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Finally…we’re back after 2 weeks of being sick.

These are the seeds we received from Whatcom Seed Co. Of all the plants in the How to Grow Fresh Air book, these were the only ones we could find online. If you remember from our previous post, we’re trying to grow indoor plants that will contribute to clean air both in our homes and in the office.

Here is a picture of the seeds, the big ones are the palm seeds and the tiny flea-sized ones are the rubber plant seeds. They both came with very explicit planting instructions. I’m no gardener but we did the best we could.

For the Palm seeds, Whatcom’s instructions said to soak the seeds in warm water for a few days if they appear dry so we did.

For germination, the instructions said to use “peat, cocofibre or similar media”. We couldn’t find any at our local nursery so we used homemade compost (I take no responsibility for this - composting, including picking out the worms, is entirely my husband’s project) and mixed it with vermiculite. We added the seeds and put the whole mess into a ziploc bag. Now we wait. The instructions say that “seeds take anything from 2 weeks to 2 years (or more) to germinate, however most will sprout after 4-6 weeks”. So I guess it’s a race to see if these seeds will germinate before my unborn child finishes gestating in 10 weeks!

For the Rubber Tree seeds, the instructions were much simpler: “sow them on the surface of a peaty compost mix, keep it moist, cover the container with a piece of glass or clear plastic and leave in a temperature of approximately 70 degrees F in a location that receives diffused light”. Germination is expected in 15-90 days.

Stay tuned.