Gone To Seed - Bakersfield Cactus and Succulent Society

It seems that everyone who has been infected with the ‘Cactus &
Succulent’ bug eventually displays the most common symptom: an
irresistible urge to acquire more plants. The first indications of this
difficulty usually occur when you visit your first Show and Sale. Surely
your companions noticed the warning signs, but alas, they too were
infected. These symptoms can continue for quite some time but at some
point we try to increase our collection without opening our pocket books.
Who hasn’t tried sticking a Beavertail pad or a Jade Plant stem into a pot
or pulling off a ‘pup’ from an Echinopsis? These are good ways to
satisfy your need, but, there is another that can provide even more
satisfaction – seeds.
I am always a bit surprised at the lack of enthusiasm for growing
succulents from seed. I have to remind myself that our hobby is not the
same as one that grows vegetables or cottage gardens. Those hobbies
typically require a knowledge of seed rearing in order to acquire the
plants you need, ours does not. In our hobby, the seed is primarily
grown by nurseries as well as by those ‘guys’ that seem to know more
about succulents than any earthly person should (I’m convinced that
some of them are not from this world). However, this does not mean that
you can’t try it yourself. It’s not always as easy as sticking a Hens-andChicks offset into a pot, but it is often more rewarding.
Vegetative propagation (not using seeds) certainly has its value.
Cuttings, offsets, and even
grafting are commonly done
at home (another vegetative
method is tissue culture, but
this is usually not feasible for
the amateur, though it is
possible). These methods are
good if you want to increase
your numbers of a certain
species or variety. If you
have a hybrid Echinopsis that
everyone adores, you can root
offsets and spread it around
11 week old Didymaotus
(be careful of patented plants,
lapidiformis seedlings
they’re kind of like copying your favorite music; no one notices if you
keep it to yourself, but when you start to make money from it you can get
in trouble). One thing that vegetative propagation can’t do is produce
new varieties, this is the realm of sexual propagation – seeds.
Seeds are generally inexpensive, easy to grow, quick to
germinate, and, believe it or not,
readily available. Growing seeds
does not require much space or
even a lot of sophisticated
equipment. It does require more
attentiveness than you ordinarily
give your mature plants, but then,
they’re just babies. With seeds
you can grow species that are not
readily available at shows. Some
succulents, like Astrophytum, do
not readily produce offsets or do
not branch. This means that seeds
are the way to go. Seeds can be
an inexpensive way to start a large
number of a desirable variety. If
you collect and grow your own
seed, you can fiddle with cross
Mammillaria perez-delarosa
pollination and produce your own
wonderful hybrids. There is always a bit of variation in your seedlings,
which allows you to pick out the best colored or patterned Lithops from
the group without fighting over it at the Show and Sale tables.
All that said, I don’t want this to sound too easy. There are some
details to which you must pay attention. Seedlings are much more easily
damaged by drought or over-watering. In addition, other perils like
attacks from snails and birds don’t just disfigure your plants, it
annihilates them. A dropped pot may be a temporary setback for an
adult, but it often means death to many seedlings. Seedlings take time to
grow up. Unlike a blooming adult you buy at the show, your seedling
could take several years to reach blooming size (there are exceptions,
some Mesembs will bloom in a year or less from seed). Though they
don’t require much space when they’re young, as seedlings grow, they
require much more space, which leads to the hardest thing of all –
culling.
Culling is the removal of unwanted plants, though I shouldn’t
say ‘unwanted.’ They are the undesirable, the less pretty, the not-quiteas-good-as-the-rest. Mostly they are the ones you just can’t find any
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Gone to Seed
by Stephen Cooley
PART ONE: Why Seeds?
more room for. You are forced to pick out some and throw them away
(many will be too young to give away). Fortunately this usually
happens when they are still very small and you haven’t had time to
become too attached.
The attachment you feel towards the plants you have raised is
where the real rewards are. A plant that you have watched come out of
the seed, grow into a recognizable plant, and then bloom gives you a
great sense of accomplishment.
After you have decided that you want to start some succulents
from seed, the next step is, of course, to get some seed. Seeds of a great
number of succulents are generally not hard to obtain and there are many
sources. These include buying seeds from a supplier, begging from your
fellow club members, and collecting them right off the plant.
If you choose to collect the seeds from the plants there are a few
things to consider. You will want to be sure that the seed is mature and
will germinate once you plant it. If you are not collecting from your own
plants, getting permission before you do would be a good idea. If you
are collecting from the wild it might be prudent to know wether it is even
legal to do so. I plan on writing more about this in the future.
