Propagating Succulents from SeedUpdated 3 years ago

After your succulent flowers, you may notice a strange pod form where the flower used to be. This pod may be a fruit, just waiting to release its seeds into the world! Below are just a few of the many shapes these fruits could take!

Harvest seeds when the fruit opens to release them, otherwise you may collect immature seeds that aren’t ready to germinate. However, one major exception to this rule are fleshy berries, like the ones on the Gymnocalycium above. These can be harvested once the berry gets its mature color (for many berries this is red or purple).

After you have your seeds harvested, you can choose to store them or plant them. If you store them, dry them off on a paper towel and place them in a dry bag in a dry place. The lack of moisture, as you probably guessed, is vital to keeping the seeds in a dormant state. If they get wetted, they may try to germinate in storage. You can generally store seed for, at least, a year before planting.

If you choose to plant them, note that some seeds (i.e. Stephania erecta) prefer to be stratified in some way. This usually means they’ll need to be soaked in water for up to 24 hours before planting. Fortunately, most succulent seeds do not require stratification.

Then, fill a shallow, draining pot with a mineral soil, and sprinkle your seeds across the top of it. Some seeds, like Lithops, prefer to have a sprinkling of sand placed on top of them. Others however, like Echinopsis, prefers to be surface sown. Place these pots in water about half a pot deep, allowing them to soak up water through their drainage holes. Leave them there until the surface of the soil is moist.

Contrary to the care needs of their parents, many succulent seedlings prefer humid conditions. To achieve this, cover the pots with a clear lid or plastic wrap. Be sure the lid has a few holes to allow the seedlings to breathe, but not too many or the moisture will escape too quickly. Then, place them in bright light. You can speed up your germination if you put them on a seed warming mat set to roughly 70°F.

Assuming all goes well, you’ll start to see seedlings after a time. This time can vary dramatically but most plants should germinate after two weeks at 70°F. It’s vitally important that they don’t dry out at this stage. They’ll take a long time to grow but, once they get about the diameter of a dime (or an inch tall), you can remove the lid and allow them to get drier.

Seeds are a fun, yet challenging ways to grow new plants and there’s a lot of variability involved. You can even try to make your own hybrids if you have two plants (usually from the same genus) that are flowering at the same time. There’s even a chance, albeit a small one, that you end up with a variegated seedling.

Happy sowing!