2010 seedlings

jenni · Post by **jenni** » Wed Nov 24, 2010 12:46 am

So I frankly got tired of hearing Darryl make jokes about "rescuing" my almost dead seedlings..I am not maticulous and dont enjoy babying plants so I never followed through with my seedlings. If they didnt survive my forgetfulness then "oh well". I decided to change that after all the "rubbing" I was getting from my husband. I started Nov 2009 with Ceropegia woodii seed from our plants.

My method this year has been simple. Fill the pot with our normal cactus mix that we put our plants in, add some grit #10, soak it in water, microwave it all together, wait until it cools then add seed and re wet the top slightly with distilled water. Label it, bag it in a ziplock. I was just putting them on a bottom shelf in my greenhouse at home and leaving them in the baggy until Darryl

opened them enough that fugus would start to form and I would then take them out of the bag and put them on the shelf in a tub so I could bottom water them.

Its worked just fine.

Ceropegia woodii (variegated and regular)

Frailea grahliana

Last group planted on 10-10-10

I just transferred all the plants into our propogator in the garage for the winter so that they will get more consistant heat. I am mostly concerned about the nights. I will note that the Ariocarpus and Pseudolithos did not show any signs of fungus in the baggie so I did leave those as is for now.

Tony · Post by **Tony** » Wed Nov 24, 2010 1:48 pm

Seedlings look great Jenni!

If temperature control becomes a problem one thing you might try (if you havent already) is running the lights in the propagator at night instead of during the day.
That way you will get the benifit of their heat at night when its the coldest and less risk of overheating in the afternoon when we have a heat wave in december.

jenni · Post by **jenni** » Wed Nov 24, 2010 3:24 pm

Thanks Tony. Darryl has always been the seed grower.....

iann · Post by **iann** » Wed Nov 24, 2010 4:41 pm

I love growing from seed. I love the idea of of the low maintenance approach. I use baggies, lights on timers, anything to make it all automated.

Then I stare at the pots every single day to see how many have sprouted

jenni · Post by **jenni** » Wed Nov 24, 2010 4:54 pm

That has always been my biggest problem, NOT staring at the pots every day. But this year I commited myself and it is a good pay off. Plus, I get to grow some plants I like that Darryl would always put on the back burner.....

Post by **CoronaCactus** » Wed Nov 24, 2010 8:06 pm

jenni wrote:That has always been my biggest problem, NOT staring at the pots every day.

It's OK, I've done enough staring for the both of us and then some...

jenni · Post by **jenni** » Wed Nov 24, 2010 10:15 pm

^^^Yeah, he cant keep his grubby little hands off my baggies.....

out2searob · Post by **out2searob** » Thu Dec 02, 2010 5:13 pm

Hey Jen those look great,thanks for sharing, I spent 3 hours reading old threads after returning from Gates meeting[/img]

jenni · Post by **jenni** » Sat Dec 04, 2010 3:11 pm

Thanks Rob. In the picture of the Wilcoxia, behind it is the cv. Chewbacca X seedlings I was telling you about

You will learn tons of info from this site. There is lots of "bad" info about plants on the web, but here the members are very knowledgable so you dont have to worry about it.

peterb · Post by **peterb** » Sun Dec 05, 2010 7:14 am

Looking great! Growing from seed is the best.

Keep us posted!

peterb

jenni · Post by **jenni** » Sun Feb 20, 2011 1:20 am

Here are my seedlings of Boophane disticha. We got the seed from Jordi. Every single one came up. I just loooove seed like that.

(you can see my A. dichotoma are getting some girth on them...you can kinda see them through the bulb forest

)

jenni · Post by **jenni** » Sun Feb 20, 2011 1:27 am

I also have about 20 or so baggies of Aloe hybrids going from seed. They are mostly Kelly G. crosses but I have some A. pseudoparvula and A. decongestii crosses too along with wunderkind...sooo many really. They are sloooooooowly coming up. I cannot emphasize slowly enough

Those little buggers take FOREVER to sprout. Im not sure what Im doing wrong, if anything. I have been harvesting them once one of the pods cracks open and putting them in a brown coffee filter (its all that is there at the nursery and I just keep forgetting to take bags) until they all pop open and then I am sowing them a couple days later. Maybe I am being impatient and need to let the seeds sit longer? Maybe they just take this long? Any ideas? Anyone else growing Aloe hybrids from seed?

I am hoping to develope something cool and then hit up one of the local tissue culturers

Tony · Post by **Tony** » Sun Feb 20, 2011 4:05 am

How long is forever?
The ones I have sowed have come up in a couple of days to a week @ 75 to 85F.

Peterthecactusguy · Post by **Peterthecactusguy** » Sun Feb 20, 2011 8:36 am

Jenni,
they all looked pretty good to me. I am starting to think about my little project for seeds soon. I need to make a box for the lights!

jenni · Post by **jenni** » Sun Feb 20, 2011 3:33 pm

Tony wrote:How long is forever?
The ones I have sowed have come up in a couple of days to a week @ 75 to 85F.

3-4 weeks

Thanks Peter