Empress tree questions

[Treetops]

I live in the Arizona sonoran desert where any hardy shade tree is a blessing. So like most people I saw all the hype about royal empress trees. I looked on ebay found 300 seeds for 5$ and figured what the hay, why not? I have very little experience growing anything.

I got my seeds about 3 months ago, I followed the germinating instructions, keep indoors, place in a pot cover with a plastic dome (I used saran wrap) and keep under a 40 watt bulb, I planted some above the soil and some below since I have read both ways in different instructions. Any who just as I was about to give up on these seeds sprouting, I finally saw a sproutling, I gently touch the 1 inch 2 leafed very small stemmed sprout and it fell over . 2 Weeks later an I now have another 1 inch 2 leaf sprout and I dare not touch it . Now I figured its no longer a seed what should I be doing differently now? Someone suggested to me to take the saran wrap off and only light it for 16 hours a day, 3 hours after the wrap was off my 2 little leaves disappeared, likely shriveled away. So I now have the wrap back on and I am hoping this sprout will not die. Ok right now I have the wrap on the pot and I mist water into the pot(1 footx1 foot and about 1 foot deep) once a day keeping the soil constantly moist. And I have 24 hours of light on it. Should I change this? These were the germinating instructions but they are the only instructions I have.

Currently I plan on making a saran wrap dome out of close hangers and hope the sprout keeps growing. Any better ideas?

If I can get it to a foot high I know what to do from there btw.

[biwa]

Usually I grow this from cuttings not from seed, so I'm not an expert by a long shot but I'll take a stab at this.

The saran wrap creates a high humidity environment that is good for germinating, but is bad after that because it encourages fungus to grow. Keeping the soil moist sounds like a good idea to me; the dirt here is always damp and those trees grow well around here. I'm not sure if misting is the best way though; I would worry that misting only gets the surface of the soil wet. If it were me, I would try watering it more thoroughly but less often.

The 40 watt bulb isn't bright enough now that it has germinated. Mold loves dim light like that. I would recommend getting a brighter light or putting it near a window. Putting it outside is also an option, but be careful not to let the plants get sunburned.

If you decide to move it outside, put it somewhere shady for a week or so to get it used to the UV light. Then move it to a sunnier place, preferably one with more morning sunlight and less afternoon sunlight (the afternoon kind is harsher).

Also, I have often found that mysteriously disappearing leaves on newly germinated plants is caused by my cat or another animal walking on the plants. You might want to be sure your pets aren't unintentionally damaging them.