Sue -

looks like it will be more than a year before they bloom.
The person who grows it - is Jon_D - you can "search" for his postings on this forum and send him a personal letter.

They are still too small to transplant - but when they will be bigger - you can transplant them. Now - to speed them up - you can increase the light - put something under the tray so they will be closer to the light - and I would spray them with a weak fertilizer solution from time to time - regular AVs or fish emulsion.

Looks like the tuber can go to the size of 8 inches!
But it will be several months before you see yours - they need to develop the green part first before starting the storage.

And put me on the list when you will be distributing the starters.

Good Luck

Irina

Here is a link that might be useful: The facts

I think the above is good advice. I tend to let mine go WAY too long before pricking them out into pots or large trays, but strong light is a definite must at this stage of the game. Overwatering is the only real problem with growing Sinningias, but you can't let them dry out completely at this stage. The best solution I've found is to stand the pot on a square of polar fleece material which is then kept moist with a weak fertilizer solution as outlined above. Hope this helps!

Thanks for the advice, irina and bubba. I greatly appreciate it. Today I put the tray up on top of a box which raised it up about 4 inches to within about 5-6 inches of the light. I want to watch it to make sure it doesn't start cooking them or drying them out, and see how they do. I'll get some fertilizer this weekend and give them their first dose.

I know this forum isn't terribly busy with posting. So I thought I would just post an update for anyone who might be interested. Apparently this type of Sinningia is not very common. I haven't found one other person growing it besides the one who originally sent me the seeds. She had a plant that she collected from, and had not tried growing from seed herself.

The seedlings are doing well. A scant few of the original 50 or so have died off, but I still have a bumper crop going. Many are now on their fourth set of leaves. They are much less leggy now as they grow taller. The seedlings are still small, the tallest about an inch to and inch and a half. But I have followed the advice from here and from a forum on another gerdening site, and they seem to be getting stronger as they get larger. It has now been six weeks since I planted the seeds. Here is a picture of how they look.

Sue - I would start repotting them - very carefully. In clumps. They would benefit from it - just put them in a small condiment cups several in each. And I would sprinkle just a bit of soil on the top to cover bare stems on the top while repotting (or milled sphagnum moss).

The soil that works for me is a "dirty moss" - half regular violet soil (1:1:1) and half milled New Zealand sphagnum moss. Now yu are getting in a stage when you need to repot or lift and drop them back into their cup again every 2 weeks. It stimulates their growth. And do not worry if you lose some - you do not need all of them in any case.

Good growing

Irina

Thanks Irina, I will do that. I really appreciate the advice and encouragement. It is very exciting to see them grow like this. I have never tried growing anything so delicate as these from seed before. I have some medicine cups that my DH brought home from work. I'll start off with these and progress upwards.
I'll keep this thread up to date as I go along.
Thanks again,
Sue

Post more pics!

I.

Ok, It was definitely not a quick and easy task, had to be accomplished primarily with a toothpick and a small plastic spoon. But they are now all transplanted in clumps into 30cc/1oz medicine cups. There are three or four seedlings in each cup, one may have five - eight cups in all. Some of them had surprisingly longer roots than I expected, but the roots are like filament. I made drainage holes in the bottom of the cups, and they are sitting on a piece of terry cloth in a styrofoam tray. The potting mix was moistened before planting and the terry is soaked with a quarter strength AV fertilizer. They were already perking back up after only a few minutes back under the lights.

Way to go!!

I.

Sue, I have siningia seedlings, 'Country Snowflake' sowed on Jan 21. They are still microscopic little green 'things'. Maybe by September,they will be big enough to trade for your little ones. I'll take pictures and pots to this msg.
Eileen

Thanks Eileen, that sounds like it will be a great idea. Can't wait to see your pics.
Sue

Two Week Update!
I transplanted the seedlings again today, still using the medicine cups with fresh AV mix. They have really been growing well. I separated out the larger ones and put them in individual cups; there are eight of those. The smaller ones are in cups of two or three seedlings. There is quite a variance in size at this point. The roots are all quite long, relatively speaking. I think they are doing pretty well. Next transplanting might need to have the larger seedlings move to the next size cup.

This is exciting for me! I am growing some sinningia leucotricha 'duck n run'. I planted my seeds 2-26-09. So far I have only 1 that germinated. This gives me hope! Thanks for the pics!!!

A friend from Malaysia just sent me some Sinningia speciosa seeds from his garden - three colors! They are just beautiful flowers. SO I guess I am about to embark on more seedling adventures!

OK, here's the next transplant update...
This was the day for the scheduled two week transplant for the seedlings. The largest ones had outgrown their one ounce medicine cups and were moved into 3 ounce plastic cups  seven of these. The medium sized ones were now separated and moved into individual 1 ounce cups  eight of these. The smallest are sharing 1 ounce cups with one other seedling  four of these cups. So a total of 23 viable surviving seedslings at this point.

The roots are well-developed and relatively long. The largest have several sets of fuzzy leaves, similar to African Violets, but not forming a tight rosette as AVs do.

Photos: the large seedlings before transplanting; a large seedling showing roots; large seedlings in their larger cups and the tray of the remaining in the one ounce cups.

My sinn. Country Snowflake seedlings are now big enough to transplant. I put a few in 1oz cups, and some in 3oz solo cups. I am testing to see which ones do better. I still have more to transplant, but they are still too tiny. Here they are in their new home.

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And here is the biggest one I put in a brandy snifter.

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Eileen, Those look great! Neat idea with the brandy snifter too - very nice. Looks like our seedlings are of comparable size and size range. I do think we'll be ready for a trade by Sept.

How are yours doing, adahlberg?

This is neat to be able to compare notes like this, don't ya think?
Sue

When I first sowed the seeds, I was impatient to see them grow. I checked them every day. LOL. Now I look at them once a week to make sure they are still moist. I can see them getting bigger. Looking every day, it seemed like there was no growth. Pretty soon, we should be able to trade our babies. Like you said, Sue, probably by late August, early Sept.
This is so much fun.
Eileen