It's been almost two weeks since sowing seed representing ten succulent genus, see Seed Determination. Of these, five have sprouted: Faucaria, Odontophorus, Lithops, Aloinopsis, and Echinocereus. Culture has been the same for all ten genus (baggie method), and consistent with past sowings, the same genus' have the strongest showing. Also, I sowed a couple of dozen Lithops in one larger pot, yet there are only five sprouts, all located at the perimeter of the pot despite the highest concentration of seeds being sowed toward the middle. Not sure why that occurred, but it may have to do with water condensing and/or heat emitting, from the pot walls.
I removed the baggies from all pots after a week and have been misting twice a day. Temps are unusually cool, nights in the 60's (F), days in the 70's. Still hoping for signs of life from the other pots!
Here are photos of the strongest seedlings. Others are too small to photograph. More updates to follow.....
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| Faucaria kingiae |
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| Aloinopsis orpenii AKA Prepodesma orpenii |
Do you water in this 2 week period? Usually it is water that drifts the seed to the sides and can also cause less optimal germinations! LT
ReplyDeleteThat's a interesting thought and a definite possibility. I removed the baggies after 10 days when first seedlings appeared, and have been fine spraying 1-2 times a day ever since. I don't think there was enough surface water accumulation to push seeds to the sides, but I will take precaution. Seems the Aloinopsis pictured above have sprouted along the edges too?! If they could only talk to me!!
DeleteI lost quite a few seeds because I was impatient and had them mailed to me during the hottest time of our summer. By the time they'd been on the mail truck all day, they'd all died. I found out from the mailman that temps in the back of the truck can get up to 145F!! So I'm going to wait to buy seeds until the cooler months....
ReplyDeleteOne of the places I mail order from is very hot this time of year (Arizona), so that is something to consider. Thanks!
DeleteHello Arid,
ReplyDeleteThe tiny seedlings above look very well. Congrats! :) I've read, that some Lithops species take up to 2 months to germinate, so maybe, they're still waiting for their right moment. (http://ozlithops.com/starting.asp). Love your blog! :)
I've always considered lithops that didn't germinate within a few weeks, as unviable. I'll keep an eye on them longer this time. Thank you for the heads up!
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