Lithops Seedlings....guide me through this :)

part 3 here

part 4 picture

hmmm why wont some posts show up sometimes.....part 5 (second attempt)

and finally part 6

amazing they don't get more money for these.. since they grow so slow.. interesting to watch though

ive heard that you can carefully remove the crusty old leaves when the plant is done draining them, so i tried that with my final remaining adult lithop....since then i kept noticing it leaning more and more to the left.....so i checked...and the base has caved in on that side.....not rotted, just caved in.

I had went to our Lowe's home improvement store over last weekend. Boy they do not take care of their succulent plants well at all! They managed to have ONE lithops plant on the shelf.....but no way was i going to get it....they keep them inside the store...and the succulent shelf is shaded by big ferns.....the poor little thing....their pattern was severely faded, had went mostly green, and they had gotten really stretchy tall, and one had split from over watering--its inside plant forcing its way out early.

Am i ever glad some of you posted links to succulent special nurseries!

Look at how big they have gotten. Do you still have lots of them?

i still have about 5 of them, those appear to be the ones that will grow to be bigger plants.

dalmation_fan87: I agree with your earlier comment on Lowe's selection of the cactus and Lithops collection. They are somewhat lacking and not displayed as fully as they could be. The local store that I shop at get theirs in mid to late summer and keep them in a corner of the store where you have to either search for or inquire as to their whereabouts. I am thrilled that I have a couple of mail order locations that I can get good quality lithops from. I have posted a couple of those websites in the past for anyone wanting great service and excellent plants. In fact, one of the adult lithops I ordered last summer has just split for the first time, and oh my, how exciting that is to see firsthand.

I have not given up on my seedlings as of yet either. They are still showing signs of life and I keep hoping they will survive my inexperience, so I keep holding on with my fingers crossed. Happing growing!

i agree with you also femluc, unless it is mail order, or a cacti/succulent SPECIALTY nursery, its not really worth buying from other places, as the plants will be highly stressed if NOT dying already. I wonder if lithops can be fertilized during their growing phase?

I must say that in all the studying and reading I have done on these plants, I have not read or heard anything that mentioned fertilizing them. I wonder if at some point they would need it and what to use? Anyone have any idea?

i would suspect that maybe if ANYTHING, a really weak mix? since they seem to get along without any at all...something like a 10-10-10 like Miracle gro might be way too strong

I read that most succulents benefit from a quarter to half strength african violet fertilizer is the closest to what they need. But I just use water.

Really useful article here for anyone growing lithops or any other mesembs. This section deals with feeding http://homepages.nyu.edu/~ms689/AGM.html#sec4.1

ah so according to that link, dont feed adult plants, but yet seedlings can take it as they are on a mission to reach full adult size. but since it calls for being so dilute....i would guess something like a couple of TINY DROPS of ferts per quart?

well guys, regretably my final remaining adult lithops plant that i bought rotted on me.....when it came time to give it the first bit of water for spring like everyone says give it......ever since then it kept acting like it kept getting weaker and weaker.....i checked it today, it has gone to mush! sheesh i only watered it ONCE!

but you know since i bought it....from the time it got here it already looked pretty stressed from its trip to me all the way from CA to VA, i guess it finally just decided to just give up :(

Oh gosh, I am so sorry to hear that Dalmation. So you ordered them from CA? I ordered some as well from there and they are doing ok, and I also ordered from a place here in TN and they are thriving so far. I have lost a couple of them, but I believe it was the species and my inexperience with them and not the trip to TN. The prices were low enough that I ordered a few to play with since it was my first experience with them. I have much preferred the adults as opposed to the seeds, which are barely hanging on, but are still alive. So far, I have only misted the adult plants, and only when they shriveled and looked like they were done for. As I posted a few days ago, one of the adults just split and is doing fabulous. I might add that it is still in its original container and original potting medium, and that I think, might also be where I messed up with the others. If you want a couple places to try, let me know and I will post them for you. I have had great luck with these places so far, and wonderfully healthy plants when they arrived.

glad that your adults are doing well so far fem. Even though i lost that last adult plant....at least i still have my teeny tiny lithops seedlings/new adults, lol

and sure go ahead and post that one that you got adults from in TN.....such a short trip from there to here in VA might be a better bet for me....because the ones from CA....when they got here....they were turning abnormally green from being in a dark box for about a week, which stressed them and what i personally think led up to losing both of them. A trip from TN to VA would only be a couple days max instead of a whole week or longer. Cant wait to see that site!

