Latest developments in the foolish sowing of tropical African seeds in the cool, dark Australian winter:
I was all but ready to give up on the Pachypodium horombense seeds when I had a miraculous germination. Somehow, amid the mould outbreaks, a seedling has emerged. I have been removing seeds that showed any signs of fungal infection and spraying regularly with hydrogen peroxide. In the last few days, a second seed has germinated. Persistence pays off.
That said, the Pachypodium eburneum seeds are almost certainly going to be a failure (along with the already discarded brevicaule and densiflorum seeds.) Removing fungus-infected seeds as they outbreak has left almost none of the original 18 in the pot. Overall, a measly 3% germination from all the Pachypodium seeds purchased from Out of Africa Plants.
Mildly better news on the Euphorbia front. The first seed to germinate was a Euphorbia subapoda seed, which sprung up nine days after sowing. It is so far the lone subapoda in its pot.
Only yesterday, I noticed that two of six Euphorbia unispina seeds had germinated. No movement yet from their neighbouring poissonii or pachypodioides seeds, however. At this point, Out of Africa's euphorbia seeds have germinated at a rate of 7.5%, but with few mould outbreaks, I have expectations that this figure will climb over coming weeks.
The big success story is the Euphorbia gymnocalycioides seeds that I purchased from a Russian ebay seller. 4 out of 5 seeds have now germinated, and they have started shedding their seed coats and revealing their cotyledons. Here they are, still enjoying the humidity of the baggie (I will remove them when they have all shed their seed coats and put on some extra size.)
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Aloinopsis wrote: ↑Wed Jul 03, 2019 9:33 am
I have also sown seeds in the middle of winter. Cactus seeds same much more receptive to this than Euphorbias in my experience.
This may well be true, but I'm controlling the climate with heat and light such that the seeds shouldn't know any better. Verified fresh Euphorbia seeds that I have sown have shown excellent germination this winter, so my only conclusion is that the seeds sent by Out of Africa were not of very high quality.
Anyway, here's some photos of some plants that have germinated:
I have recently sowed Lithops and some more Euphorbia.
On June 28 I sowed 14 Lithops otzeniana cv. Cesky Granat and 50 Lithops julii cv. Kikysiyu Giyoku.
So far, 11 Cesky Granat have germinated and 22 Kikusiyu Giyoku. They currently remain in high humidity but will be removed in about a week.
Yesterday, I sowed 22 Euphorbia bupleurifolia.
As an experiment, I soaked all seeds in water. After an hour, twelve seeds had sunk and the others remained on the surface. I separated these seeds and allowed them to continue to soak. The next day, I sowed all the seeds that had sunk in one pot and all of the others in another pot. I will be interested to see the germination rates that result.
It has been a month since my last post and there has been lots going on as the Australian winter begins to draw to a close. First, a big batch of Lithops seeds sown. These were all sowed on a mix of 90% pumice sand and 10% seed raising mix in baggies on a heat mat. Seeds were left in the baggie for a few weeks until germination was suitable then removed. Seedlings are misted daily at this stage.
I have also continued with the Euphorbia sowing adventures. I purchased a ridiculous number of Euphorbia obesa seeds from Cape Succulent Seeds and sowed them in baggies on the heat mat. There were some fungus outbreaks after about 60 seeds had germinated so rather than try to suppress the mould I just removed them from their enclosures and germination quickly stopped. I also had a second attempt with a different vendor for Euphorbia pachypodioides seeds and have had much better luck after just a few days. Meanwhile, the bupleurifolia seeds from my last post have been down for about a month now and the first germinated just the other day, I expect to see more start to sprout in coming weeks.
Euphorbia pachypodioides (Afroplants) Sowed 22, Germinated 10 - 45%
And now for some pictorial updates of seedlings from earlier this season.
Firstly: Euphorbia poissonii. These took about six weeks to germinate, so these are about three weeks old. They're a bit odd looking, with their cotyledons seemingly joined at this point. I expect they'll separate as the plant starts to come into its true leaves.
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Next up, a nice contrast: the closely related Euphorbia unispina. These are about six weeks old and, although you can't really see in this shot, they're starting to put on some growth between their cotyledons. Their stems have also swollen noticeably since they first sprouted.
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Rounding out the Euphorbias, here's some gymnocalycioides seedlings. They're very small to look at but they're starting to look like tiny versions of their adult selves.
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And here are some Pachypodium namaquanum just coming up towards three months old.
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Lastly, Gymnocalycium friedrichii LB2178 'Agua Dulce'. These guys are wallowing in an absolute cesspool of harmless algae, but that isn't stopping them from growing at a remarkable rate, they're just over three months old but the largest of them is already approaching 1cm across.
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Now seems an appropriate time for an update on the Euphorbia bupleurifolia seeds I sowed back in July. At the time, I posted that I had experimented by splitting the seeds into two groups: the floaters and the sinkers, to see if this had any impact whatsoever on germination. Well, for a time, it seemed as though nothing at all was going to germinate and so the whole thing would be moot! However, six weeks later and the results are in... they started popping up like weeds just last week, enough to make a determination.
SINKERS
Sowed 12, Germinated 6 (50%)
FLOATERS
Sowed 10, Germinated 6 (60%)
Looks like it means absolutely diddly-squat whether seeds float or sink (at least for E. bupleurifolia!) Anyway, here's a photograph of the little things just a few days on.