Another good source of seed is your fellow hobbyists. Many
who have large collections often get fruits on their plants, many times
without any help. People who grow plants from seed may have extra.
Ask around and you’ll probably wind up with some.
Perhaps the best way to get your seed is to buy it from a supplier.
There are many to choose from and the best place to go is to the internet
at: www.cactus-mall.com. Here you will find a listing of links to seed
sources. However, there are two suppliers that I would like to mention
here because they are good places to start. For those of you that are
members of the CSSA, the SEED DEPOT is a wonderful starting point. Here
you will find a wide variety of seeds that are donated by members. They
are just 50 cents for each packet – which is a good (and sometimes a real
bargain) price. You must be a member to order from the list, however. I
have ordered many seeds from the CSSA Seed Depot and have had very
good luck germinating them. The year’s list is printed in the January
issue of the CSSA newsletter, “To The Point,” with supplements printed
with subsequent issues. Directions for ordering from the Seed Depot are
included with each newsletter.
The other supplier I would like to mention is MESA GARDEN.
Mesa Garden is familiar to almost anyone who grows from seed, and for
good reason. They have the best selection on the planet. In fact, the
choices are so great that the uninitiated may find it somewhat daunting
just to look through the catalog. This is the place to look if you’re trying
to find a particular species or even a species from a particular locale.
Looking at the 2003 catalog I count 26 entries for Conophytum
pellucidum, varying mostly in where they were collected. Mesa Garden
doesn’t lump their seed together, but lets you choose which one you want
(would you like the olive-green bodied C. pellucidum collected 15 miles
west of Platbakkies, or the contractile form from 20 miles south of
Kamieskroon?). The prices are good and the germination is high. I have
spent far too much money buying seeds from them and I’m not likely to
stop anytime soon. You can find them at www.mesagarden.com, or
write to: Mesa Garden, PO Box 72, Belen, NM 87002.
Now that you’re getting some seed, you need to plant it. Before
you plant it, let’s talk about what the seed needs to germinate.
Basically, seeds need moisture, warmth, and air to germinate. For many
succulents there is another requirement, light. Most Cacti and Mesembs
require that the seed be in the light in order to have good germination
while some others, like Aloe, Agave, and Pachypodium do not. Another
factor you need to consider in planting your seed is disease. There are a
number of diseases (usually fungal) that can attack your seed and
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Pachypodium fruit and seeds
-------------------------------------------------------PART TWO: What Do I Do Now?
seedlings. Cleanliness usually does the trick though there are pesticides
that will help as well.
Now a word or two about soil. There are as many soil recipes as
there are growers so I’m not going to get too involved here. The
important part about your potting soil id that it drains well. This usually
means the addition of perlite, coarse sand, or pumice to your mix. Your
mix can either be organic (peat moss, coir, leaf mold, etc) or mineral
(garden loam, sand). Personally, I have had my best results using a
strictly mineral soil, adding no organic components. An important part
here is that your soil be sterile. Store bought mixes as well as perlite
tend to be sterile right out of the bag. Other ingredients will need to be
sterilized. To do this, place your wet mix in an oven roasting bag, seal it,
and cook it in a low oven (160-200F) until the inside temperature is to
about 180F. I have also had good results by placing a clear plastic bag of
wet soil in the hot sun and turning it everyday for about four days.
Now you’re almost ready to start planting your seeds. First, let’s
clean the pots. Any pot will do as long as it is clean. By clean I mean
that it has been washed out to remove any clinging matter and then
sprayed with a 10% bleach solution. The pots then should be put in a
plastic bag, sealed, and let sit overnight. Cleaning your pots and soil
means you probabl;y won’t need any other disease controls.
Okay, let’s plant. Take a pot, fill it with moistened soil, then
settle the soil by gently picking the pot up about an inch and letting it fall
back down. If your planting a species that does not require light, then
leave enough room so that you can cover the seed with about one quarter
inch of soil. Now, sprinkle your seed on the soil, covering it if necessary
(Many growers will now also sprinkle the light requiring species with a
very small amount of sand – I wait until after germination). Remember,
almost all Cacti and Mesembs require light to germinate. Now, water the
seeds by placing the pot in a tray of water. I also tend to spray water on
the surface seeds just to make sure they’re in contact with the soil. When
the soil is wet, remove the pot from the tray and allow it to drain a bit.
At this point, the pot needs to be covered to insure that the moisture is
retained. This is easily done by placing the pot in a zip-top clear plastic
bag. Any other way of covering the top of the pot should work as long as
the light can get through. Place the covered pot in a warm bright area,
not in full sun. This could be a window sill or fluorescent lights (which
I use and they work very well). For most species, a temperature of 75F
is good. Some like it hotter and many of the Mesembs like it cooler, but
household temperatures are usually okay. Your new babies should arrive
in about 7 days (or as little as 1 day or as much as 1 year, depending on
the species and freshness of the seed).
