Todays photo Topic is solved

[el48tel]

[ralphrmartin]

I need to pot my seedlings on. They are a similar size but last year's!

[el48tel]

I need to pot my seedlings on. They are a similar size but last year's!

As a relative newbie, I find it difficult to know the precise point at which one does this. Too late and they are crowded and parting them is impossible without losing roots which are tangled. Too soon and they lose the protection of their siblings and die.

[AllanA]

I need to pot my seedlings on. They are a similar size but last year's!

As a relative newbie, I find it difficult to know the precise point at which one does this. Too late and they are crowded and parting them is impossible without losing roots which are tangled. Too soon and they lose the protection of their siblings and die.

You mean crowded like this?

Next batch sown on 27/7/2023
I will be potting on next month.

[el48tel]

Ah
Now you have found the first and most significant gap in my knowledge. Knowing the difference between crowded and protected by numbers.

[AllanA]

The next batch are less crowded as I had less seeds

Sown 16/9/2023
I find if I break off a few roots, they recover as long as I don't water them for a few days.

[el48tel]

The next batch are less crowded as I had less seedsseedlings2.jpg
Sown 16/9/2023
I find if I break off a few roots, they recover as long as I don't water them for a few days.

Again another uncertainty area for me

[AllanA]

The next batch are less crowded as I had less seedsseedlings2.jpg
Sown 16/9/2023
I find if I break off a few roots, they recover as long as I don't water them for a few days.

Again another uncertainty area for me

Life is all about risks The only way to find out what fits your situation is to experiment.
When my plants flower again I will send you a few seeds so that you can try dufferent approaches.
Some growers wait until the plants are about18 month old and twice the size mine are when I pot on. I would not risk breaking the main root off if that big.

[el48tel]

The next batch are less crowded as I had less seedsseedlings2.jpg
Sown 16/9/2023
I find if I break off a few roots, they recover as long as I don't water them for a few days.

Again another uncertainty area for me

Life is all about risks The only way to find out what fits your situation is to experiment.
When my plants flower again I will send you a few seeds so that you can try dufferent approaches.
Some growers wait until the plants are about18 month old and twice the size mine are when I pot on. I would not risk breaking the main root off if that big.

Allan
Thanks for this help and offer of seeds. It really is appreciated. Yes I have been experimenting. And I have made my way further into the growing of Haworthia. I lost a large number when I tried to transplant from paper media to compost, so I experimented with a different medium. Earlier I'd had some success with planting directly onto compost, but not total success. But I must point out that I had a devasting time this past summer when some of the larger seedlings (the choicest) were totally wiped out by mealie .... not all the crop .... and none of the nearby mesembs. I'm waiting for the seedlings from 01/01/23 to get a little larger for transplanting. These were grown on adsorbent cotton wool, then moved in situ onto compost, and have grown very well this year in open topped baggies. I have an idea for a different medium other than paper or cotton wool but I'm waiting for my daughter who is importing it for another project (at her workplace).

[AllanA]

I tried paper and cotton wool but found moving them at that stage was damaging them and killed quite a lot, as I could not be gentle enough, even though I have a good pair of tweezers.
I now find sowing on top of compost under lights, I have no problems.
Before the pandemic, I was buying seeds from South Africa at £25 for 12 seeds. These were not my experimenting seeds
Sorry to hear about your mealie infestation. Conos would not be as tasty as Haworthia seedlings. I have had root mealie problems in the past but not mealie bug.
One or two of the plants I bought at the Convention had mealie bug but I isolated all my purchases and cleared the pests before putting them in with the rest.