Beginner Gardening: Lithops Seedlings....guide me through this :), 1 by EvilPlot

EvilPlot wrote:
Hello all! Just found this lithops thread on Dave's wotsit. I saw my first lithops when I was backpacking around southern africa when I was younger and have been fascinated by them ever since!

Dalmationfan, your pics are wonderful. It's a bit like waiting for your christmas presents to grow, isn't it?

I bought some seeds (mixed lithops) from FleaBay in May and eagerly surface sow them in my *homemade Lithops germinator* with some rather hare-brained mix. But guess what, it worked! So here's my recipe

The soil mix I used is equal parts of:
1) Cactus and succulent potting soil (available at garden centres)
2) Perlite
3) really finely bashed up pieces of terracotta potsherds (as sand substitute)

I use about 3 cm layer of the above hare-brain mix in a recycled yogurt pot that has drainage holes poked at the bottom.

The lithop seeds are put (with much concentration!! Tiny little buggers, aren't they?) about 1 cm apart on the surface of the soil-perlite-potsherd mix.

Using a spray bottle at it's finest mist setting, they were well watered until it starts to drip out of the bottom of the pot. Then I spray a very dilute solution of sulphur based fungicide. I read that lithops like the soil slightly acidic, so the sulphur probably kills two birds with one stone: fungicide and pH adjuster.

Then they go into my homemade germinator that was cobbled up from a recycled supermarket Roast Chicken container. They have nice clear domes with several holes on top, and dark coloured base which helps absorb the heat.

I'm in zone 3a and weather's been pretty wet and cold even in June so the whole contraption sits at the North facing windowsill as I have measured the temperature there to be about the right range ~ 10-15 deg C (or 50 - 60 Fahrenheit).

One advantage I found of using the Roast Chicken Germinator is I don't have to mist it very often - I think I only misted it once since original sowing. I usually check with my finger to see if the soil mix surface is moist enough before the mister gets used. The perlite helps retain the surface moisture and hold the seed in place.

About 10 days later (yes, 10 days!) I have them little green things popping up between the perlite grains! They have moved from where I *sowed* them probably from the water spraying.

Home made Lithops germinator:
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y221/blauwefox/Fungi et pla...

At first I covered all but one of the air holes with scotch tape (you can see them at the top) to help seal in the moisture. As the seedlings grow bigger I will gradually open up more air holes, and eventually remove the domed lid.

Peekaboo at 10 days! The Yogurt pot is oval with dimensions about 12 cm (~5 inches) across the length, and half of that across it's width.
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y221/blauwefox/Fungi et pla...

Zoom in to see the little fellas. They're about a little less than 1mm (1/32 of an inch) across their faces.
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y221/blauwefox/Fungi et pla...