"At this point, I'm planning to just leave them as they are and tear them
into hunks when spring arrives and plant them in the ground."

Sounds like a plan to me. I sure wouldn't bother with transplanting each little sprout. Once they get up and growing you could easily take cuttings to get more plants.

"Should I fertilize them, or would that be encouraging even more growth that they don't have room for?"

If they are a groundcover sedum they naturally crowd each other out anyway, so fertilizing wouldn't hurt. If it's a more upright type of sedum then it might be best to cut away some of the weaker or overly crowded sprouts beforehand.

Rodney

Docmom, do you ever thin a little with scissors? I have...

How is the color of your seedlings, do they look like they are in need of any fertilizer? You may already know, but any time I've fertilized seedlings (and haven't needed to this early) I use a water soluble product at less than half the strength of the package directions, more like 1/4 the amount they suggest. I might use half strength on mature plants in pots, but I've never found the need to go stronger.

Thank you for your helpful replies. I will just keep them happy until warm weather. I start a new job this week, so I'm sure I won't have time or energy to bother with them much.

Martha

Sedums can easily grow in poor soil - I'd be cautious about fertilizing them as with this particular plant, you might do more harm than good. If the color looks ok, you should be set. If you do - be sure to do 1/4 or 1/2 strength only as someone already mentioned.

Dee,

I can't remember where I ordered the seeds, but I just googled "sedum seeds" or something. They were surprisingly easy and fast. If you try it, spread the seeds thinly. The sprouts that I separated into a larger container are much larger and healthier looking than those still in the original flat. I'm growing "Red Carpet Sedum", "VooDoo Sedum", and a "Rock Garden Mix." I also planted sempervivum, and they also germinated very well. Their growth is not as rapid, but they don't have the branching, spreading habit of the ground cover sedums. Go ahead and try it. You could have some significant progress this year, especially if you are planting into a sunny spot. Good luck,

Martha

Martha, as soon as I posted yesterday, I did just that - googled "sedum seeds"! I found the variety I am using - kamtschaticum - and a slightly different variety, which I ended up buying, since the seeds were about $3 or $4 cheaper. I bought them from Swallowtail, which is a good company, and I wonder if that's where you got yours since I recall seeing a "Rock Garden Mix" on their site. I can't tell you how grateful I am to you for posting this thread, since it literally never entered my head to grow these from seed, and I have been looking for an inexpensive source for plants for awhile now. I feel stupid saying that, since I've been growing things from seed for 12 years now, but for some reason never thought of doing the sedum from seed, and really never recall seeing sedum seed offered, or it would have lit the light bulb if I did, lol.

I am going to attempt to WS these, though, not start indoors or under lights, etc. I bought 1000 seeds, so that should give me *something*, lol. Thank you again!!

Dee

Hi Martha, congrats on the seedlings. And if you want to mail them to someone they might just make it. I sent tomato seedlings to a member a # of years ago (late frost disaster) and they survived. Just wrap a small root ball in damp paper towels then place that in a sandwich bag and lay the plants in a box.

Caryl

Hi Martha, since you're in zone five, you may not be planting these for a while. If your flats only have an inch or two of soil, I would cut them apart and place them on top of another 2 inches of soil. When the roots hit the bottom of shallow soil they would get all tangled up with each other and when you go to plant them out you would end up cutting off a lot of root. You can just grab some milk jugs cut the tops off add soil and put a square of plants on top. That will give the more healthy roots by planting out time.

That's an important point about sedums being able to grow well in poor soil but that's outside where even poor soil has some nutrients. If the mix that Martha used doesn't have any added fertilizer or compost or whatever, then the seedlings could probably use some at some point (1/4 strength as was mentioned by Morz and Maggie).

Rodney

All of these comments are very helpful. Because of my lack of sunny space, I'm going to have to let everything remain as they are for now. I certainly have plenty of healthy seedlings to accomplish whatever I need to do in the garden this year.

Dee, I'm glad I was able to light a fire under you. It would be terribly expensive to buy separate succulent plants to cover a broad area of garden.

Caryl, if anyone expresses a wish for seedlings, I will certainly try to mail them.

Maggie, I think the tangled ship has sailed, despite there still being enough depth. I'll just need to take large enough divisions to guarantee some sprouts will still have their own roots. LOL.

Martha

Diggerdee, I have (and love) loads of kamtschaticum and it takes off amazing well from cuttings. I trim back the plants after flowering and stick the ends of the cuttings into pots and basically ignore them, perhaps occasionally watering, until they start growing again and then I transplant them. I really crowd the cuttings too (as I said I have loads of it) and it doesn't seem to mind a bit.

I realize with such a large space this won't completely fill your needs but perhaps a combined effort of cuttings and seedlings will?

I had the same "problem" of too many sedum sprouts! I started them under lights back in November and I pricked out each and every one, so at this point many are quite big and I have found myself overrun with them. I think I have about 150 now, so I'm doing an experiment: during last week's 3-day warm spell, I "hardened them off" and now they are in a cold frame. Doing fine so far even as temps dip a bit below freezing.

They also wintersow well. Sedums are wonderfully easy!

I will definitely wintersow them if I ever need to grow them again.

Martha

Enjoyed this thread, thank you all for your tips about sedums from seed. I buy from Swallowtail and sedum was on my list for next buy!

wanted to add my thanks to Val's thanks to all of you for this thread. I've got sprouts in my jug of sedum seeds, and look forward to finally having a good supply of these plants to cover my slope. And thanks, greenhearted, for the cutting ideas. I know sedum roots very easily but never really got around to cutting it back after bloom. Maybe I'll take an afternoon this season and make a serious attempt at cutting and rooting some to add to my supply!