Tabernanthe iboga:
Day 1 (Nov 29)
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(Tabernanthe iboga seeds from //http://www.CerberusExtract.comwww.CerberusExtract.com)
Seeds were counted out and soaked in water with 1-2 drops of h202 for 1-2 hours. I used a Hydro Farm Hot House propagation chamber as pictured below. Next time I will use a different propagation chamber and explain why later on in the write up.
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Follow the the instructions that came with the Coca plugs.
Planting the seeds:
When the Coca plugs have soaked up enough water to fully hydrate lift the plastic insert out of the tray and drain the excess water, then set the insert back into the tray.
Use a pen or other similar object to create holes in the coco plugs to plant the seeds in.
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(Make holes with a pen for the seeds)
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(A hole made with pen ready for a T.iboga seed)
Now take the seeds that are soaking in water + h202 solution and drop one seed per hole/coca plug.
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(Coca plugs with T.iboga seeds ready to be covered and placed on heat mat)
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(a flat ready to be covered with the humidity dome and placed on the heat mat)
There is more to come..
I can't wait to see more! :D
Irie Roach,
Looking well set up there!
I got my I-pods in today....
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Inside the I-pod.....Four seeds!
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Respect
Z
Here is a copy of an email I sent about starting Iboga seeds. I'm posting it here because I haven't had time to cover this in my grow log and it's different then what I have done in the grow log. I will cover this later on and edit the log.
Why did you send the seeds to me dry ?
This is how I got the seeds from Africa. It took 3 weeks to get them in the mail.
I thought that the seeds were going to be shipped to me in moist baggie.
When seeds come in dry I do not moist them again. This could cause them to germinate and die.
FYI, iboga seeds die when they dry out. Is this true ?
No this is not true. I had germination rates of 60-80% with 6 month old seeds.
I will put these seeds to germinate in wet environment right away. Lets see if they are still good to grow. I bought iboga seeds many years ago and all the dry seeds were dead and the seeds that were moist germinated.
The seeds might have been alive and you didn't know it. When the seed coat is fresh it comes off seed head easy and the seed will sprout out of the soil. When the seed coat is dry and has soil on top of it it can't push its way out of the soil and will rot. Even though the seed produced roots.
You need to start the seeds in coca plugs. The ones that come with this product
http://www.homedepot.ca/webapp/wcs/stor ... PartNumber (http://www.homedepot.ca/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/CatalogSearchResultView?D=916867&Ntt=916867&catalogId=10051&langId=-15&storeId=10051&Dx=mode+matchallpartial&Ntx=mode+matchall&N=0&Ntk=P_PartNumber)
Make sure its the plugs that have a mesh wrapping around them. Plant the seeds one per plug and place into the grow chamber. After 7-14 days lift out each plug and check for signs of roots. When you see roots dig the top layer of soil away until you seed the seed head. Leave the plant grow for 1-2 days until the seed head starts to stand up.
Once the seed head is standing a bit get some vermiculite, moist it with warm water. Place the damp vermiculite around the seed coat and leave sit for 24 hours. Remove the damn vermiculite, the seed coat is now soft and should come off if you hold the stem of the plant and work the coat with your fingers. Now the plant is ready to grow!
See most people don't know the seed has sprouted and it dies. Six month later they dig up the soil and seed a rotten seed. With this method you can see the roots sticking out of the side or bottom of the coca plug and then know your seedling needs some help.
-roach
Irie,
I like the verm trick! Sounds like a good method to get the Novos to shed their coats!
Soaked the fresh seeds from one pod for 24hrs in spring water.
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I've decided to germ them in vermiculite.
Respect,
Z
I've used peat moss in much the same way though verm might be better. I would suggest using a little peroxide in the water to inhibit mold and bacteria. Not too much though.
Seeds have started to sprout 1-2 days ago. I will try to take some pics and post them soon.
-roach
How are those coming, roach? I think we are all very interested. I seem to recall a tec i heard years ago about taking the coat off this seed. They kept it moist and used tweezers to carefully break the coat and then little by little remove it over a period of days. They said not to do it all at once or you will tear the seedling. You seem to be saying just break the coat a little and let them struggle their way out.
I should have pics posted before the weekend.
I can remove 5-10 seed coats in less then 45 sec. Going to see if I can post a vid on youtube and will have a link from my site.