The website to check out in TN is www.oldmancactus.com. On the left hand side of the page is the link to the Lithops pages. Very nice people there, great plants and quick turnaround. Let me know what you think.




This message was edited Apr 15, 2010 8:46 AM

the link didn't work because of your . at the end

http://www.oldmancactus.com/

Good enough - I am used to watching punctuation at the end of a sentence. Let's try it again!

www.oldmancactus.com

Should work. Anyway, a great website for the lithops and other cactus and succulents as well. Check it out dalmation and let me know what you think of it.

pretty nice plants....too bad theres a $15 min. order.....a big deal for someone who has never been hired like me.....with no apparent hope for a job any time soon since everything is gone now (thanks congress!!)

but with a little saving i could get a pretty nice collection of lithops since the min order is $15, and the lithops are roughly about $3 each.

There are a couple of websites that I have visited that feature lithops, though I don't think I have ever ordered from them. You can check them out if you'd like.

www.lithops.net

www.cactusshop.com

In the search box of the cactusshop.com, type lithops and it brings up a collection of lithops called "stone faces" and a detailed care information page on them. That care information might assist you with them in the future, both your seedlings and the adults. I found it to be very helpful.

i actually read somewhere that Stone Face is actually what the word Lithops translates into in some other kind of language, i forget which

well i WOULD get the monthly pictures of the seedlings.....but they look exactly the same as last month, LOL

The link that pauliewalnuts gave in his post (http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/p.php?pid=7693909) is an article by Steve Hammer, one of the pre-eminent experts on succulents with an emphasis on mesembs, including Lithops. Take what he says in his article to heart - he KNOWS what he's talking about. Look him up on www.bookfinder.com - he's also written a few books. This is not to say that Desmond Cole doesn't know - he definitely DOES. It's just that his books (as well as Steve's) are extremely expensive and Steve has his wonderful article right here on the Web.

Of the two links that femluc gave, the first one is a great nursery in Arizona run by wonderful people who really know what they're doing. The second link is to Altman Plants' retail shop. Altman is the same nursery that supplies all the big box stores with cacti and succulents - they're the ones which are planted in little orange pots. While Altman's is quite successful, I'd take any of my C&S mailorder sources over them any day of the week.

Here are some sources for C&S which I recommend:

Arid Lands: http://www.aridlands.com/
Miles' To Go: http://www.miles2go.com/
Steve Hammer: http://www.cactus-mall.com/rana/
Shoal Creek: http://www.shoalcreeksucculents.com/Webasyst/shop/
Mesa Garden: http://www.mesagarden.com/
Highland Succulents: http://www.highlandsucculents.com/default.htm

Hey dalmation_fan87, just wondering how you are doing with your seedlings and whether they ever reached adulthood. My seedlings didn't get large enough to do anything with, but I think I took them out of the saran wrap covering too soon. I have planted new seeds and they seem to be doing okay at this point; even stronger looking than the last bunch at only 3 weeks. I have several adults that have multiplied and are doing great as well.

lol they are still so tiny by the looks of things

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%20et%20plantae/Lithops170611_germinator.jpg

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%20et%20plantae/Lithops170611_resize1.jpg

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%20et%20plantae/Lithops170611_crop1.jpg

i love lithops, i don't have any but i think theyre very cool.

I forgot all about this. How are they doing?

I'm sure they're doing good...?