Terrific job documenting your process, Bernard. I hope you have high germination rates for your E. Lauii seeds. You also did your homework as I suggested. This will help you in making informed decisions about your process. I also look forward to the conversation that this will ignite.

Tracy

Thanks Tracy, I need to put my patience belt on. It's been almost 2 weeks now, and they have been no update by sight yet. There seem to be a lot of condensation on the cling wrap, I might just remove it tonight and keep it in the baggie.

The drop in temperature for the past week wasn't welcomed too, I hope the sudden change would only stunt the germinating process for a few days.

Will continue to update again if there are any movements.

Bernard

Sorry to hear that Bernard. I will tell you that I have had similar results when sowing such a small number of seed. What I started doing is sowing larger batches, such as 100 seed at a time. This is a bit more costly but if you consider the time and effort that you go through to sterilize the media and such, it makes it worth the while in the long run and get some return on your investment.

Then once you do have seedlings appear, keeping them alive is almost harder than germinating them. The fatality rate for seedlings can be high. I just discovered 3 contaminated echeveria seedlings on Friday night when I got home from work. They caught a damping disease because I had too many plants on my grow rack and not enough air circulation. These are only 9 months old. I've washed them, quarantined them, and treated them with Physan 20. I do not expect them to survive but I have to at least try. Don't they look terrible?

Tracy

Tracy, I still hopeful as the weather gets warmed this week. But if there are no action after a month, do you suggest I chunk them into compost? I mean it's all part of the learning process.

If I discovered that, I would have been absolutely mortified! I'm so sorry to hear about your plants infections, I hope some sun can cure and rid of the fungus.

Your echeverias leaves actually looks quite huge! Do you by any chance know the sub-species?

I would say give it 5 weeks and still nothing I would compost it. That is being optimistic of course. You did learn a great deal so if nothing comes of the seed there is that.

So the plants might survive with terrible scarring. They aren't in the sun, rather on a covered porch, as they are sensitive to sun after being treated. This is my only quarantine option. Yes I was mortified to discover this. The subspecies I believe is E. gigantea thus their size. I have a few more even larger than this on display in my moon window.

Take care, Tracy

Thanks Tracy, I set myself up a little to high before I even begun, so no expectations just learning experiences.

Yea, after the window period, I hope they recover in time with more sun.

Best - Bernard

Nice to see this discussion on Echeveria sowing. Last Auguest I got 20 seeds of E lauii from Australia purchased on ebay and got no germination. The seeds may have been old. With seed of E agavoides, using the same technique I got some germination but the seedlings didn’t survive. I kept the seed in plastic bags and they probably needed fresh air. Right now I have seed pods, still on the plant of a cross I made of two forms of agavoides. As soon as the seeds look ripe I’ll sow them. I think having a larger quantity of fresh seed will make a difference. Also this time I’m going to keep the seed in the open air with just some window screen over it. The problem I have with open air sowing is with sciara flies which in my cool area (near San Francisco) are a problem.

Best, Mary

Hi Mary,

I really appreciate you sharing your experience with sowing E. Agavodies (could you post some pictures if you have them by any chance) and I'm sorry to hear the seedlings didn't survive the humidity. I really do think the baggie method is great popping the seeds out of the bad, but once you see established leaflets, then it's probably time to remove them from the bag. I was thinking if you are worried about gnats and files, maybe you can cover it with a layer of cheesecloth and rubber band it on the rim, this way it as a mini insect screen, it can also protect your seedlings from wind and extreme light too. (just a thought)

Steps to my failure:

I'm guessing we probably bought from the same seed seller in Australia, I believe he have multiple selling portals ie Etsy, Ebay.

I believe it was multiple reasons for the failure, one with you being on point, as the packing and shipping itself took a good 3 weeks - 1 month in order to save on shipping cost, it was sent via snail mail.

