Hi Lena! These tropical hibiscus (hibisci?) don't grow as large as the hardy varieties, especially in my climate. but mine are off to a good start i must admit, this one is the smallest of the bunch, there are a few that were sown on the same day and they're twice it's size. i do have one i bought at the store which is getting huge, in spite of being told it wouldn't grow much because the dutch growers who sell them treat them with a growth retardant hormone... i think they missed mine for the dose lol i'd like the seedlings to get big, and the store one not to get any bigger, if that makes sense :) about the amount of substrate for adeniums, yes it does give them more stability and consistency of moisture, that is exactly what i was aiming for. low amount of nutrients and moisture but in a greater volume, it stimulates strong root systems for them, though it may not be the most ideal situation for root training. but i don't even think of root training in the first year so... I've found that measuring adeniums in age is less precise than measuring the growth spurts or phases they succesfully went through. for instance my seedlings sown in autumn didn't have a single true growth spurt with the cold winter as their first 6 months. it reduces their "adjusted" age as i like to call it by about a half. a seedling sown in early spring that goes through two or even three growth spurts in the warm season usually looks twice the age of a similar seedling that had a months of cold weather. if that makes any sense (second time :)) ). anyhow, here are a couple more pics with interesting developments from my herd :) this is a pair of twin seedlings (two embryos from the same seed). They are highly unique in leaf form and branch development in my collection. One is a slower grower than the other but otherwise they seem identical. They have poor caudex deveopment, but the overall plant form is very interesting to me and i'm willing to forgive the lack of chubiness :) this is what the larger one looks like now, notice there are bud clusters on every single branch tip. i can't wait to see the blooms,and later hope the smaller one will bloom to compare. two arabicum seedlings. i have a whole tray full of similar plants, loving how their form is developing. all of them are going into hibernation, thank god, so i can put them away and free more space on the windows. grafts. first one was incredibly hard to set up,the scion is a few mm in width and the rootstock is very young. seedling grafted onto rootstock notice how it is pushing out root nodes. i have no idea what to do with it. maybe try and airlayering setup and see if it will really send out roots to then detach it from the stock. two seedlings on one rootstock. i removed the stock bud you can see on the side, to keep all nutrients going to the scions. this plant looks pretty ugly now. i let it grow out because it will be trained in a cascade style in spring. pretty young plant, around a year old now.

Martin, your Bursera look lovely ! I'm quite envious ! :) I would love to grow some from seed. Maybe when I've got some space...I've just put 8 pots of rooted cuttings of P. Afra on ebay as I have too many ! If they find homes, I'll get my heated propagator out again, and maybe try some Commiphora too. I'd really like to try Boswellia, but it's hard to get seeds (and even harder to get them to germinate !) My Bursera is very much a work in progress. When I got it, it had no branches and was about 3 feet long ! The first 6 or so inches was maybe an inch thick - it then tapered off like a whip. It had lost almost all of the few leaves it had whilst in transit (I imported it from Spain !) It's shorter now, and thicker, and has developed some branches - it really is pot luck where they appear - but for me, any branch is welcome considering what it looked like when I got it ! As they are quite rare, I try to root everything I cut off it, and have had some success with that. I'll get some photos later today, or over the weekend.

Are those called centipede roots or octopus roots? Or both, depending on which region of the planet you're standing? I also have some elephant roots "cooking" on a few cuttings. Nothing yet, but the cuttings are miraculously still alive after over a month in a plastic bag without added water! I'll share those under a new thread.

Exactly, Tan. But drying a week isn't as ideal for a little tiny one. It makes it riskier to keep it alive as it looses so much moisture, or can. So this method I'm using is considerably less risky in that respect but otherwise is the same. The roots on yours look great and yes, that's more what I am aiming for - the centipede roots. I think I'll get fewer simply because my test subject is pretty small and has limited space to produce roots. A little larger plant like yours is more ideal to work with - mine will get there in time. Meanwhile I'm fool'n around to see what I can get away with and who knows, I might like the results. ;) I hugely appreciate everyone's input. Great photos! I'll be pruning the roots once formed to make some of them branch early and often, and training them to wiggle here and there, some to cross over gnarly, etc so they aren't /too/ straight, uniform and static. One of my seedlings I only trimmed the tap root on has a beautiful start on a lovely spread of roots. I should get a photo of that one later once it gets a little bigger. I am very pleased with it already.