I've had intentional success with aloes and dyckias. Then I've had accidental success with random Euphorbias, aeoniums, and cotyledons popping all over my yard.

I've noticed some aloes have higher germination and survival rates than others. Aloe thraskii and x principis are my two extremely fertile ones with high germination and survival rates of probably 80%. A. rubroviolacea had a germination and survival rate of about 5%. My A. excelsa had a 0% survival rate last year. Theres alot more aloes i've has success and failures with but the list is already getting long.

I use 100% perlite for seeds and water every 3rd day.

Nice, Garrett. Do you let your hybrid Aloes grow (assuming some "volunteers" are hybrids, or do you pull them? I so want my 'Doran Black' and Kelly Griffen to hybridized, but they bloom a few weeks apart. What size perlite do you use, how deep, and what temperature? I'm hoping for greater success with the new crop of seeds.

Some aloes very well may be hybrids, but for the first few years, most of them, no matter the species look the same (except for the colorful Kelly Griffin hybrids). Besides, If i did pull them, they would have a hard time surviving in their young years of life. I usually use about 4-5 mm perlite, and each seed goes in about a centimeter down. I dont really have an exact temperature for you my seeds are all grown outside with no heaters.

How long are Aloe seeds viable? I collected some in June and never got them planted. I thought they were probably no good by now, but my husband pointed out that they get scattered in nature and often wait quite a while for rain to help germination.

I had 5 different Aloes in bloom at the same time, so there might be some interesting hybrids in there! LOL

They can be preserved for years in dry and dark conditions. The germination rate does go down, however.

Crenda, what aloes do you have blooming at the same time? That sounds like such fun.

Thanks, Garrett. I did have them in the dark, but in my humid area I'm not sure how dry I kept them. Sounds like it is worth an attempt at trying to germinate them, tho.

Kwie - I'm not sure if anything got cross pollinated or not, but I did get some seeds from all of them. I had Aloe vera, A. rooikappie, A. dorotheae, A. maculata and Aloe 'Pink Blush' all blooming at the same time.

Ooh, I love the red ones. Surely you'll get a few hybrids- unless your hummingbirds are very choosy. What great hybrids some of those would make though. If you get some, you must post photos.

I'll have to hand pollinate mine. They've bloomed a couple of times while outside, and the hummers love them, but haven't managed to polinate a single flower. Curious. I used a Q-tip when they were inside and got seeds from about 1/2. They're small plants and don't make many flowers yet.

hmm, to many to name.

Sometimes no succes; sometimes little and sometimes overwhelming.

Kept some, but mostly gave them away.

Harry

This was the second year of some seeds

I finally got both male and female plants of Euphorbia obesa and can grow them from seeds:

Do you hand-pollinate, Harry? Anything other than cacti? Such a nice crop of little plants. You must have a greenhouse?

Raxidor- baby Euphorbia are so cute! They look like fat little green bunnies or big-eared aliens or something. Are they hard to germinate?

Pokémon! That's what they look like! :-D. Love 'em.

I am currently growing Lithops, Echerveria, and cacti from seed. They're a mix so I'm excited to see what I get. They're currently 3 months old so I hope they survive to maturity. I tried Lithops, cacti, and Titanopsis last year but they all died. I did not properly sterilize the soil and cover them up long enough to maintain the moisture in the soil, so I had mushrooms popping up everywhere. This year I was more prepared and they are doing much better. Next time I'm going to give them a deeper layer of soil. I would love to harvest my own seeds one day.

My seed sown Saguaro from 1993...

Gill

Hpanna- so cool! The Lithops are recognizable even at that small size. I'd have never guessed those were Echeveria in the top tray, though. They don't look succulent at all. I'd have mistaken them for weeds and pulled them if they emerged in one of my pots (yikes). I will keep that in mind if I ever get seeds from mine.

I'd love the details of how you got such a nice crop. May I ask where you got your seed? How long did they take to germinate? I've been eyeing some mixed Echeveria seed on eBay. It just seems like so much fun to see what you get.

