Seed list

[David_K]

Don't worry, our seed distributor has around 450 orders to fill now that he has the seed but hopes to have all in the post by the end of this week.

[Aiko]

Mine also have not arrived yet. Hopefully my results with the BCSS seed this year will be more successful. Last year I had very few germinations, it was pretty disappointing. But at least I can throw the compost away and reuse all those pots

I would not try the pots away before at least a restart. You could be surprised what might still germinate! Well, most will not, true, but some pots could suddenly see a great germination rate all of a sudden. Depends probably on what species you sow.

[mary44]

My seeds arrived this morning with just one substitution. May the sowing commence

Thank you to all concerned

Aiko, I thought of that thanks, I will give them until summer comes and then reuse those pots when I run out of my clean stack of 2" pots.

[Aiko]

My seeds arrived this morning with just one substitution. May the sowing commence

Thank you to all concerned

Aiko, I thought of that thanks, I will give them until summer comes and then reuse those pots when I run out of my clean stack of 2" pots.

You could also restart them again in late August if you have no success till summer. But it depends on the species. Do you grow mesembs, Haworthias or other African succulents that don't mind the cold?

[mary44]

I'm mainly growing mesembs like lithops and conophytums at the moment with a smattering of other stuff thrown into the mix. The pots have been dry and cold all winter so might respond to a bit of heat and light later in the year, you never know.

[topsy]

Hi Mary,

As you are mostly interested in Mesemb seed, I suspect that your un-germinated pots may be of this type of seed? Whatever you do, do not throw these pots away, or rather re-use them. Mesemb seed has a very long viability on the whole and this seed may yet come up with a good soaking of the pots and putting in a warm, but not too hot, place. Don't forget with Mesemb seed it does need the light to germinate.

Very shortly the Mesemb Study Group Bulletin will be mailed and that contains the annual seed list which has many goodies on it thanks to Terry Smale for sourcing items to interest many of us.

Good luck,

Suzanne
Mesemb Study Group

[Terry S.]

Just to add to what Topsy has said with regards to Mary's seed sowing. I have sown a large amount of Mesemb seed over the years and with very few exceptions it germinates well. I sowed some cono seed recently and even 8 -10 year old material germinates quickly (more quickly than fresh seed!). So I think that you should be thinking about your techniques. The plastic bag method developed by Ken Burk works well for cacti but not so well for many of the mesembs - they need a good air flow around them from the time they germinate. The other point is that you might be keeping your seeds too hot. There are more winter-growing mesembs than summer-growing and germination of the winter-growers is inhibited by temperatures that are too high. I always recommend a temperature regime of about 8C at night rising to 15-20C during the day - a spare window sill is often adequate. Even some of the summer growers (e.g. Lithops) have germination inhibited above around 25C.

[mary44]

Hi, thank you Suzanne and Terry, I appreciate your thoughts. I probably should have been more specific. The seeds which did not germinate were on the most part cacti seeds, from last years BCSS seed list. I went out to the greenhouse and checked, there are about 18 pots sitting on the side. The succulent / mesemb seeds were, on the whole, a great success, as you say heat and light. It is possible it was too hot for the cacti seeds. I had a lot of lithops and other succulents seed from both the BCSS list and the MSG list, and although one or two pots were empty the majority had a good germination rate.

I have been using a very old (20 years+) grow light for my seedlings as well as an even older propagator, and this year have invested in two Marshydro lights, a 300 LED and a marshydro reflector 48. I'll be very interested how well they do, although our neighbours and all the walkers who pass our house might be curious when they see the strange colour lights.

I am looking forward to the MSG seed list, I still have some plants here that were grown from seeds sown in 1999 from MSG.

[Cactus Kid]

Received my BCSS seeds today
Only one out of 35 packets unavailable. Well done the seed team

[Keith H]

I have not received mine yet though I was quite late sending in the order and I guess they have been done on a first in first out rotation which is fare, so my fault really.