Wrong time to sow Haworthia seeds

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Brian
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Wrong time to sow Haworthia seeds

Post 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?
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Aiko
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Re: Wrong time to sow Haworthia seeds

Post 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.
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Re: Wrong time to sow Haworthia seeds

Post 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...
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Re: Wrong time to sow Haworthia seeds

Post 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..?
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conolady
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Re: Wrong time to sow Haworthia seeds

Post by conolady »

I think the fresher the better with Haworthia seeds. I'd sow them ASAP.
First it was orchids, then, since c.2001, cacti and succulents. I'm into South African plants, mainly conos, lithops and haworthias, with a few cacti, especially 'posh' mamms, turbs and other smalls. Now it’s stapeliads as well...
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Brian
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Re: Wrong time to sow Haworthia seeds

Post by Brian »

Thanks everybody. That makes it theee to one so I will sow this weekend.
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Re: Wrong time to sow Haworthia seeds

Post 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 .
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Re: Wrong time to sow Haworthia seeds

Post 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.
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