Transplanting some older seedlings (14 pics)

I've been transplanting some plants that probably didn't need any transplanting. What started as "these seedlings are kinda small for their age, better check the roots" ended up as "let's check them all!" I have ordered pumice from ebay lately and it was a bad idea. Now I'm back to my usual supplier. How great his stuff is in comparison! Transplanting is so much more fun when you are using good quality pumice. 

I'm generally proud of my seedlings, all of them. No matter how well-grown the plants are we buy from someone, plants grown from seeds always seem to be the prettiest of all to me. Not partial at all! ;D But, to be honest, the plants that have germinated and grown under the same conditions all their lives, really do appreciate it. You also have good control over their shape if you watch them closely and treat them accordingly. You know how big a fan I am of plants that are small and really flat to the ground. It is not easy to get such plants as adults. But with seedlings hatched and grown in pumice without any extra food, that is how they will eventually turn up looking. Not much effort involved. They grow very slowly though. And show their true patterns quite late. I'm not growing them for sale so that's okay.

The seedlings that appeared small-ish to me are the L. lesliei ssp. burchellii (C308), sown back in 2011. It's been 5 years! You might remember them from here, here or here. Cute kids they were. Well, I'm not sure if that's it with their size and they won't grow any larger but they seem to be fit and strong with nice root systems. So maybe fresh substrate will give them a bit more energy. They show a variety of patterns and I tried to regroup them according to their looks. You would probably not notice the difference but I did have a system.

They also like to dig themselves in. Here is a "before" picture.

Squeeze and pull! That is why clay pots are not recommended, btw ;)

Also, it's absolutely okay to remove half of the fine roots, or even more, along with the rests of old substrate during transplantation. The fine roots grow back in no time. I think the trimming actually stimulates them.

The others I spontaneously decided to re-pot are the L. aucampiae ssp. aucampiae v. aucampiae 'White Flower' (C002A) seedlings I got from seeds of the plants I got from Mr. Shimada when I was living in Japan. Well, the parent plants were way too huge to survive long under my conditions. But at least I got seeds and this is what I have to show for it now. Back in 2012 they looked so week and ugly and strange. Then they got better and better and now they are such beauties! The uniform color, the perfect shape, the manageable size. I do mean to brag!

The size of Mr. Ingenwepelt's plants is what I'm going for so if we compare the L. aucampiae head size, mine should not get any bigger.

I've refreshed the substrate for some other seedlings too.

Some nameless L. lesliei seedlings.

The Ventergreens (C001A), from own seeds. They look all grown up but never flower. That's my curse :) At least the leaves look very pretty.

This L. lesliei ssp. lesliei v. lesliei 'Storms’s Albinigold' (C036B) is two-headed but tiny, sown sometime 2008. One of my first.

This L. bromfieldii v. glaudinae 'Rubroroseus' (C393A) went a bit too far in its flatness. I have a bunch of "kinda small" Rubroroseus seedings while their siblings are already adult looking. New substrate it is.

L. lesliei ssp. burchellii 2nd selection (2 pics)

This is the burchellii's selection of plants with more "lines" (rather than windows). They still don't look like typical burchelliis to me, more like regular v. lesliei. Cute and nicely shaped though :) They should outgrow their pot this year... I've decided to look for an apartment during the holidays in a week. For sure now. 100%. My plants need it (probably more than I do) XD

L. lesliei ssp. burchellii today (6 pics)

These L. lesliei ssp. burchellii C308 seedlings hatched in June 2011 and this year they finally present an adult-like look. You can follow back their development here, here, here and here. 

On the pic below is my "open-windowed selection". :) I'll make an entry about the selection of heavily patterned burchellii shortly.

Steineckeana's new shiny faces (2 pics)

My steineckeana babies are three years old today. With this year's regeneration they start to look much more mature. In the photo below almost all of them already have changed their leaves. In fact many of my lithops already have. I'm not watering yet though, waiting for the spring and better light.

lithops seedlings update (4 pics)

Just a quick update on how some of my lithops seedlings are doing these days. :)

As you can see seedlings from 2012 are much bigger now and should regenerate shortly. Interestingly they all have had only one regeneration so far, being on an adult leaf change schedule right from the start. Jk, they are simply slow. ;) Quite big though (aucampiae) and desperately needing larger pots (bromfieldii).

Seedlings from 2011 are also about to change their leaves. The pancakes are such gems. Can't wait to see their next leaves, they must be much more adult-like.