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-------------------------------------------------------PART THREE: It’s Alive!
Before I get started let me correct one thing from last month’s article;
Mesa Garden no longer prints a catalog but the current lists can be
viewed or downloaded from their website www.mesagarden.com.
Okay, now you’ve received the seeds you ordered, cleaned your
pots and soil, planted the seeds, watered them, put them in a plastic bag
and checked them every hour for a week until finally you see something.
A small green thing has appeared at the surface, then another, and
another. Germination! For the next week or so more and more come up,
or sometimes you only get a few. Perhaps you won’t get any, which
happens sometimes.
At this point you may realize that you’ve made the most
common error when planting seed: too many seedlings. You should
have used fewer seeds or a bigger pot. If you had known how well the
seeds would germinate you could have provided the right size pot. But,
when you only have 25 seeds to start with, running a germination test
would be a waste.
After about a week or two from germination, you should be able
to recognize distinct bodies and/or the seed leaves of your new plants. If,
like me, you did not cover your seeds you will also see a lot of fine roots.
Now is a good time to sprinkle on some coarse sand, washing it down
over the roots with a spray bottle. Your young plants will need this in
order keep themselves upright. Your new plants can stay covered in
their plastic bag for a few more weeks or they can be taken out. Do not
expose them to full sun at this point, you can gradually work them up to
full sun when they are a bit older.
You have now successfully started your own succulents from
seed. Now you must finish them. The most critical time in the life of
your new plants will probably be their first transplanting. Do not get
impatient, transplanting can be up to a year away at this point. You will
have much better success at transplanting when the plants are older and
getting crowded in the pot. Concern yourself now with the health of
your seedlings.
At this young age your succulents will require more moisture
than when they are adults. However, they still will rot if kept too wet.
Fertilizer should not be necessary until they are a month older or more.
Adding fertilizer too soon can lead to excess weed growth.
Weeds? Yes, even in your little pot you can have a problem with
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weeds. These are not the dandelions of your lawn or the grass, mustards,
oxalis and spurges of your mature potted plants. Now that you have
taken your seedling pot from the plastic bag you have allowed algae and
moss to blow in with the breeze. If they grow too fast they can cause
problems for your little succulents. The solution is in prevention, don’t
keep the top of the soil overly wet – you can still water your plants from
the bottom by sitting the pot in a tray of water. In general I have had few
problems with moss and algae, as they prefer cooler temperatures and by
the time they get established, I have cut down on the watering of the
seedlings.
Your succulents will grow slowly now, except, of course, the
ones that don’t. What I mean to say is that the Cactus, Lithops,
Conophytum, and some other popular ones will grow slowly. Some, like
Pelargonium, Ipomoea, Othonna and many other caudiciforms can grow
quite rapidly. These speedy ones will need to be treated more like
bedding plants and transplanted to larger containers quickly.
One of the keys to seedling success is attentiveness. Look at
your plants frequently and take care of the problems as they arise instead
of being surprised by them when it’s too late.
16 day old Orbea seedlings
-------------------------------------------------------PART FOUR: Getting Ready to be a Grandparent
When your seeds have germinated and your plants are growing
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you can certainly say that you were successful in your seed starting
adventure. But, there is perhaps one more goal that brings a feeling of
accomplishment to the seed raiser – Flowers. It is indeed a special day
when one of your seedlings flowers. This is truly the culmination of all
your work. The flower is a sign that your plant is now fully mature.
Some plants can flower very quickly from seed. Annuals, like
Moss Rose (Portulaca grandiflora) and Livingstone Daisy
(Dorotheanthus spp.) will certainly provide abundant flowers in one
season. But, other perennial succulents can also be fast to bloom. I have
had Glottiphyllum bloom in less than a year and Mammillaria
zacatecasensis bloom in less than two years. I am sure with the right
treatment there are many more examples, but I would suspect these
probably would not be cacti. In general, most succulents are slow and
you must care for them for many years before seeing flowers.
Now, it is not my intent to go into detail on how to raise your
plants to adulthood and flowering. Still, there are some things you
should be aware of. Your very young seedlings must be prepared before
they head out into the real world. If you have started your seeds under
artificial lighting, then acclimation to the sun is essential. I have found
that even very small plants will do better in the brighter light and
(usually) warmer temperatures of the outdoors. I also know that plants
unaccustomed to this environment can be burnt, desiccated, or killed.
