In my experience my baobabs have taken a couple of years to settle on a good dormancy cycle. Here in SF I get about 6-7 months of dormancy starting in Sept and ending in March. I assume the reason for irregular dormancy is because I germinate the seeds at atypical and random times over the year. Where they grow in west Africa the rains typically come over the summer so it stands to reason that seedling tend to germinate in the middle of the summer. I only water mine when they have leaves. I let the plant break dormancy on its own and then I start watering. Extra water is worse than not enough. They have a lot of reserves and are pretty tough. I'd stop watering it until it is ready for it. Since you are in south Florida you should go looking for established baobabs growing there and see if there are seed pods. Where did you get your seeds? There are several growing near Ft. Lauderdale and in the Miami area. Also most of the botanical gardens have them around there. If you see any I'd be really interested to hear if you can collect seeds. I've only got digitata and am looking out for other species.

I kept meaning to summarize my results but life was just too busy. I ended up getting some unexpected results; however the overall take-home for the experiment was that germination seemed to be pretty high regardless of the method (other than nicking). Update to my latest baobabery: To reiterate the setup-- 7 seeds nicked at the crest, soaked in boiling water 6 seeds not nicked, soaked in boiling water 6 seeds not nicked, soaked in epsom salt cold water 6 seeds not nicked, soaked in cold water All the seeds were placed between wet paper towels in plastic baggies and put near a light (my heat mat broke so this was my best source of heat). A nicked/boiled seed was the first to sprout (day 5); however the remaining nicked/boiled seeds were rotten by three weeks into the experiment. The germination rates were: Nicked/boiled: 1/7 Boiled: 5/6 Salt/Cold: 4/6 Cold: 4/6 So overall (not including the nicked seeds) I got 72% to germinate. I should note that by two months into the experiment the boiled (5) and the cold (4) seeds had finished their sprouting, however only 1 of the salt/cold seeds had germinated. I assumed the salt/cold seeds were dead at this point and tossed the baggie into a pile of trash. Earlier this week I was cleaning up stuff and noticed that 3 more of the seeds in the salt/cold bag had sprouted (4 months!) so I removed them and planted those as well. The bag hadn't been sealed to the paper towel was almost totally dry. Other things to note: When the seeds sprouted I found that the best method was to remove about half of the seed coat manually (without damaging the embryo). Total removal worked but was difficult and probably didn't help the little guy too much. In almost every case where I didn't remove the seed coat, the leaves got stuck in the coat and I had to chop them in half to free them otherwise they tore and began to rot. Chopping the leaves had no ill effect on the plants. After a few of the seeds got moldy from I tried peeling them (they had not germinated at this point) and shockingly two of them grew although one died after a few days so I didn't count that as a successful germination. Many more of the seeds sprouted than I had anticipated so I quickly ran out of space and small pots. Initially I was using these biodegradable pulp pots and shockingly all of these seedlings eventually wilted and (without intervention) died. The seedlings placed in plastic pots (even 3 oz plastic shot glasses w/o drainage holes) all thrived. i was able to save two of the wilted guys by replanting them but I ended up losing many of them. All in all I have 8 healthy plants at the end. I still have a ton of seeds left so if anyone wants to trade or just wants some let me know. I didn't count them, but my bag of seeds is about 9oz so there are several hundred and I have no space for a forest. Maybe I'll go Johnny-Appleseeding around the city :) I'll attach some photos in another...

Upload to a free hosting site, then paste the photo code directly into this message box. For photobucket, it's the third line of code (HTML). Afa, select durable ingredients that average in size between 1/8 and 1/4 inch. If you can find sand in that size (which is usually called small gravel), then yes it makes a good grit. Don't use: fine sand, beach sand, play sand. It is almost always too fine for use in a container. Vermiculite turns to clay-like mush over time, and so it is not a good ingredient for containers. It lacks structure and durability. Perlite, small gravel, and small pieces of screened conifer bark would make a solid mix. No soil. No peat moss. No sand. No compost. Josh

I reckon you can grow them in Sydney. The key thing is that they must not be watered if the temperature is low ie. below 25C 77F !!! It could be you are only watering them a couple of months a year. That is fine. They are kind of tough cookies. If they are real youngsters you could be a bit more generous. - Ian.