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Wrong time to sow Haworthia seeds

Posted: Tue Nov 27, 2018 8:21 pm
by Brian
I would usually sow all cactus and succulent seeds March onwards - indoors on bright window ledge. I have a few Haworthia ready to sow from H Society list received around six weeks ago. I was going to wait until spring until sowing but then I unearthed a post somewhere on the forum saying sow when fresh and less than six months old.

Advice appreciated. Would now be a bad time to sow Haworthia seed in my usual way?

Re: Wrong time to sow Haworthia seeds

Posted: Tue Nov 27, 2018 8:47 pm
by Aiko
I would just wait for March, personally. I have not heard that Haworthia loose viability fast. Could be. But I would not take someones word for it unless you have encountered it a lot of times. And even than it could prove to be a myth.

Haworthia do not have a high germination rate, from my experience. But I can't tell that is because they were 6+ months old.

Re: Wrong time to sow Haworthia seeds

Posted: Tue Nov 27, 2018 9:28 pm
by Christian
I'd sow now. I usually get excellent germination from Haw Soc seed, from the five seeds usually in a packet four or five tend to germinate. This year, I got some Gasteria seed, left it six months before sowing - no germination, and of the Haworthias that I sowed from the same list fewer than usual came up. Might be fluke, but seems to support the view that Haworthia seed should be sown as fresh as possible.

EDIT: I went back to my emails to confirm the age of the seed... the Gasterias were sown 15 months after receipt and no longer viable. The Haworthias however were sown 8 months after receipt. Germination as I said was less good than usual, but I still had two or three seedlings come up - so you might be ok actually...

Re: Wrong time to sow Haworthia seeds

Posted: Wed Nov 28, 2018 1:10 pm
by esp
I've had excellent, high percentage germination from Haworthia seeds sown in the autumn - both Aiko's H. truncata seeds from a couple of years ago, so presumably quite fresh, and some H. tesselata from my own plant sown this September - maybe minutes after harvesting. Certainly within a day or 2.
So I'd sow now.
Or sow half now and half in March and let us know if there was a difference..?

Re: Wrong time to sow Haworthia seeds

Posted: Fri Nov 30, 2018 10:33 pm
by conolady
I think the fresher the better with Haworthia seeds. I'd sow them ASAP.

Re: Wrong time to sow Haworthia seeds

Posted: Sat Dec 01, 2018 8:21 am
by Brian
Thanks everybody. That makes it theee to one so I will sow this weekend.

Re: Wrong time to sow Haworthia seeds

Posted: Fri Dec 28, 2018 6:11 am
by Suculentia
I sow now too, in a room with artificial light and controlled temperature and they germinate very well. My winter is so hard in the center of Spain. Sometimes 9 or 10 degrees below zero outside. But inside not less than 10 or 12 degrees .

Re: Wrong time to sow Haworthia seeds

Posted: Fri Dec 28, 2018 2:59 pm
by Kees
You could sow half of them now and the other half in March.
With the right amount of light and the right temperature I don't think it matters very much when you sow.