Two, quantity is a factor too, 20 odd + seeds are seriously too little. I was in touch with the seller and he mentioned that I should have started with one batch and experiment first before sowing another batch. But I was thinking to myself, even at 10, the quantity is really to small to experience any success rate.

Third, I genuinely believe a heating pad at a controlled temp would greatly increase the success rate by providing a constant temperature for the seedlings to grow.

In the end, I just scrap the whole thing as I saw fungus beginning to grow on the surface of the soil. I guess better luck next time.

-Bernard

I have some succulents starting from seeds at home. I ordered them off Ebay from China and other locations. One order germinated really quick, but I don't think it's succulents (fake seeds). Another order I got from china (~1400 seeds) never germinated. I will update more when I get home from work. I have many different succulent type of plants growing from seeds right now. Lithops, Mix Agave, Agave attenuata, Agave queen Victoria, Pilosocereus Blue Cactus, Astrophytum Asterias Sand Dollar Cactus, Mix Golden Barrel Cactus, kalanchoe, and Mix Succulents. I will update more with pictures when I get home from work.

Impressive, Tony! I'm looking forward to your photos.

Blue cactus

Golden barrel cactus mix

Mix agave, agave queen victories, agave atenuata, succulent and astrphytum.

Kalanchoe

Mix succulent seedling from China. I think these are fake.

Another mix succulent seeds from China that I think are fake. They don't look like succulents to me.

Have you ever had success germinating Echevaria seeds since this post?

Hi Krista, if you followed up on my comment back in July, none of the seeds had germinated and I had described the possible steps to my failure.

Either the seeds weren't fresh enough, or the conditions weren't ideal.

Looking back and reflecting, I would give it another shot from a different seed seller and sow them in Spring/Fall. I generally believe seeds enjoy a fluctuation of temp to ensure optimal germination. High temps in the day, low cool temps in the night.

Hi Sebastian! Thanks for such a detailed write up! I really wished I had such specific directions when I was starting these last year. I have since bought a seedling mat during the winter, but I used them mostly for some rarer cacti seeds now.

If you get a chance, can you shoot me an email? I would love to get my hands on more Laui seeds, I can definitely pay for shipping.

My Email -- My user @ GMail DOT com

Cheers!

I will be sure to email you soon. If you have specific questions about growing, I can answer them (mostly). :)

Got it! Saw your email!

hey guys, I know I'm joining this post super late! I just bought a couple of Echeveria seeds and the directions say I should sow in 62-68 F weather, otherwise the seeds won't germinate. I was considering putting them in the refrigerator with a little grow light (which I know is a lot less than 62 F) but my avg temperature year round is 80-86 F. So upon reading your process I was surprised you hope for more heat, so I'm confused now on what to do with the seeds. Any help will be deeply appreciated.

I would say just do with the room temperature you have. A heating mat might speed the germination process a bit, but I don't think it's needed.

Super late to the party, but online resources are so limited! I recently bought about thirty types of seed, including Lauii. I'm not experienced, but managed to get 9/10 seeds to sprout after ten days... can anyone confirm if these look like early Lauii sprouts? I know it's probably impossible to tell. They are super tiny, much smaller than the pic might indicate.

Hello,

Yes, these are most definitely Echeveria seeds. There are two cotyledons (embryonic leaves), which is characteristic of Echeverias and most other dicots. You cannot tell if they are Lauii seeds exactly until they grow more leaves, since the farina (white powder on the leaves) does not show up on the seedlings until a couple of months after germination.

If you need any specific help you can send me a private message and I would be happy to help you with anything related to sowing Echeveria seeds :)

ctnutmegger,

Thank you so much for your message! I bought several varies of Echeverias and it seems all have sprouted, so I'm very excited!

Right now my main concern is that I don't kill them off, of my ten Lauii seeds I got 9 sprouts, I've begun leaving the Ziploc baggies open just a crack as the seller suggested...

