How to Grow Succulents from Seeds
Succulents are cute, especially when they are small. A lot of you probably already tried to propagate succulents from a leaf, but what if you don’t have the type you want. Growing succulents from seeds is always a great choice! You probably have a thousand questions to ask right now, like where to buy real succulent seeds (be cautious of fake adverts), what items do I need to grow them, how to grow them, etc. I’ll explain all of it in this article. Make sure you follow the instructions below for greater success.
Where to buy real succulents seeds
It’s always heartbreaking when you spend a lot money and time on something but end up with nothing. I have bought seeds from Amazon, Etsy, and other websites before, all those seeds either turn out to be something else other than succulents (a grass variant most times) or just simply don’t grow out anything at all. I believe most of the seeds on those platforms are fake succulent seeds. I heard some online stores even use cooked seeds so that if nothing grows out, you will think you didn’t do it right.
After being mislead and unintentionally buying so many fake seeds, I finally found a legitimate supplier called Koehres Kaktus. They have an excellent variety and of great quality! It’s a family-run nursery located in Erzhausen, Germany. They ship their seeds all around the world. The only con for them is their website is a little bit outdated and the buying process is a little bit complicated. However, it is worth it, to finally have real succulent seeds. Here is the link for their website: http://www.koehres-kaktus.de/shop/
It usually take me around a week to get the seeds after I placed the order. Depending on where you live in the world, it may take longer.
What else do you need
So, now that you’ve got your seeds, what else do you need?
1. Temperature
The best temperature for succulents seeds to grow is between 15°C and 25°C. If the temperature is too high or too low, it will influence how many seeds actually grow out. It could be very low amount or even none. So, the spring and fall are usually the best times to grow seeds.
2. Light
Somewhere really bright but with no direct sun light. It is important to note, DO NOT PUT THEM UNDER THE SUN. A lot people make this mistake when they grow seeds for the first time. Seeds under the sun won’t come out.
3. Tools
There are many different type of seed trays or mini green houses. Some don’t come with soil, some come with Peat Pellet. I personally like this 12-cell Peat Pellet Windowsill Greenhouse Kit. I wouldn’t say the Peat Pellet soil is the best for succulents, but it’s the best for starting seeds as far as my experience. It’s super easy to use and they come disease free which is very important for making sure baby plants will survive. It also makes it a lot easier for me to keep the soil moisturized after, and I can get Peat Pellet refills for it to reuse the tray.
(If you decide to use other trays, please make sure the trays have holes at the bottom so that you can water them from the bottom easily after you plant seeds and make sure to microwave your soil for 10 minutes to kill any bugs or bacteria in it.)
How to grow succulent seeds
After you have all the tools ready, you can get started.
1. Fill the tray with soil
If you are using the Peat Pellet Windowsill Greenhouse Kit, you can just simply follow the instructions on the package to fill the Peat Pellet. After you’ve done that, you are good to go!
If you are using a different tray or planter, after you fill your tray with the microwaved soil, put your tray or planter in a bigger container. Then add water to the bigger container to let your soil absorb water up through the hole at the bottom of your tray or planter, and let it sit for 10 minutes. Make sure the bigger container has enough water all the times. The goal is to avoid drowning or washing away your seeds from the top and let the water gently come up from the bottom.
2. Plant your seeds
Succulents seeds are very tiny! It’s impossible to plant them using your fingers. So, here you need the help of toothpicks or pins you can find. Dip one end of the toothpick into water, then use that end to get one seed from the bag, and place the seed on the center of the soil cell. Repeat this step until you have one seed for each cell. DO NOT COVER THE SEEDS WITH SOIL.
To keep the environment moisturized, cover the tray with the plastic lid and open it twice a day to refresh the air inside. If you don’t have a lid, you can use saran wrap to cover it and poke some holes on it using the toothpick.
Tips: I usually plant the same seed type on the entire tray, because different seeds will take different length of time to sprout, and once you see baby plants coming out, you need to move them under the sun. So it’s better to have the same tray coming out at around the same time to avoid situations when some seeds are already sprouting while others have not. Also, I don’t recommend to plant more than 2 seeds on each cell, because it will be very difficult to transplant after they grow up. If you have a seed that fails, simply use that cell again in your next batch.
3. Have patience
Place your tray somewhere bright but without direct sunlight, and wait for the seeds to sprout. Depending on the temperature, environment and seed type, it could take from 3 days to 2 weeks for the baby plants to come out. Sometimes even a few months. So please be patient.
When you see most seeds are coming out, gradually introduce them to the direct sun and don’t forget to keep the the soil moist all the time.
Tips: By using the seed tray with individual soil cells, I was able to move cells that didn’t sprout yet to a separate tray leaving the seeds to continue germinating. While cells that already germinated I could put them into one tray and start the process of gradually introducing them to direct sun light.
Q&A
How to water seeds or baby succulents?
The best way to water them is flooding the container from below. Because the seeds are so tiny, watering from the top will flood them away, also the baby succulents are too fragile and small to water them from above and you risk washing them out of place. That’s why the seed tray comes in handy, I can just add water to the tray to keep the soil constantly wet and not worry about damaging the seeds or the mini sprouts.
When to reduce watering?
It’s super hard to tell if the succulent has a steady root system yet. I usually wait until I can see the baby plants and leaves starting to look like the mature plant.
When to transplant them?
I usually transplant them after 6 months, that’s usually when they need more soil and space to grow.
Have more questions?
Message me on Instagram, and I’ll try to answer your questions as soon as I can, @succulentinc
As a thank you for reading this far, here is a 15% off discount code “THANKS15” for our ‘all things succulent’ store https://succulentinc.com/
Thanks for reading and happy succulent planting!
This blog was originally posted at my blog How to Succulent: https://succulentinc.com/blogs/how-to-succulent/how-to-grow-succulents-from-seeds
