Ilvin's Lithops Seedlings

[greenknight]

It's time to transplant. Bigger is better, but they have no room to get bigger. Here's a page that covers this: https://lithopsblog.wordpress.com/2018/ ... splanting/

[Ilvin]

That was my feeling, but they're still so little. Hopefully I don't lose too many of them.

Thanks for the link, thats a very helpful site!

[promethean_spark]

This time of year the old leaves of lithops shrivel up and are replaced with new ones. They will look like they're dying, just like your photo when this happens. Do not water until the old leaves are completely replaced with the new ones. Most people kill lithops because they look thirsty at this time of year and water them.

[Ilvin]

Hi, as I'm in the Southern hemisphere its actually autumn, not spring. My adult lithops has in fact just finished flowering and won't split for months yet. However, lithops seedlings do change their leaves more than once in the first year and some of these guys are doing that.

The issue is more than some of them are indeed changing their leaves, while others are genuinely thirsty. While this is my first time growing from seed, I've read enough online to know that this is normal, but nevertheless a problem. That's why Spence has suggested I transplant them, as well as giving them more room it'll allow for more targeted watering.

[greenknight]

Yes. some of them aren't in very good shape for transplanting but it can't be helped - you risk much more severe losses by not getting them separated. If rot should get started in that mass it would be devastating.

[Ilvin]

All right, I have officially transplanted the square pot. I want to emphasise - this was ONLY the square pot. The final count came in at... 149 lithops.

They were surprisingly easy to separate. I made sure the pot was dry before I pulled them out so they weren't sticking to each other. I only pulled the roots entirely off one very little one (whoops), which I repotted anyway in case it grew back (unlikely). The repotting took a little longer and the result is 11 pots of 1yr old lithops seedlings (12 counting the overcrowded pot I haven't yet touched):

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Well. Thats a lot of lithops, it has to be said.

I have potted the tiny ones together and I'm assuming some of those won't survive. I've also potted the ones that are actively splitting together to make watering easier. The rest are loosely done by size and how thirsty or not they looked.

As an aside I sowed some astrophytum asterias seed a month ago and was so relieved to find the seed large enough to count accurately.

[keith]

Good job

[Ilvin]

Today I transplanted the seedlings from the second pot. I wasn't seeing quite the difference in water uptake that the first pot was having and I wanted to transplant before that started happening.

It went pretty well - there was a lot of roots in that little pot and I had to untangle them, but the little plants seem healthy enough.

This pot had 79 lithops, which I now have in 6 better spaced pots.

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I sterilised all the soil for these pots (and the last lot) because both plants and roots are still so small.