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[MirlitonVine]

I planted some sun opener seeds last week. I'm wondering how long they take to sprout and if anyone has any tips and tricks to share about growing
Thanks

[Sunshine]

They take maybe a week to sprout. The first few months they will stay really small; less than 1cm. After that they slowly start to take off. Sinicuichi is one of the slowest growing plants I've every grown, other than cactus. Once they get around 8 inches tall you can top them and they will branch off from the base. The cuttings root really easily.

1 Like MadPlanter likes this.

[Ian Morris]

I agree with everything Sunshine shared.  They are so dang slow, my tallest is about eight inches now but looks pretty ragged from a couple of near death experiences. 

Another thing I found was thinning them is better early then later.  The seeds are so small its really hard to disperse them properly and I let my first run grow together densely packed.  When I did try and divide/thin they were around three inches and ended up loosing a few due to serious entanglement.

Good luck, Im having fun with mine I just hope they make it to flower.
-Ian
 

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[Auxin]

They seem to get a growth spurt after transplantation.
If you have a steady hand, transplant them to individual or better spaced group pots when the seedlings are 1-2 cm tall. Handle the seedlings by the leaves, not the main stem or root.

As for germination, surface sow and give light and 100% humidity.

[Sunshine]

Another thing I found was thinning them is better early then later.  The seeds are so small its really hard to disperse them properly and I let my first run grow together densely packed.  When I did try and divide/thin they were around three inches and ended up loosing a few due to serious entanglement.

I didn't separate mine until they were around 8-10 inches. I had around 6-8 per rock wool cube so I just kind of split them into quarters then wiggled them gently apart. I don't think much damage was done to the root system since I didn't have any casualties.

They didn't flower until I put them outdoors. I think they need 10+ hours of light to flower. ( Just guessing)

[TBM]

All I did was surface sow after fully watering the soil, misting the seeds into the soil a bit, I misted the surface of the soil once a day, and they sprouted after about a week. Although after I trimmed the top off to clone (used rooting hormone and it rooted in water after about 8 days) instead of branching off at the base it just put out two main stems right below the node cut above to clone, so now my original plant looks kind of like a big Y.

[XDX]

I have tried like 125798543x to grow H. salicifolia seed with 0% germ rate... Different seed source, different setup, idk what my deal is....
I bought a mature salicifolia plant last winter, put it outside too early, and it died...

I have grown H. myrtifolia several times off one seed set, with very good like 90+% germ rate, only problem being Id let the soil dry out too much most times. They like it wet...
I bought a myrtifolia plant last winter as well, and it turns out to be 2 plant I split, potted up, and brought out with the salicifolia. They died back for maybe 4 months, then both came back to life, unlike the salicifolia. They did not grow much height-wise (it's grown maybe an inch or so, it's bout foot tall overall), but has put off new branches from the base that grow to match the rest, and have flowered and seeded. I'm bout to start some these seeds soon, hopefully they'll have as good viability as the seeds I grew before.

How big does salicifolia get? In general, and flower n leaf size? Myrtifolia grows slow and tiny- the flowers are maybe .5cm diameter, the leaves about that wide by at most 1.5cm long, seed pod tiny like a pinhead with idk 5-20 tiny but visable seeds like n. rustica. as I said, it's not growing much in height. it will branch from the bottom, but it doesn't exactly spread either... I guess it's thickening?

[MirlitonVine]

What about sowing directly in the ground? This plant looks very familiar to me, pretty sure I've seen it growing wild before.

[Auxin]

XDX, dont smoke any of that until you have it ID'ed
It doesnt sound like H. myrtifolia.

I also had a hard time getting verified H. salicifolia going from seed, I only got one and it seems to be self-infertile and wont cross with H. myrtifolia. The bush is just a foliage machine tho.
My H. myrtifolias gave much better seed germination and they pump out seed pods like theyre being paid for it.
Whichever you grow, be sure to verify the species when they make seed pods. Sunshines plants are salicifolia, as evidenced by the sepal morphology.

[fogie rant] Back in '02 there was "no H. myrtifolia in the seed trade" when I got "salicifolia" from 3 australian sources. I grew out all three and two groups clearly turned out to be H. myrtifolia And, being up to my nipples in seed, I spread its progeny across 3 continents. Chances are, any myrtifolia seed bought today could be traced back to plants being mistakenly grown as salicifolia in australia 13 years ago. Something to bear in mind when reading the old aussie forum archives. [/fogie rant]

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[XDX]

These are my "H. myrtifolia" I got about a year ago from wss.
They were together in a lil pot and were probly half the height they are in that first pic.
The second pic is about as good as I can get of the seed pod
The 3rd, just notice how small the leaves are, and how they grow pretty compact on the branches, leaves aren't much longer than a cm
For the few month I had a "salicifolia" plant (wss), the leaves grew longer,(between half inch to inch&half) and the "branches" took longer to wood up.
The 4th pic is all the bottom shoots coming up- Id expect them to be as big as the rest of the plant in a month, 2 at most.... But I don't expect the plants to grow much taller in overall, or slowly if they do.
The last pic is a flower from last summer off one of those myrts.
Whatcha think?

One more note; so those plants show I purchased as plants. I purchased seeds from the same vendor, and they grew the same like these plants, I just let them all die. Good germ, all that's mentioned before. These seeds were small, but visible, like nicotiana seeds
Every batch of salicifolia seeds I've worked with looks like crushed up flowers/seed pods- some prices of pods, an a bunch of yellow dust that consists of maybe 2-3 different poetical types (from what I can tell?). Idk what part of this is suppose to be seed, it's just yellow dust, like microscopic seeds, like vanilla seeds but smaller or something. I've tried sprinkling all of it, lightly and heavily, premoistened or light mist after, always humidity, high light, ~80F, I've tried mixing it in a bit, idk, nothing works.
These "myrtifolia" work, w/e they are, I like them  they're just so small!

[Auxin]

Pic 2 is myrtifolia, pic 5 is salicifolia.
In myrtifolia the seed pod is a round or somewhat flattened globose 'paper baloon' filled with seeds and the sepals wrapped around the seed pod often dont completely cover it, and the 'spike' looking tips of the sepals are short.
In salicifolia those tips are long and finger like, the sepal chamber is elongated, and the seed pod is an elongated segmented woody thing.
Its the only fool proof way to tell them apart.
Theres pictures, see plants V and VI...

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[Bach]

To answer XDX's question about ultimate size, both species maxed out for me at about four feet high by four feet wide. In the ground of course, in what constitues soil around here which is mostly just sand.

[kykeion]

I had great success germinating both species with an old aero garden.  With seed that tiny I was afraid of not being able to keep them alive when they were young.  Both of my plants are going strong and are 3-4 years old now.  They are actually pretty hardy once they are mature. I almost lost both of them several times either to lack of water or cold exposure due to poor choice in plant sitters and harsh conditions during moves.  They rebounded quickly with new growth once watered and returned to optimal heat/light conditions.

The flower size between the two is also fairly obvious when compared side by side.  I don't recall off the top of my head which is larger though.  I have gotten tones of seed off both of my plants in the past, never tested viability though, and I have no idea if they readily hybridize or not.

[Auxin]

In my experience, H. salicifolia is self-incompatible and wont accept pollen from H. myrtifolia.
On about a decade ago I started up both, I only got 1 plant from my salicifolia seed but I got lots of myrts, and kept several alive. The myrtifolia group produces seed like its getting paid but the salicifolia plant right next to them has never produced viable seeds.

Has anyone had one single salicifolia specimen (that corresponds to the above botanical drawings) produce viable seeds?

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