I think I got paranoid because the other posts I saw on here mentioned the low success rate of Lauii seeds, and as a newbie, I didn't think I would be the one to get such a high germination rate.

Thank you again for your reply! :)

Hello, im curious of the seeds turn out in the last post. Im trying to germinate also and looks quite similar to yours. Post March 14th, 2017

hey! I know you weren't referring to me but it's been 48 days since I sowed my echeveria seeds, this is the best coming along from the batch, this is echeveria hakuhou although if I must tell the truth, I'm still in doubt if they really are...

Hey those look pretty good... i mean it doesn't look like alfalfa as some refer to, I'm not sure what echeveria hakuhou looks like but it does look like it could be a succulent. Good luck

It is still way too early to tell which type they are, but those true leaves look like Echeveria to me...

echeveria seed update! so yesterday marked the 3 months since the seeds germinated, can I also start introducing them into more sunlight? they're currently underneath a table and receive only shade...but "bright" shade, or should I just leave them there?

@Jamie L. I was totally thinking about your post yesterday and was gonna ask for an update! Thank you... giving me hope! :)

ah I see! do you have any pictures of your seedlings? I'll begin introducing them to the sun this week then to see how they react, I have two others that aren't as big as these are but they have the same "age" I know they take a long time but I'm getting desperate to see them get bigger lol

hey guys! just wanted to post another update for anybody who might be interested, i keep on misting them daily but with the heat i'm worried they actually might need two mistings per day???

Hi,

I am new to planting and really know not much so far. I have been researching succulents and find them very beautiful. I live in West Africa and would like to know if it is possible to germinate at temperatures above 25°C (77°F)? It doesn't seem so from the research I have done, but I wanted to make sure.

Thank you

Hey Benemak -

The hardest part about germinating echeveria seeds are to get them to pop. As the seeds are so tiny - almost dust like, the possibility of germination is about 60-70% if say you have a hundred seeds.

I would keep them in zip lock baggies are make sure the soil is always moist. I would say most echeverias, depending on species, will pop when it's warm and moist.

Jamie- great growing! I only been successfully growing the common echeveria seeds. I would still keep them on the higher moist side. Until you know they are about size bigger than a quarter, you can slowly introduce to more light and fresh air.

Happy Growing> B

Where can you purchase Echeveria seeds :) Thanks!

I'm new to succulent germination but I got all the seeds sprouted.

Let me know are they Echevarria leaf is somewhat thick according to me but are they stretching as I kept them in low light

I know this post is pretty old, but does anyone know a good source to buy echeveria/ succulent seeds from? Also, what are some good ways you guys have found to actually make the seeds grow? As in best soil, best lighting, how long to keep a cover on the seeds once they germinate, all that good stuff!

1. Sterilize substrate (3+ minutes in microwave or 50 mins in oven) 2. Planters should be about 1.5 inches deep. Fill a container with good draining soil. Good drainage is important, 50% regular potting soil with 50% coarse sand, perlite or pebbles (~0.15 inch) 3. Echeverias have tiny seeds which should not be covered with soil. They germinate best at 18-20 °C temperatures. 4. Equally Water the substrate with water - placie a piece of a napkin on top of the substrate and slowly pour the water over it. 5. Let the container soak up water for 5 minutes. Leave the container to drain out the water surplus. 6. Spread the seeds over the substrate, leave some space between them. 7. Put the whole container into a zip bag to keep humidity 8. Avoid exposing to direct sunlight, but provide them light on some bright place. 9. The germination process usually starts within 4 days – 2 weeks 10. Start opening the container gradually so that the seedlings can get used to the new air conditions. Seedlings need some moisture, substrate shouldn’t be dry, but don’t overwater. and they need an ample amount of light – but not direct sunlight 11. Repot them when you notice that seedlings are space-limited 12. Examine pots daily for fungus infection. Treat with fungicide if appears 13. Buy only fresh echeveria seeds, and only from reputable sources, like www.rareplant.me