rick z

I don't know about giving up without actually diggin up the seeds to see how they look. I understand that if they have germinated you could easily end up killing them off. However, unless they have germinated in the last week, they would be above ground by now, so that is unlikely. If they still look about like they did when you planted them, I would "stay the course" at least 'til the end of this growing season.

I have not had much success with germination of M. sikkimensis either. I started with about 50 that I bought on ebay and planted them in groups of five into individual pots. In each group of five, one seed was unaltered, one was scarified manually with sand paperor a file, one was scarified in sulfuric acid, one was soaked for a week in ethylene water(from ripening apple wedges), and one was soaked for a week in gibberelin water. A new group of five was started every three weeks since November. All of the pots have been kept moist and made to undergo a temperature swing from about 65° at night to about 85° during the day.

Until last week, all of this had produced nothing! Finally, last week, one sprouted. It is a seed from the third group planted, that had been soaked in gibbererlin water. I don't think on this sample of one success that I can offer any advice as to what to try, except, try several things AND be patient.

Good luck.