Acclimating your plants is not hard to do, but it does take
patience and diligence. What must be done is a slow process of
increasing the light and temperature so that the plant can get used to its
new surroundings. I usually take my new plants outside into an area of
bright shade and keep them there for a week. I then move them to an
area with a bit more light for another week. After that, I put some out in
the full sun (many of my young plants stay under a shade cloth for the
first year). Checking your plants each day during this process will alert
you to any problems (too much sun is a common one) and allow you to
correct it.
Once your plants are used to their new location you should use
your own good cultivation skills to keep them healthy and growing to
adulthood.
Let’s skip a bit shall we – Let’s say you and I are a little bit older
and your seedlings are coming into flower. You are, of course, ecstatic
and you’ve probably showed them to all your cactus-and-succulent –
loving friends. It may occur to you at this time that you might be able to
collect seed from your plants, and you could plant them and that would
sort of make you a grandparent. But, how should you go about this seed
making?
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As you might suspect, you’re going to need a Mommy and a
Daddy to make babies, right? That’s not always true in the plant world.
Sometimes seeds can be produced without any mixing of genetic
material, but we’re not going to go into that here.
The ‘Daddy’ would be the pollen which is on the anthers and is
usually that yellow powdery stuff that gets on your nose when you smell
a flower (okay, I know you don’t get that close to too many cactus
flowers). Pollen can also be other colors as well and is not always
powdery but it is usually not hard to find. The ‘Mommy’ is not always
so easy to find, however.
The female parts of the flower include eggs, ovary, style, and
stigma. Needless to say,
the pollen must find its
way to the egg and this
process should be familiar
to all of you who didn’t
sleep through your plant
biology. I won’t rehash all
that now for fear of loosing
my readers (and perhaps a
few friends). What we’re
interested in is the stigma,
which is where the pollen
is deposited by insects,
bats, mice, and all sorts of
other means. The stigma
can sometimes be found
sticking out in plain sight,
ready to accept the pollen.
Sometimes, it isn’t as
noticeable, being tucked
down inside the floral tube,
or taking on a shape
similar to the anthers.
The first flower of an
Sometimes it can’t be
Echinocereus subinermis seedling
found at all. This may be
due to your aging eyesight
or it could be that the flower doesn’t have one (just when you thought it
was going to be easy). Some plants have the male and female parts on
different flowers, so you may have to look around. Some plants have the
male and female flowers on different plants, so you may have to look a
bit further. Fortunately, the male and female parts are mostly on the same
flower. Notable exceptions: many Euphorbia have separate male and
female flowers (the popular Euphorbia obesa has them on different
plants) and many of the pachyform cucurbits (you fat-plant collectors
know what I’m talking about) have them on different plants.
At any rate, you need to find the pollen and find the stigma and
get the pollen on the stigma. A small paint brush works well. Oh, by the
way, before you dash out with your brush here are a few rules that will
increase your chances of success. Try to keep your gene mixing in the
same family; Cacti with cacti, asclepiad with asclepiad, mesemb with
mesemb, etc.. Better yet, stay within the same Genus; Echinopsis with
Echinopsis, Pachypodium with Pachypodium, Haworthia with
Haworthia, etc.. And even better, stay within the same species. The
farther the relationship between the male and female, the less likely that
seeds will be produced. You will find that sometimes a plant will
pollinate itself but many times it won’t. Cross pollinating two
individuals (not clones) of the same species will not only give you good
results, but the seedlings will be stronger and you at least will know what
to call them.
Once fertilization has occurred a fruit will form with the seeds
inside. This fruit can be large, small, long, short, fleshy, dry, hidden, or
in plain sight. Knowing when the fruit is ripe and the seed ready can be
as easy as waiting for an Opuntia fruit to turn red and fall or as hard as
finding that the Euphorbia fruit has exploded and scattered the seeds all
over the greenhouse. Collection can be made easier with a little bagging
and gluing and I’ll try to get into that a bit more next time.
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PART FOUR: Customizing Your Cactus
Now that you’re practically an expert at raising succulents
from seed, let’s talk about making the most out of what you raise.
There is more to this than meets the eye. Rather than just
acquiring any old seed and saying you raised a plant, why not be
more specific? Through careful pollination you can preserve the
characteristics of a certain population of plants.
For instance, if you obtain seeds for Lithops leslei C358
how can you be sure that you haven’t received some hybrid of
Lithops leslei C358? If the person distributing the seeds allowed
the seed to set by itself (open pollination) then you run the chance
that a roving moth, fly or bee may have brought pollen from
another Lithops. Why do you care? Random crossing rarely
produces wonderful new patterns and colors, instead, what you get
is a muddle of characteristics that seem dull in comparison to the
original.