Lets say someone had a few sprouts come up and the seed coat was still on. What should they do?
Is mold a problem on the shell or does that help? Putting damp moss on the shell is good? I heard slowly peeling it off day by day is good, what works for you?
Keep the humidity level high. Mold did not harm my plants. When the sprout is standing up and the seed head is out of the soil (you might need to help it with this) leave it grow for 3-4 days and then hold the stock of the plant, grab the seed coat with other hand and split in half. It should then slide right off. Takes 5-10 sec.
Moist moss will help keep the seed coat soft.
If someone had several sprouts in a tray of soil, at what stage would you transplant the seedlings? After the leaves show, at a certain height, or what? How easily do they transplant? Pics would be nice.
Hi Stoney
I have extensive Iboga growing experience, especailly from seed.
First i would say spaghnum or vermiculte are the best mediums to use to keep your sprouts in. It keeps them moist consitently without to much mould problems. When you seed sprouts, it will put off one big tap root and several side roots.
The stem should be white, When it slowly turns green its safe to split them out of the seeds. The reason you wait for the green is because nearly 99% of the time the coltyledons are green inside so its safe to remove the seed coat. Although ive done them prematurely and they most of the time grow its better if they are green.
The seedlings are very hardy and the roots can take alot of handling. Even if you stuff up and snap the tap root they can overcome it and keep growing.
Once you get the coat off stick them back upright in a planted fashion in the spaghnum and wait till the cotyledons open and the first true set of leaves show. Your then safe to plant out in your prefered potting medium.
Roach congrats on germinating your seeds. Dry seeds can still be used as you realised. Of course its much better to use fresh seed.
Infact theres a trick you can do by dehydrating and rehydrating the seeds to make the germinate faster.
Regards
You know your stuff, cas. Reports from the field agree with what you say. Would you let the soil dry out before watering or keep it slightly damp and water when it's not quite dry? I heard from someone who had an iboga which grew part of the year and always died back. Do you think it was from sunlight hitting it like roach said or some other reason? About how long from seedling opening it's cotyledons to second or third set of leaves?
Thanks for the kind words stoney, I am just a humble friend of the plants.
For seedling media i use coco peat with perlite and a tiny bit of compost to add some good bugs. Infact i use coco peat for all my propgation until i put plants in the ground. I keep the medium moist at all times, When i say moist i mean just moist, not soaking wet.
They dont like drying right out when they are babies, some will bounce back, others wont.
Get a mister bottle and just spray the surface of the media to keep it the right level of moisture if you follow. A daily spray should be enough to keep you out of trouble.
The dehydrate/rehydrate trick i was more referring to getting seeds to sprout more than after. Get a hort tray, or a kitty litter tray, fill it with spagnum moss (this really is the best medium of all for iboga seedlings) just through your seeds in and mix it around and put some towel over the top, every few days check for new sprouts and do as above that i stated before.
Ive noticed if you let the moss and seeds dry out a bit until half of the outer coat is looking dry, then re wet them again moist it triggers fast germination. I hope this all makes sense, I can write up a nice tutorial with pictures if you like. Theres lots of seedling pics in my photo gallery on SAB if you have membership there. Even a tripoid iboga seedling :)
Regarding die back, Generally if iboga starts dropping leaves its to cold, or not humid. If its caused by sun the leaves will yellow from the veins out and start getting burn patches THEN they drop their leaves. So its very easy to work out which one it is. Iboga will tolerate full tropical sun once trained to. But it has to be a older plant with a decent root system and it has to be gradual.
Iboga really likes a constant 25 deg Celcius as a minimum. It gets way hotter in its homeland of gabbon, Think around 35-40 C temps.
In PNG it takes around 2 -3 weeks from open cotyledons until 3rd node on average. The first year is very slow, in the ideal enviroment they get to about 50cm, then in the second year they really take off and grow like troopers!
Any other questions stoney please feel free to ask, Im sure i can set you on the right path.
Regards, Cas
Here is a close up of one of the seedlings someone has. You can see the true leaves and the seed leaves. I just got some seeds in. I tried uploading to the gallery the other day but it didn't work. I'll keep trying.
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Here is a new pic of a couple ibogas. They seem to like moderate light levels and enough ferts though not a huge amount.
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A little update
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