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.

Delosperma bonsai 2/2 (6 pics)

So, here's the other one :)

I think I find the shape of this Delosperma even more interesting. It grows small leaf-batches of a darker color and often develops curious 3-leaf-sets. At the moment I could count 9 sets of those. The pot is 5cm, for scale.

Delosperma bonsai 1/2 (5 pics)

I have two Delosperma plants I grew from seed back in 2012 and am now trying to form into bonsais. Surprisingly it works really well. I was expecting them to grow uncontrollably but they keep their shape since a year when potted in a small 5x5x8,5cm pot each. 

Actually I've wanted to post photos of them for a while now but it has turned out to be quite difficult to capture them due to their three-dimensionality. I could never focus my camera properly.  Below are my best attempts at a photo session with one of the plants. It looks much cooler in real life :D

As you can see it grows many short-leafed branches along the stems while not increasing in size all in all. But it gets thirsty a lot. It never flowers though. 

I have another plant to be featured in the next post and since it's fun to watch them grow here is a compilation.

Parents
2 months old
3 months old + one more
6 months old
10 months old (root view)
1 year
August 2014 (before and after the haircut)

Aucampiae kids not in a hurry to grow up

These L. aucampiae seedlings are now 2,5 years old but are still refusing to grow a long fissure. That's almost a pseudotruncatella-like behavior. At this rate it'll take years for me to see their flowers. I'll have to enjoy the pretty leaves until then :)

L. bromfieldii v. glaudinae 'Rubroroseus' (2 pics)

These are 2,5 years old as well and eventhough quite small they are very adult-like looking. They have finished the leaf change and after I watered them they've doubled in size within a week. That's the spirit!

The color fades throughout the year but at the moment they are nicely red and with time, when they start to flower, a red selection would be possible. Yet again I have to note how grateful Lithops bromfieldii are.

Delosperma cooperi seedlings today (3 pics)

Do you remember these little kids of mine? They started off as tiny bunnies in June 2012, went throught a beautifully compact phase and then just exploded. Since they got so big I only could grow them at the side of the windowsill where they weren't getting enough light. That's why I brought them to my parents where they might have received too much of it. Anyway, they didn't like it there either so I now brought two of them back home (the rest was too crispy already). I hope to grow them better now.

Anyway, I've removed all the dead branches and gave them separate containers and I think they actually look cute like this. Like tiny bonsais of sorts. Maybe I could maintain the look somehow. I'd like them to have more leaves and be more bushy but not too much and only with the short kind of leaves they have now. It might be difficult to keep them compact. We'll see how it goes. Maybe with time I can shape them into something beautiful and hopefully flowering.

Frithia humilis kids (2 pics)

If you click the "Frithia" tag at the bottom of this post you can actually see these Frithia humilis seedlings grow from seed. Unbelievable but they are now over 2 years old and I still have all nine of them. They grow closely together so that one might think it's all one plant. Frithias never flower at my place but I do hope these kids will once they are more mature. For now I will just find my joy in their cat paw leaves.
You might notice that one of them has the tentacles of their mother plant :) Too cute!
(The color depends on whether they've been watered lately. They get really flat and compact between waterings.)

Growth spurt for Lithops seedlings (2 pics)

I know I've posted the second pic recently but you can only really appreciate the first one in comparison :)

The L. aucampiae seedlings have increased in size a lot in only one month between 7.04 and 3.05. This is not what I had in mind as I transplanted them to give them more room to spread. But I'm glad they liked their new 8,5cm deep container!

L. aucampiae seedlings root-check (2 pics)

I've been trying to free up the round pots I use for sowing by transplanting the bigger seedlings into square pots I use for adult plants. It doesn't really make more room for them but the depth is changing from 5cm to 8,5cm which they like very much. And of course I can now use the free round pot to sow some more mesemb seeds. :)

I like how flat and pancake-like the seedlings are. This is my favorite lithops shape. I just hope these particular seedlings are not too flat (is it possible for a lithops to be too flat?).

Aucampiae seedlings

Just a quick update on the L. aucampiae 'White Flower' C2A seedlings, grown from own seeds (sowing 2012). Love the color!

Update on L. aucampiae seedlings

Removed the rests of old leaves and here they are, their shiny new faces :)
They are small but already look just like their parents, don't you think?

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.

Frithia kids update

It's time to update you on my Frithia humilis seedlings (sown in June 2012). Over the summer, in which we have had hot t° and lots of sun for a prolonged peroid of time, the seedlings stopped growing long leaves they did before and changed their appearance to match the conditions thus looking much more like adults in their color and shape. Moreover they started to hide in the pumice stones whenever it got to hot which is a very much appreciated sight for any Frithia enthusiast. The plants react well to water but quickly return to their "short-fingered" state with old leaves fading into bright red color. That's exactly the habitat-like behavior and looks I was hoping for!

Click on the "frithia" label below and scroll down to see their development from seed to today ;)

C2A: first true leaves

Just had to show you these little aucampiae C2A. Now that most of them changed into their first true leaves (it took them a long time) and have grown a bit since then the markings became more apparent. I really like what I'm seeing :) One day they will hopefully look like their beautiful parents.

Rubroroseus babies (3 pics)

I'm taking back my previous rant about my L. bromfieldii v. glaudinae 'Rubroroseus' seedlings being neither rubro nor roseus. After the leaf change into first true leaves several of them now show a nice magenta color just like they should and I have nothing to complain. 

Sown in October 2012

And another Frithia humilis post (3 pics)

It's nothing special, I've just been doing some transplanting und snapped some "root" pics. I think I removed 2/3 of their root system along with the stones even though I tried not to. Now my 9 seedlings have a little more room to grow again. Well, not much more but still.