In our hobby I have noticed something that seems rare
among other plant societies. There is a passion for retaining the
characteristics of wild populations. When a new population of a
cactus is found, even though it may differ by only a few minor
characteristics, it comes into the hobby as is. It is not crossed with
more robust or colorful forms to make it more ‘desirable.’ Though
there are hybrid succulents to be found (Adenium and Echinopsis
seem to be the most popular) these are not a major part of the
hobby (certainly not like in Rose or Iris Societies).
So then, how can you be sure of what you’re getting?
Many seed suppliers will let you know where the seed came from.
But, more than likely, you may just have to put your trust in one
and see what you get. If you are collecting your own seed from
your collection there are ways to insure you’re getting what you
want. The best way is to isolate your selected plants from others
that may cross with it. This can be done by physically moving the
plants to a distance that pollinators are not likely to travel (the
other side of the greenhouse or patio is not far enough!). You could
remove all the flowers from the plants likely to cross (probably not
an option). An easier way may be to cover the flowers with cloth
or paper bags to prevent pollination. Whatever you do, you will be
responsible for pollinating the isolated flowers. Once the flower
withers, the isolation can end.
It is a wise idea to mark the flowers that you have
selectively pollinated. After several months of fruit maturation
you may forget what you have done, especially if you have several
plants that have been pollinated. Marking can be done in several
ways. What I do is tie a small colored thread to the base of the
fruit/flower and then mark down in a notebook what pollinator was
used and the date. Sometimes the thread can be laid across the
flower and it will ‘tie itself’ as the flower shrinks and withers (this
is good with Cacti that have wooly crowns like Ariocarpus). If
you always cross plants from the same population, your Lithops
leslei C358 with other C358, then a string may be all that is
necessary to show you which fruits have the ‘pure’ seeds.
Now let us consider that you may want to create new and
wonderful varieties. You could have been inspired by all the
wonderful Schick hybrids
of Echinopsis or you just
may want to raise the fattest
Euphorbia obesa.
Whatever the reason, the
procedure is the same as
above but the strategy is
different: you want to
protect your plant from
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Aloe hybrid (middle) with
parents
(top & bottom)
being pollinated by itself or
others like it.
Once again,
isolation is the important
part, with one added
remark; if the plant you are
pollinating can selfpollinate (use it’s own
pollen to produce seeds)
you need to isolate it from itself. This is done by removing the
anthers from the flower you are pollinating and then preventing the
flower from being accidentally crossed (bagging). The anthers will
need to be removed before the pollen is produced – this usually
means operating on the flower before it has opened. Don’t worry
about hurting the petals. You may want to bring pollen to this
flower over several days as you may not be sure when the stigma is
ready. When the fruit begins to form and the stigma has withered,
you can remove the bag. Since most succulents don’t self pollinate
you won’t be confronted with this very often.
To create your new and wonderful varieties you must give
some thought to what you are doing. If you want an orange
flowering Echinopsis you might want to cross a red with a yellow.
Be aware that the intricacies of genetics do not always produce a
mixture of traits. Crossing a yellow flower with a red flower may
produce an orange flower, but then again, if red is dominant, it
may only produce red flowers. I guess you’ll find out.
You need to figure out what you want, then devise a plan
on how to get it. An orange flowered Echinopsis may not be
enough, you may also want it to produce large quantities of huge
flowers that bloom in the daytime on small fast growing plants.
Adding this many traits will take several generations and may
you want to keep
with the
undesirables tossed
out of the gene
pool. Then you
must decide
whether to bring in
more genes and
add another trait or
you could
strengthen an
existing trait by
back-crossing it
with one of the
parents. This could
end up taking years. I guess that’s why not too many people do it.
But it isn’t always as time consuming. If you’re not trying
to do too much, good results can be had in a relatively short period.
A robust, large flowered red Echinopsis crossed with a short
yellow flowered Echinopsis will probably get you a medium sized
orange flowered Echinopsis. And when you have that orange
flowered Echinopsis you can give it that special name like
‘Maynard’s Marvelous,’ or ‘Ed’s Extraordinary Echinopsis.’ After
all, it’s your child.
A batch of mostly Mesemb seedlings
require several different parents. This can easily get out of hand
(as if you needed another reason for your collection to get out of
hand). Each generation will need to be scrutinized for the traits
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Euphorbia obesa
flowers (female)
Euphorbia polygona
flowers (male)
Euphorbia obesa
fruits
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