As I'm sure some of you have experienced, succulent-ing can be a rough addic--er--hobby when you're on a budget. I've particularly been loving haworthia lately, and what's a succ-er to do when she's lusting after plants that cost half her monthly food budget? (I'm looking at you, Haworthia maughanii! And you, variegated truncata!)
She grows from seeds, of course! Some of these seeds are rather expensive themselves, but still nothing compared to full-grown plants. (I think the most I paid was $10 plus shipping for 10 seeds. And I really hope my girlfriend isn't reading this.)
So the excitement began. Here's a snapshot of the little table outside our house where I do my planting:
She grows from seeds, of course! Some of these seeds are rather expensive themselves, but still nothing compared to full-grown plants. (I think the most I paid was $10 plus shipping for 10 seeds. And I really hope my girlfriend isn't reading this.)
So the excitement began. Here's a snapshot of the little table outside our house where I do my planting:
Round 1 was a bust. A big, fat, hairy failure of a bust. Why, you ask? Well, I read that for haworthia seedlings, you should sprinkle sand over the top after planting them in a thin layer of dirt. The sand shades the tiniest seedlings and ensures drainage. Sounds reasonable.
But why pay $6/bag for sand? Clever girl that I am, I simply drove to the nearest beach, scooped a cup of the dry stuff into a plastic bag, and drove home (no doubt smug with confidence that I'd fooled the "system").
Well, nothing grew. So I waited. Still nothing grew. Two weeks passed. Give it time, I thought. Succulent seeds can take a month or more to sprout.
Two more weeks passed. Nothing. It was a little odd that none of the eight kinds of succulent seeds had germinated, but meanwhile, I set about other gardening tasks, which included figuring out how to get rid of the weeds that sprouted after the winter rains. One site I read suggested using salt. Salt, apparently, is poison for plants.
Waaaaait a minute, I thought. Salt = plant poison. Beaches = salt. So does beach sand = plant poison?! ACK!
But why pay $6/bag for sand? Clever girl that I am, I simply drove to the nearest beach, scooped a cup of the dry stuff into a plastic bag, and drove home (no doubt smug with confidence that I'd fooled the "system").
Well, nothing grew. So I waited. Still nothing grew. Two weeks passed. Give it time, I thought. Succulent seeds can take a month or more to sprout.
Two more weeks passed. Nothing. It was a little odd that none of the eight kinds of succulent seeds had germinated, but meanwhile, I set about other gardening tasks, which included figuring out how to get rid of the weeds that sprouted after the winter rains. One site I read suggested using salt. Salt, apparently, is poison for plants.
Waaaaait a minute, I thought. Salt = plant poison. Beaches = salt. So does beach sand = plant poison?! ACK!
Well, the one wise thing I did while inadvertently poisoning my little seeds was not to plant ALL of the haworthia at once (though I did lose all my echeveria cante seeds and kalanchoe thrysiflora seeds, but those are more easily replaced).
So I tried again in mid-March, eschewing sand altogether this time, and planting in a container with half-inch squares for the seeds (too small, maybe?).
In just two weeks, the glories of germination began to rain upon me! Haworthia truncata seedlings! Lithops seedlings! And even one Agave Victoria reginae seedling! (The AVR one is not as exciting as it sounds, since I planted five and only one germinated, but given my track record, any success thrills me at this point.)
At left, you can see a close-up of my seedlings being awesome little babies. I ordered a few more kinds of seeds from a different source (Haworthia bayeri and Haworthia maughanii--wheeeee!), and intend to plant those later this month.
Meanwhile, though, I have had ZERO luck getting echeveria seeds to germinate. (One of the dudes I got seed from threw in a zillion and a half echeveria afterglow seeds.) They're just lurking beneath the soil, mocking me and refusing to grow. So: have any of you succ-ers had any luck growing echeveria from seed? What technique(s) have you used?
OMG, I love spring SO much!
So I tried again in mid-March, eschewing sand altogether this time, and planting in a container with half-inch squares for the seeds (too small, maybe?).
In just two weeks, the glories of germination began to rain upon me! Haworthia truncata seedlings! Lithops seedlings! And even one Agave Victoria reginae seedling! (The AVR one is not as exciting as it sounds, since I planted five and only one germinated, but given my track record, any success thrills me at this point.)
At left, you can see a close-up of my seedlings being awesome little babies. I ordered a few more kinds of seeds from a different source (Haworthia bayeri and Haworthia maughanii--wheeeee!), and intend to plant those later this month.
Meanwhile, though, I have had ZERO luck getting echeveria seeds to germinate. (One of the dudes I got seed from threw in a zillion and a half echeveria afterglow seeds.) They're just lurking beneath the soil, mocking me and refusing to grow. So: have any of you succ-ers had any luck growing echeveria from seed? What technique(s) have you used?
OMG, I love spring SO much!
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