Conophytum

[BrianMc]

Well being a bit further north than all participants in this thread so far I have had my best results sowing in February. February weather in the West of Scotland is probably comparable to Terry’s conditions in January.
That does not mean you can’t have success growing at other times and I have sown Conophytum from January to end of April and from September to the end of October. conditions throughout the year can vary from one year to the next, so what is favourable one year might not be the next.
Starting off seeds here in February allows them enough time to bulk up before the hottest part of the Summer. I have found that my February sowings can very quickly catch up to January sowings due to the better light conditions from the start.

I too find that germinated conos suffer from stuffy,closed environments and will dampen off easily if not given free air movement. I germinate my seedlings in a propagator, and if I am not able to check the pots twice a day I will put the pot in a ziplock bag. Either way, as soon as I see germination, I open the bag and after 3 days I remove the pots from the propagator. Any longer than this in a propagator with bottom heat and there is a good chance that I will lose seedlings.

I agree about the extra shading required by seedlings during the summer, but that is to prevent them boiling. The seedlings will want to go dormant if the day and night temperatures remain high, even with shading. The beauty of sowing here in Scotland is that night temperatures are cool so it is possible to keep the seedlings going longer. Having said that, they will still benefit from a short, induced dormancy of a week or two to allow the seedlings to dry out and sheath their seed “body”. When water is commenced they grow with added vigour and no stacking of leaves.

You are probably geographically about half way between myself an Terry, so you could go somewhere in between as a starting point.