Some advice I just gave to a clove seed customer

(yes, I do have some clove seeds but I don't really have time to deal with them so if I have other orders that need to be insepected I list some on Etsy towards the end of the week. I currently tend to ship on Fridays - except for the next two which are holidays and ag inspection will be closed, so I will ship on the Thursdays preceding those)

The following is from 2 message I sent tonight:

You should first see the seed (cotyledons, really) lift off the ground, supported by the root. They always grow roots first, so going into the ground is good. Scooting a little soil up against the sides sounds like a good idea. Yes, they are a bit slow, they're trees after all, not beans. Once they are maybe 1" off the ground something will at some point start poking out upwards. I don't know anything about grow lights, I have never used one. I would make sure that they don't dry out too much.

You're not the only one who has ever contacted me several times, I can understand that you're concerned. Cloves are difficult to grow, yet, believe it or not, somewhat invasive (here). You may also have noticed that while the listing was for 10 seeds I sent you 20. That's because I never know how many die in transport, and you can believe me that I threw out another 50 or so to get together those 20. However, if you have a full grown tree it will produce thousands - when it does, which is somewhat unpredictable. I remember a time when I didn't get any in 2 years as well as a time when I got 2 harvests in one year. And, right now it is raining buckets and has been all day and I won't go to the bottom of the yard when it does that, so the seeds will drop anyway (if there are any left to drop) and sprout in place. Heads up on that: clove plants are difficult to transplant and they have tap roots too, so whenever you think that one of your plants is getting roots near the bottom of the planter, let it dry out a little bit and lift it out of the planter with as much of the dirt as will stick, disturbing the root ball as little as possible and plant into something that is deep rather than wide.

(FYI, Google: I am unable to add labels)