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« on: June 11, 2017, 05:53:51 AM »
Hi, I have some Muntingia calabura / Jamaican Cherry seeds and am having a nightmare trying to germinate them. I have bought 2 different lots of seeds off ebay from two different parts of the world. So far to try and get them to germinate I have tried :
Putting them in a damp piece of toilet roll, wrapping in plastic and putting in a heated propagator
Putting in the soil in pots in a unheated propagator in a greenhouse
Putting them under a grow lamp in a unheated propagator in a room that is generally 20-25c most of the time with grow light on 247
Putting them in a pot just under the soil sat under a grow lamp turned on 247 in a room 20-24c
None of the above work, so im wondering whether dried seeds are even viable for Muntingia calabura ?. As everything I have read they seem to sow the fruit and seed directly into the soil for the best result. Getting hold of fresh fruit in the UK is impossible from what I have found though.
I have found plenty of places in Australia, USA that sell the live trees but dont ship internationally.
I have fruiting mango tree, a lychee and a avocado in the same 20-24c grow light area and they are all growing just fine, and will be transplanted to a tropical greenhouse we are building on a farm with 7 metre head height. Its all going to be heated for free by the waste heat from my brothers wood chip heating / wood kiln business that runs 247 365 days a year, so heating isnt going to be a problem in the long run, it will be like the tropics in there.
I have successfully germinated several types of guava, key lime, sugar apple, cheramoya, melon etc but Muntingia calabura is a nightmare.
The issue I have is getting the damn things to germinate in the first place, once they are growing we will have a perfect home for it, but getting hold of a seedling or seeds that actually sprout is proving very difficult.