First Cyclamen seed to germinate?

I followed the technique shown in some wonderful Youtube videos by an account called Stinky Ditch Nurseries, on how to germinate Cyclamen seeds. The wonderful gentleman explained how to first soak them in water with a drop of washing up liquid for 24 hours, then rinse and soak in clear plain water for another 24 hours, then put them in folds of damp kitchen paper. He said they take about 2 weeks to germinate like this, sometimes a bit longer.

I put mine in folds of damp kitchen paper on 9th December, and now on 26th September, boxing day, I think I have the first tiniest sign of germination, maybe the beginnings of a root? These seeds are Cyclamen Hildebrandii. I had looked after exactly 2 weeks and there was nothing, but the Stinky Ditch Nurseries man did say they can take maybe a week longer.

I have read elsewhere that Cyclamen seeds can take a very long time to germinate. It seems this folded damp kitchen paper technique works best?

 

Well done
I think you will find the older the seed the longer they take to germinate, not the species you have, but I took some out of a seed case back in September and just put them in a pot on the greenhouse bench, I've now got a pot full of tiny plants.

 

Get them potted on before the radicle gets entangled in the paper. I used to do this when I grew them commercially yonks ago.

 

Thanks, great advice. I just potted on that tiny Cyclamen hildebrandii seed into a small pot of coir on the kitchen windowsill, and I looked through all my other seeds and found a Cyclamen mirabile that also looked to have a small beginnings of a root on it so put that one also in a tiny pot of coir on the windowsill. The other seeds I am leaving in the damp kitchen paper and will check on them every couple of days.

 

Up until today I hadn't noticed anything happening in the seeds in small pots on the kitchen windowsill. Today I put another tiny sprouted hildebrandii seed, which as well as the tiny radicle had a tiny white bulb on it, into the same pot with that previously sprouted hildebrandii seed. I found that the previous one also now has a tiny bulb on it, which it hadn't before.

So two hildebrandii seeds that seem to be properly sprouted, now in a small labelled pot on my kitchen windowsill.

I am experimenting with how to label plastic terracotta plantpots, and writing on them with pencil seems to be the easiest, as even waterproof pen rubs off. Still difficult. Those white plastic labels tend to get separated from their pots, and interfere with the seedlings' space and light.

I think maybe once they have the small bulb as well as the radicle they might no longer need darkness, as they have already sprouted. I had been planting them about a centimetre deep in the pots, and that first hildebrandii seems to have moved itself to the surface. The second hildebrandii I just put on top of the compost and moved a little compost around it to keep it moist, but didn't cover it up completely.