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Spring has arrived in Australia and so there's a lot of seeds being sowed. This is the time of year that I'll sow most of my cactus seeds, as well as whatever other random succulent seeds that are still lying around.
Here's a quick review of recent plantings. Many of these have just started germinating so these numbers should inflate with more time.
I've been sowing a lot of seeds these last few weeks. Some has come up like weeds and others have been absolute duds. Thought it worth an update. Still have a about thirty pots more to sow in the coming weeks so I'll do a complete wrap-up soon.
Firstly, here's how the seeds from my last post have progressed.
Some very exciting news today - inspecting my pots, I noticed two seedlings of the notoriously tough to germinate Mammillaria bertholdii had sprung up! The pot has a mix of year-old seeds and fresher seeds, and all expertise suggests that they need time for germination inhibitors to breakdown before they'll germinate. As such, at the end of this growing season I'll transplant the seedlings and set the pot aside for next year, and try all over again.
I have now finished my seed sowing for 2019 (unless some unforeseen seed opportunities present themselves!) With that in mind, I thought I'd start tracking in full my efforts, so I can update with images and numbers as the year progresses. Divided up by family, here's the sum of my seed adventures this year.
Looking at the germination percentages, there's probably a big takeaway from it all -- sow seeds fresh.
Euphorbiaceae Name - Date of sowing, Number germinated/Number sowed, Percentage germinated Euphorbia Bupleurifolia (batch 1) - 18 July, 14/22, 64% Euphorbia Bupleurifolia (batch 2) - 4 September, 14/36, 39% Euphorbia Gymnocalycioides - 19 June, 4/5, 80% Euphorbia Hedyotoides - 28 August, 0/7, 0% Euphorbia Obesa - 7 August, 67/209, 32% Euphorbia Pachypodioides (batch 1) - 21 June, 0/14, 0% Euphorbia Pachypodioides (batch 2) - 16 August, 16/22, 73% Euphorbia Paulianii - 28 August, 0/8, 0% Euphorbia Poissonii - 21 June, 2/10, 20% Euphorbia Stellata - 19 June, 1/12, 8% Euphorbia Subapoda - 21 June, 1/10, 10% Euphorbia Unispina - 21 June, 4/6, 67%
Moraceae Name - Date of sowing, Number germinated/Number sowed, Percentage germinated Dorstenia Foetida - 14 April, 4/14, 29% Dorstenia Gigas - 28 August, 2/9, 22%
We're well into spring down here in Sydney and the seedlings are loving the warmth. I thought I'd share some interesting observations from some of the more exotic succulents I'm growing from seed for the first time.
Firstly - Adenium socotranum. From the island of Socotra, these little guys will grow into magnificent caudiciform specimens if I can keep them going. All the literature says to treat them like tropical plants during the growing season, so they stay very well watered. Interestingly, one of the seedlings lost its cotyledons as it emerged from the seed case, which I assumed would be a death sentence. But here we are two months after sowing and the little seedling is continuing as if nothing were wrong - in the photo below, you can see it in the bottom right corner of the pot, with the first hints of its first set of true leaves emerging. Surprisingly, its stem is not even much smaller than the other plants.
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Next up - Dorstenia gigas. More oddities from Socotra. They've taken a while to germinate, but I sowed four in this pot and they all popped up. I have another pot still in humidity, trying to nudge a few more into sprouting. Another plant that loves it warm.
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Then we've got Euphorbia pachypodioides. I love these little guys for their thin red trunks and tiny leaves. I had a horrifying outbreak of mildew in a pot of Euphorbia obesa seedlings nearby which quickly spread into these guys, and given their delicate appearance I was convinced that they were all going to die. I sprayed them with a fungicide and their immediate reaction was to shed all their leaves -- that, I was certain, was their death sentence. But a month later and they've all pretty much recovered. Resilient!
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Lastly, some seedlings not from this year's sowing but from last year - Rimacactus Laui. Widely reputed to be one of the most difficult cacti to keep on their own roots. I sowed these one year ago almost to the day and I'm impressed that they're still going. Over the course of the year I've grafted four seedlings as an emergency backup, but these two still keep on keeping on. They lived in a baggie for about eleven months, but the moisture in the baggie slowly dissipated, so they've largely been dry for three or four months. I removed them from the baggie a few weeks ago, and gathered up the courage to bottom water them a week ago. They haven't keeled over yet, so that's a good sign. Anyway, here's a photo as they are now, followed by a photo of a Rimacactus that was grafted on Pereskiopsis in December last year:
wow that's allot of seeds. "Escobaria abdita - 29 September, 0/51, 0%" that's too bad I have been looking for these. Sometimes seeds sprout a year later for me, not many but its possible.
keith wrote: ↑Sun Nov 03, 2019 1:21 am
wow that's allot of seeds. "Escobaria abdita - 29 September, 0/51, 0%" that's too bad I have been looking for these. Sometimes seeds sprout a year later for me, not many but its possible.
Yes - seed sowing is a terrifying addiction. They take so little space to sow, and then they grow up and there's no space at all!
The list I posted previously is a little out of date, however none of the Escobaria abdita ever germinated. An utter disappointment, thankfully tempered by the many other weird and wonderful species I have growing. I have started doing some seedling grafts to speed everything up, so I will post some more progress soon.
