Product Review

Preparing the Soil When planting hibiscus seeds, use the plastic trays that have about ten rows of little pots, two inches deep. Fill the cups with a fine potting mixture either Scott's or Sam Choice, and generously moisten the cubes before planting. With the point of an old ball point pen, place four holes in each cube. The holes should be twice the depth of your seed that you are planting. Nicking the Seeds Before placing the seed into the hole, nick the bottom of the seed. I know they are small, but envision a coconut with the husk on, the flat bottom side is where you nick, You might ask youself "Do I have to nick the seed?" The answer is "Yes!" Why? When you nick the seeds, you will see that you expose a little piece of white seed meat. If no white seed meat is exposed, throw the seed away. You will find that in some varieties, more than half of the seeds will not be good and if you planted bad seeds, you will have used up a lot of valuable space in your seed tray. Planting the Seeds Drop the seed into the planting hole using an eyebrow tweezer. Try to place the nicked part of the seed facing down. Although I don't know if this is necessary, I believe the important part of nicking is that it allows a little moisture into the seed's innards and promotes growth. Once your tray is planted, sift the potting soil that you are using and cover the seeds with this fine soil to the level of the dirt in the tray. I always dusted the trays with an application of SEVN, a fungicide made especially for preventing "damp off" of seedlings.