Best succulent seed medium???

6 years ago

I'm going to be growing succulents with my students this year... Or at least trying. Would a 50/50 vermiculite and peat moss mix be a good medium to start seeds?

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Comments (5)

LH CO/FL
6 years ago
Peat moss will get too hard/compact after a while. I start my cactus with 33/33/33 (and 1% of love) blend of miracle grow potting soil and perlite and pumice.
Pagan
6 years ago
I strongly recommend adenium seeds. They are easy, fast and very cute as seedlings. Often, they bloom within a year. You can go over to the Adenium Forum (which I often think of as being next door) and ask the fantastic people there if they have seeds to spare (they usually do, a seed pod will often yield upwards of 80 seeds).

Most other succulents are really not that easy to grow from seeds, especially if you're going to use randomly-sourced seed mixes whose age you can't ascertain.
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Hi Al. I have to use my phone for Internet. DM is auto-corrected from DE - diatomaceous earth. Sorry about that. Yes, I bare-rooted it, washed the roots, and spread them out in the pot. It is all grit, no soil, no bark. I don't have a place to sift messy bark fines in my tiny apartment, so you and I discussed it and left them out. I use exactly the method you describe to get the excess water out of the bottom of the grit after I water this plant. (It seems an enormous pot to me). I don't do it hard enough to get more than a couple tablespoons though. I don't know why I hadn't thought to do that when it wilted. I have done the dowel test though, a number of times, and it comes out dry. I use meat skewers, which are actually bamboo, but that should make little difference. If I leave the skewer in the grit and just pull it out when I'm testing the wetness, the skewer is always damp. If I just shove one into it for a few seconds to test it, it comes out dry. I don't know the optimum amount of time to leave it in. Suggestions? When it wilts, I water it, so I don't know if it would perk up on its own overnight. That's an interesting observation though. With soil it's easy to tell why something wilts. I've been watering it every two days since it last wilted, so I'll return to the previous twice weekly schedule and see if it releases any water with the shake test before watering it again. It is growing surprisingly fast. I cut a broken leaf off of it just a week or so ago, and I'm surprised to see the leftover stub has grown about 1/2 inch. That seems a lot for a Draceana in mid-winter in this climate. All but my succulents, Sansevieria, and Beaucarnea have been growing quite fast all fall & winter though, despite the cold and gloom here. The only exception was a pothos in straight DE, but that took off after changing to 2:1 mix. Thanks for your help, Al. I'll let you know if I get any water out of the pot in a couple days. In case anyone's following this, the thread Al's referring to is below. Here is a link that might be useful: Draceana and increasing disenchantment...
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ewwmayo
6 years ago
No vermiculite, it'll quickly disintegrate into a glittery mess!
Ryan Singrossi
6 years ago
Pagan, I love growing Adeniums from seed! They are super easy and also do well hydroponically. I use to spend a lot of time on the adenium forum under the name "Bob" the older hydroponic seed starting threads are from me. I also love growing fockea edulis from seed, those are some fun seeds to start. On eBay Ko has some really great seeds. I prefer growing the different arabicums and socotranums! I've also bought many adenium seeds from http://www.adeniumseeds.com

Ive only ever had some luck with lophophora seeds other than that in the succulent/cacti category. I tried sowing a flat of mixed seeds that someone gave me after ordering them off of eBay and then finding out how hard they were to grow. I didn't have much luck with them either though. My lophophora's are down in Coarse horticulture sand from EB stone, and kept in a closed humid container for the first few weeks of their life.

Ill look for some of my adenium seed threads to post and if you are having kids sow them I would also recommend Adeniums. What usda zone are you in Howard?
Plantspace (5a)
6 years ago
If it's your first time sowing I would go with a mostly inorganic medium, avoid lava rock (as seed roots can get tangled and stuck inside the holes).

Some of the easiest things to grow from seed are :delosperma, glottiphyllums, anacampaseros, cheiridopsis and phyllobolus! The first three can be sown in late summer and not fussy the latter two need some cooler temperatures but all are easy IMO. Good growing!

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Best succulent seed medium???

Comments (5)

LH CO/FL

Pagan

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ewwmayo

Ryan Singrossi

Plantspace (5a)

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