Seed Determination

Faucaria kingiae Grahamstown
Batch 5 sowed 6/11/2012

A couple of years ago I was introduced to the art of growing succulents from seed.  I never considered the possibility until an online succulent enthusiast and friend, posted photos of plants he germinated from seed.  You may know him through his blog Little Treasures of Life (LT).  I was in awe of his "babies".  LT had an amazing collection of seed sown mesembs, aloes, and other succulents.  I couldn't wait to take up this new venture!! Armed with an online order of seeds and detailed instructions, I sowed my first batch.  I will never forget how excited I was to see tiny green specs peeking out from between granules of sand. I did it! How difficult can this be?

That was two years and about five batches ago.  I've had amazing successes, and even more failures:  Too dry, damping off, too cold, too leggy, low/no germination, mildew, etc.  I teetered between discouragement and determination but in the end, the reward of owning succulent plants from far regions of the world, that I planted myself, made it all worth it.  

This is a documentary of my most recent seed starts.  I am still on the low end of the learning curve, so this will be at least interesting and at most....I will have lots of new babies!

Batch 6 sowed 07/24/2012
Lithops - Faucaria - Cephalophyllum - Aloinopsis - Odontophorus - Argyroderma
Sclerocactus - Echinocereus - Ferocactus - Gymnocalycium
Watered and topped by plastic wrap.  Placed in bright shade.

The Medium
2/3 equal amounts of perlite and course sand; 1/3 cactus mix potting soil (all sterile).
Seeds are covered by a layer of course sand topped by fine sand.


Next post....germination!