Is hard to make sprout the dinteranthus?

[Vanzily]

Well, I didnt order much dinteranthus but Steven sent me a lot dinteranthus vanzylii in my last order. Well, I put some lithops and germinated very well in this season, like 20°C temperatures or a few degrees below. Thinking the same in dinteranthus, I put like 1,000 but after 12 days no one germinate and I don´t know what to do, I put seeds in august and the same, no one germinate. I need waiting to the spring or I be more patience? I need advices

[KittieKAT]

I would say be patient if first you Don't succeed, try again and again and again as need be!
But they are winter growers so Maybe you should try germinating in the spring if you haven't had much success in winter, i haven't tried growing dinteranthus yet, in the program we were gonna do them after titans and aloinopsis but we haven't had any donated yet

[Aiko]

put seeds in august and the same, no one germinate.(

You tried it with the same pot and the same seeds, or a fresh pot with fresh seeds?

From my experience don't throw away a pot if there was not germination at first. Just allow the pot to dry out and re-soak the pot a few months later. In the mean time I leave the pot in my greenhouse throughout the summer under the tablets. With a restar in August / September of the same pot usually something pops up.

[iann]

Many people struggle with Dinteranthus. Patience is good, because 12 days doesn't mean it is time to give up. Wait 2-3 weeks certainly, then let everything dry out for a while.

Try more temperature variation. Sowing in direct sun in spring may help, with very cool nights. Leaving the seed out (dry) in summer sun can help it to "ripen" and it will then germinate much more easily. Some people recommend quite extreme temperatures for germination (40+C) but my experience has been that germination only occurs *after* these temperatures go away, not during them.

Dinteranthus seed is also very small. Make sure it it on the surface of the soil and exposed to light. Don't cover. Aim for high humidity, but not soggy soil.

In my experience the real difficulty of Dinteranthus has been growing on to the first (or second!) true leaves. The sprouts are tiny just like the seed and they are highly vulnerable to incorrect treatment. Once the true leaves come in then they become much tougher and will usually only be killed by pampering.

P.S. D. vanzijlii is by far the easiest, very similar to Lithops in appearance and habits.

[Aiko]

In my experience the real difficulty of Dinteranthus has been growing on to the first (or second!) true leaves.

Indeed. At some point I get good germination rates, only to see my little seedlings disappear again and see them completely damped off. I should keep the seedlings in the bag longer, maybe for months.

[C And D]

Dinteranthus seed is also very small. Make sure it it on the surface of the soil and exposed to light. Don't cover. Aim for high humidity,
Iann

Exactly!
Not only high temps, but high light intensity with humidity.

D. pole-evansii are the most difficult, and if they do germinate, getting them to live through the winter is the real challenge.

They all take about 2-weeks to a month to germinate

[Vanzily]

Thanks to all, well I have some hope now. Im gonna wait more days, I try different seeds, but still this situation

[Astro]

I keep them in a baggie until they're about 2 mm across (first set of leaves) while not letting them dry out completely, then take them out of the bag and treat them like lithops seedlings. I didn't keep track of germination temperatures, but it was probably something like 30C daytime and 10-15C at night, and it took a few weeks for the teeny tiny seedlings to appear (they start off really really small).

Got pretty close to 100% germination on D. pole-evansii from Mesa Garden (and maybe 50% from MSG seed). Sown in August, all seedlings are now changing into their first 'real' set of leaves (they're on heat mats right now, maybe 20C during the day and 5C at night)..

[Astro]

Finally got around to taking a not-so-great picture of the pole-evansii seedlings. The pot shown has both pole-evansii (first real pair of leaves) and vanzylii (shoddy germination and mostly still seed leaves). Note the lone vanzylii (some markings) with its first real leaf pair among the pole-evansii.

I'm very much still learning how to handle these guys.

D. pole-evansii

DSCF7053.JPG (99.51 KiB) Viewed 2733 times

[iann]

Finally got around to taking a not-so-great picture of the pole-evansii seedlings. The pot shown has both pole-evansii (first real pair of leaves) and vanzylii (shoddy germination and mostly still seed leaves). Note the lone vanzylii (some markings) with its first real leaf pair among the pole-evansii.

I'm very much still learning how to handle these guys.

Lots of sun. Very resistant to high heat and tolerant of summer dryness, but grow best when it is a bit cooler. Quite difficult in England due to lack of strong sun when the temperature is cool enough. These really can only be killed by pampering, far tougher than Lithops.