Gil, love the Saguaro. I grew up in the Sonora desert where they're from. I love it that you're growing one in the UK. One day your great, great, great, great grandchildren will be able to sit under it.

:-D

The echeveria seedlings are rather etiolated/stretched, they are as you say almost unrecognisable, they look more line mustard cress :-( They should be much tighter with hardly any spaces between the leaves. They should look like miniature counterparts of their rosette forming parents. In all honesty, I doubt whether any of them now have the ability to grow into what they're supposed to be...rosettes. If the op has any more seed, I would suggest cutting their losses and resowing, giving them as much light as possible to prevent the same phenomenon from happening again.

Lol regarding the grandkids sitting under the saguaro! I've seen pics of those huge things in films and cartoons so I'm glad it's kept well within bounds in its small pot, I don't want to take the roof off my g/h! I need to ensure the one daughter who persuaded her grandad to buy her the mixed packet seeds in 1993, inherits the pokey plant in my will. So far, she has refused my more than generous offer! It's the only survivor of said seeds.

Gill

I am an impatient sloppy kind of person who really is not the cactus seed kind of gal. BUT I do seed out things that I want a bank for outdoors. Or , I grab a seed pod from a plant and throw it in a pot of unsterilized potting mix with a bunch of added perlite. One breeder/botanist type that I used to follow on another form, mentioned that he did not do a lot of sterilizing or special treatment because he wanted the strong seed not the wimpy guys. He wanted the ones that would survive in the wild. HMM. It is amazing that we listen to the person who speaks our language (confirms and validates our defects of character). LOL.Most of my Seeds are free. I only want one cactus normally so I normally buy them wanting immediate satisfaction, but I love my agave and I was driving by that stand of Agave neomexicana west of Artesia New Mexico and the car just stopped itself. Not many viable seed due to a very happy bug inside but I did get some. That was really true about the yuca seeds that I collected.

Yucca elata

Agave neo-mexicana

Nolina texana from on my land but do not germinate as often as I would like since I am planting them all over the place. I grow these every year and put them out.

Agave striata from a parent plant on my place. It makes seed every year. I want a bank of them. I am thinking of ordering some seed for A striata 'live wire' or one of the populations that turn pink. I will plant them out doors next spring. There is a Agave bachata in the upper left corner.

Notocactus magnificus from seed

Lithops from seed

Echeveria pullidonis

Anacampseros from seed

greets Harry

@ Harry, those notocacti are well......magnificent!

@ hpanna, that's how your Echie seedlings should look, like those in the post above, in other words, rosettes.

Gill

@gill- I was wondering about them. I had them by an east-facing window. I always have problems with my Echeveria etiolating even the mature ones

@Kwie- I got them from ebay from the seller exotic_cactus_collection. They germinated within a week. I'm not sure what is a good germination rate, but from a packet of 100 lithops seeds, 39 germinated. I might try another vendor next time to compare.

@ kwie: It's very easy to grow E. obesa from seeds. The seeds are relatively big and germinate in few days. Seedlings grow fast and seem to be very tolerant to high amounts of light - unlike cacti seedlings that turned red at the same place.
Hardest part of the propagation process was finding good cover to catch the seeds shooting from seed pods :)

Hpanna, I have trouble getting enough light for my succulents too. I use mirrors behind them. Sometimes, I even construct a sort of light box around them using mirrors so I can collect as much light as possible. ive always been careful not to cry them- acclimated slowly, move the mirrors if they get over a couple hours of direct sun, etc., but without the mirrors I couldn't grow succs here at all. Just not enough sun.

I have seen the eBay seller you got your seeds from. I'd been thinking of getting some. I read a little bad feedback for them, but it's good to see their seeds really do sprout.

Harry, your seedlings look great- like miniatures. Those are a couple Pleispolis too, are t they? And the Anacampseros has "fur" even at that size. I wish I had more room for plants.

Raxidor- I hope you'll post photos as your lite guys get bigger. I had to look the species up: they are awesome! That's a Euphorbia I'd like to have.