Seedlings 2009, gracilidelineata, are already far along. As always, I hope for flowers next season.

More room for burchellii (3 pics)

I kept my two year old lesliei ssp. burchellii C308 in three 5x5cm pots, ca. 16 plants in each. As they started to touch and squeeze each other (No touching! -George Bluth) I've decided to make it 9 plants per one container. It also was an excuse to make some pre-celection and arrange them according to size and looks. The markings should get more distinctive with time but there are some promising specimen already. This is my take: larger windows in the first pot, "lines" in the second, others I like in the third. The rest went in the 4th pot for further contemplation.

I really like the one in the middle of this pic.

Steineckeana seedlings these days (2 pics)

The steineckeana are only a couple of months younger than the bromfieldii from the recent post. They look weird and looking weird is actually what we like about this species. Tiny fissure, strange marble like pattern going from top all down the sides and sometimes some pseudotruncatella pattern as if breaking through the marble.

They've grown a lot since March, don't you think? :)

Fred's Redhead update (2 pics)

I've ignored my plants during the last months so I've been making some changes, sorting out, transplanting. Today it was the turn of these lesliei. I've separated the bigger and stronger seedlings from the weaker ones (it was getting too cozy in the pot). 

It's curious how only the parts exposed to light get the dark color (I guess, much like optica v. rubra) while the rest stays green. The one pale seedling to the right probably resembles the "regular" ancestors of the cultivar.

PS: I've read that valerian flower extract is very good for cacti and other succulents. Anyone tried it? I've ordered it and will report on the possible changes. :)

steineckeana babies

Some happy plants.

Fred's Redhead

The lesliei Fred's Redhead (13 months old) are slowly regenerating at the moment. The seedlings that are already done with it (right) look amazingly dark and more violet than red. It's a very interesting cultivar.

burchellii kids

Sown in June 2011, these lesliei v. burchellii have just gone through a regeneration and are showing nice, more distinguished pattern. Some are very interesting indeed, even though only several present burchellii-like markings. All in all lesliei are very grateful plants, adults as well as seedlings. :)

Julii seedlings

These are some seedlings of the Japanese cultivar julii v. fulleri 'Kôsôgyoku' (紅窓玉). I've had this cultivar before but the plants didn't make it. The seedlings were sown exactly one year ago and some of them have their second real leaves. The coloring and patterns aren't clear yet but might develop into something interesting, I think.

lesliei ssp. burchellii seedlings

These were sown 24.06.2011 and still have their first real leaves on (pictures back in April). They all seem to have different and quite interesting patterns I'm looking forward to see when they're bigger. Some have open windows, some are dotty and some have nice dark window-lines. The burchellii feature of flowing lines around the edges can be visible on some specimens, too.

Amazing how 48 plants out of 50 sown seeds have survived. I like lesliei for this strength :)

You can see on these gloomy pictures how dark it is outside. It's rainy and cold, no sign of summer yet. 

Fred's Redhead

I haven't shown you these seedlings for a while. They are around 16 months old now and quite indipendent in their growth phases. Some have had their 3rd leaves for a while, some have just changed, and some still have their 2nd clothes on. It is a bit difficult to catch the color on camera. It is much darker than the red I was expecting and I love it. I quess the large windows must help this impression. :)

here come bromfieldii again

I'm pretty amazed at the moment about the rate the seedlings of bromfieldii v. glaudinae C382 are growing. They are only a little over a year old but show an appearance of an almost grown-up plant, long fissure and all. The largest plant is 1,6 cm with the others not far behind. Compared to only two or three weeks ago they've grown a lot. I was expecting to see such a development in lesliei v. mariae, but those just keep changing leaves without growing much. The reason could be the pure pumice (almost hydroponic) the seedlings are growing in, they probably need more food but I'd rather be careful with that.

pricking out seedlings

I've been watching my nine months old lesliei ssp. burchellii C308 pushing and squeezing each other in their far too small container long enough. Yesterday they needed to be transplanted, and even though they still don't have much room in the new pots it took three of them with 15 to 17 plants in each to shelter them all. I'm very glad to see how quickly they've grown and how nice and fat they've turned out. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with so many plants of one kind since I didn't expect them all to survive but it's nice to see them grow and develop deverse and pretty patterns.

Before

After (arranged in order of size)

You can trace the development of these seedlings clicking on the seedlings 2011 tag below. ;)