BCSS - Forum

Hi all.

I've been meaning to grow Crassula umbella for a while but can find next to nothing on the internet in regards to germinating and growing on.
I'd be grateful for any advice please before I take the plunge and buy what would appear to be fairly expensive seed.
I have a basic propagator I can use if needs be.

Thanks. Nick.

Where can you order seeds of this species?

Robert Maijer.......he has some success with this species.

ChrisR wrote:Robert Maijer.......he has some success with this species.

I know him (a bit). Not a bad source.

There's also a girl in the Ukraine selling C.umbella seeds on Ebay.

It doesn't help Nick1 but I produce seed by brushing the inflorescences of two clones together. I don't try to clean the tiny seed but when the inflorescences dry up, I scatter their remains on the soil surface of the parent plants. These are kept in a greenhouse that goes down to around 5C during the winter and they germinate during the autumn months, so no additional heat. The first year cotyledons are minute and it takes about 4 years to produce flowering-size tubers. This is for the Robert Meyer umbrella-leafed plants that originated from Silverhill; some other ecotypes just propagate easily from offset tubers.

Aiko as Chris says there are a couple of people on eBay selling seeds. Although I don't know how fresh they need to be to be viable. It's a bit of a gamble I guess as the time it takes to realise they're not it's too late to complain.
Terry any information is of use. As autumn is past would you say it's too late to sow?
If I did manage to germinate some should keep the cotyledons going though the following summer or let them go dormant as you would a mature one?

Probably not too late.

The cotyledons will probably dry up whatever you do once the warm weather comes in the spring. They will have to stay in the seed pot for a couple of years because there is no way you would find the first season tubers in the compost.

Thanks Terry. I have taken the plunge and ordered seeds from a seller who says they were harvested this April. I will post any results worth mentioning.
I don't understand though why this plant is so hard to come by and has so little information on the internet when from what I gather is fairly common in habitat.

I think the reason is Nick that there's only very specialist interest in these plants so they are not in the commercial domain.