Setiechinopsis mirabilis seedlings - flowered

Last summer I got hold of 10 seeds and planted in a commercial C&S compost.
These are the only survivors as the compost was unmitigated c**p. Held moisture like a good sponge.
They can flower at 2 yr old, but I won't hold my breath that I will see flowers next year, but you never know.
Here is one I grew in Australia. The one and only specimen I have ever seen.


Fof

 

That looks quite large for a less than one year old seedling.
Its doing well.

 

I recall S.mirabilis having nocturnal highly-scented flowers , sometimes for one-night only .
When I worked at Whitestone Nurseries in the 80's we grew a marvellous array of little known nor heard of genera . Definitely not the kind you see in garden centres !!
Thinking back .......they were good days

 

@PaulB3
Yes, the flowers only last one night. I can't recall if they are scented, though.

 

Well, time for an update, I think.
I made a mistake (old age) when I said these were sown in the summer.
In fact sown Jan '23.
These are the three now, @18 months.


They range from 20mm to 40mm. I'm impressed with the speed of growth.
Flowers next year?? Fingers crossed.

Fof

 

I'm really chuffed with these.
The largest, sown Jan '23 has opened its first flower today. 19months old.
15 July

30 July

3 Aug

Tonight, 7 Aug


I wasn't expecting till next year. Any luck and all 3 will flower then.

Fof

 

You have done well growing from seed ,I'm trying to grow from seed some of the stone like succulents .I didn't have any instructions so it was guess work .I mixed sand with all purpose compost .nothing is showing yet but only been 2 months.

Any tips fof please?

 

Hi Purple Streaks
These were the first seed I have grown since I returned to UK from Oz in 2015
I've never tried any of the "living stones" from seed, so I can't speak from experience.
The only comment I can make is regarding the medium.
When you say sand, I hope you don't mean material like sharp/potting/horticultural sands, that consist of small grains?
I would NEVER use them in any type of cactus and succulent compost. They are much too fine.
I use grit that has grain sizes of 2-6mm approx. plus compost in the ratio of roughly 2 or 3 parts grit to 1 compost. You can get an impression of the grit size I use from the images.
When in Oz my seed mix was no different from my growing mix, apart from my having sieved out the largest grains.
I use just about any compost but JI #1, if recall correctly, was always the recomended go-to when making seed raising mixes.
You don't say what types you are trying, but there is a lot of info (both good and bad) on-line.
I quick glance through Growing guides / Growing Conophytum appears to be sensible.
I'm not a lot of help, I'm afraid.

Fof

 

I have grown lithops from seed years ago, I still have a fair few plants.

They are easy, but slow and can take about two years to get bigger than a pin head mostly.

I used sharp sand mixed with peat based multipurpose. scatter seed thinly on the surface and water from the bottom.

A lot will be going dormant in the next couple of months and they need to be fairly dry if not totally dry during dormancy which ranges from about October to April or May depending on species.
Misting is a good way of watering as they often survive on fog rather than rain in habitat during the growing season.

But again you need to know the specific species as there are variations, but over watering is the main reason for failure.