I am going to use miracle gro organic potting soil with some perlite in jiffy pots.

Here is a closer view of the organic potting soil.

I measured out four jiffy pots full of organic potting soil

and added two jiffy pots full of perlite.

Here it is mixed together. It looks just great and it nice and light and fluffy.

OK. Let’s plant the olive seeds.

That green teaspoon worked just perfect for picking up the soaked seeds.

There we go, all six seeds planted.

Now we cover them up with some more organic potting soil

and give them a drink of water.

Cover up the lid on the mini greenhouse and we are all set to go.

I hope filing a notch in the seed shells to scarify them works and they germinate quick.

I read the instructions that came with the seeds and did some research online.

Tea plants prefer rich soil with a ph balance of 5 – 6 which is very acidic.

As far as I know there are few plants that can grow in soil with a ph balance as low as 5.

Adjusting the ph balance of the soil to make it more acidic is easy, in fact it is all too easy!

Just add fertilizer. Any kind of fertilizer. Even organic fertilizer. All fertilizers are acidic.

The instructions say to fertilize the tea plants often and I have decided to use miracle gro

organic choice fertilizer. Tea plants like potting soil with plenty of rich compost so I am going

to use mircle gro organic potting soil. Let’s have a look at it.

Now let’s have a look at the seeds.

The seeds are supposed to be planted with the eye pointing up to the sky.

I have a planters pride mini greenhouse seed starter but I am not going to use peat pellets in it.

Instead I am going to use jiffy pots brown paper cups with mircle gro organic potting soil in them with some perlite.

I can only fit six of the jiffy pots in the mini greenhouse so I poured out five cups of

the organic potting soil and mixed in one cup of perlite.

Let’s get the seeds planted.

Note the eye is pointing up at they sky.

There we go. I have a gallon of purified water to which I added 1ml of superthrive, two tablespoons

of hydrogen peroxide and 1ml of miracle gro organic choice fertilizer.

According to the instructions Camellia sinensis – tea plant seeds germinate with the night

temperature at 55F and the day temperature at 68F which is fairly cool. I am not going to put

the incandescent light bulb on it as it would heat it up too hot. The instructions also say

germination can be erratic and can take up to one month. I hope they sprout!

Good drainage is always a must so I am go to put in some lava rocks.

Now I am going to add a good thick layer of perlite.

Finally, here is the miracle gro seed starting potting mix. It’s nice and fluffy.

There we go. Next we will have a look at the seeds.