early spring.

JARG

[JustAnotherRegularGuy]

Report Day: 0
Temp: 64°-74° F
Humidity: 90% - 100%
Height: 0"
Lighting Equipment: None
Light Schedule: All DARK

Alright so it's time to give this a go again. I was going to leave my seeds in the fridge for only 2 days.....well that turned into a month and a half. So since I got my mystery eBay seeds today and wanted to plant them I figured I would plant all my other seeds too and hopefully this time something will sprout. This time I gathered up maybe 200-300 Dream Herb seeds and split it into 5 spots in the cloning chamber. I basically mixed up all the seeds within the top part of the wet soil then packed back down lightly. With the Wild Dagga, and Sinicuichi I used about 1/2 to 3/4 of the remaining seeds in the pouches (maybe 100 seeds each) and laid them down on a piece of paper. I firmed up the wet soil with my finger, then while my finger was still wet I pressed down on the paper and a bunch of seeds stuck to my finger. I then tamped the top of the soil with my finger until all the seeds came off. I planted the rest of the catnip seeds the same way. There were maybe 10-12 catnip seeds per spot over 5 spots. I figure SOMETHING has to sprout if any of these seeds are any good. And then the last 5 spots I put 1 mystery eBay seed in each spot. I will grow 5 of them and if the general consensus is that the seeds could be real, I will send the remaining 5 seeds to Daniel Siebert to see what he has to say about them. Otherwise I will have to wait until these grow up and out.

So this is the new setup again. Right now I have them in the same room as the Salvia plants, but they really aren't getting any light as they are far away from the Salvias and their light fixture. I will be busy all day tomorrow tending to the real job so I wet a towel and laid it across the top of the cloning chamber to help keep the soil from drying out. There is a heating mat underneath to help warm the soil for better germination percentage.

Fresh seeds planted.


With the wet towel on and the dome over everything.


Oh I hope this all works better than last time!

JARG

[black8teen]

The way I start lavender/spearmint/most herbs I make tea with, is in a zip bag with a colored napkin (blue and green both have worked very good for me and I don't even know if the color really counts for much) and getting them wet while facing the plastic of the bag. I then just tape it to the inside of one of my windows facing the sun for at least 7 hours out of the day. I usually get a 90% germination rate over a week with this and have even gotten 1/2 inch long sprouts of spearmint from doing this. I learned this growing beans as a little kid in school and it has stuck with me. If it was in layers it would be plastic / seeds / wet napkin / plastic. That way they get some light and UV rays to help open up. If you have 1000's of seeds it might not hurt to try if your windows stay warm enough.

[JustAnotherRegularGuy]

Would that work with seeds this small? I guess I figured that the seeds were so small I don't even know how I would transfer them to soil if I did the paper towel trick and got them to germinate. They are almost like a powder... I do have some left though and if this new batch doesn't sprout I may try that.

JARG

[black8teen]

The spearmint seeds I used were smaller than the period at the end of this sentence. I don't think size has anything to do with it. It's just another option. The more plants in this world the better.

[Baracs]

remember some seeds need to be exposed to light in order to form a chemical reaction within the seed to start growing. Many seeds in which you simply scatter on the soil need sunlight to germinate. one method to help germination is to scatter a small layer of sand on top of the soil with the seeds to help reflect light onto the seeds. But you can probably find out if they are light activated with google.

[JustAnotherRegularGuy]

Damn, now I am going to have to go do some research into all of these seeds. I know at least one of the packages said not to expose to light until the first real leaves develop.....but that might not be the case with all of the different seeds. I will look it up and see what I can find out. Thanks for the help everyone!

JARG

[carnivorous4pie]

Hey good luck JARG  here is a picture of my Wild Dagga to tide you over til you have your own  . Also I got you a photo of the Shy plant which as I put back into the closet made its branches fall lol.

[JustAnotherRegularGuy]

Very cool indeed! I looked around my area locally to try and find a live planted mimosa, but to no avail. I have some mimosa seeds I was watching on eBay, but am hesitant to buy seeds from eBay... That wild dagga looks way different than I thought it would. I have never seen one yet so thanks for the picture!

JARG