SX seed results

[Rdevries]

I try to grow a lot of things from seed, some work out some don't and many are misidentified by the source. 

Last year in BX 481 ( actually an SX before they went back to the old numbering scheme) i received seed labelled as Sinningia leopoldii. A species i had wanted for a while. The seed was part of PBS annual allotment from Brazil Plants.  This sinningia grows on rocks and has a rather large tuber

https://www.brazilplants.com/gesneriaceae/sinningia/sinningia-leopoldii.html

I start all my sinningia seed in small trays of fine seed mix covered with plastic domes over a tray to hold some water.

Three seeds germinated and grew on.  They never looked like the sinningia leopoldii i was hoping for, being very hairy with a dense cluster of leaves close to the tuber.

To gow these on they were gradually up potted to larger and larger pots (now in 10cm pots) on a layer of wet chicken grit with a fan on them. 

Finally it was pointed out that  my seedlings were actually Sinningia hirsuta., A humid loving plant that prefers terrariums. And, apparently, not so easy to please.
 
https://www.brazilplants.com/gesneriaceae/sinningia/sinningia-hirsuta.html


I was away recently and the gravel dried out completely, as it dose periodically. So the humidity was controlled by the weather outside a closed attached garage. Probably  close to 80-85°F, 80% relative humidity.  The plants faired much better than the white Sinningia eumorphia plant a few inches away in same conditions that did not like drying out.

So the purpose of this post is to shoew some results from the SX and to give a view of some growing procedures that work unexpectedly.

Rimmer
Southern Kentucky, USA
Zone 6

[Rick R.]

Thanks for that, Rimmer.  I also got the "S. leopoldii" seed from that BX 481.  Fairly new to gesneriads, I might never have have known until it bloomed!

[Rdevries]

Scilla latifolia from Uli in SX 3 in November 2015 is finally sending up multiple spikes. This is like a smaller form of the mad scilla but with branched spikes. 

[Uli]

Hello @Rimmer,

It is always nice to see how seeds fare which I gave away.

This form of Scilla latifolia is not smaller than Scilla madeirensis, on the contrary. Your plants look smaller because they are youngsters. The seed was given to me by the owner of a garden on the Canary Island of La Palma. He had a very large and impressive clump in fruit under an orange tree. The infructescence was branched and bending down under the sheer weight of the fruit. This is also a difference from Scilla madeirensis which only sparsely sets seed. A very nice plant!

Uli 

[Rdevries]

Thank you for your reply Uli.  I have been growing these since 2015, one has bloomed for the past 2 or 3 years. In that same time i have also grown Scilla mad from seed in the same mix and the mad scillas are at least 5x larger than the branched scilla. So perhaps the branched Scilla need many more years to grow larger

[Uli]

What kind of substrate do you use? The pictures shows pumice. They might be underfed? In the garden in la Palma they grew under an orange tree, citrus is heavily fertilized.
Uli 

[Rdevries]

Pumice and some sand and some southern red clay. I use this for all the large scilla

[Bwosczyna]

It's lovely, Rimmer.  Thanks for sharing. Would you please post again when it opens?
B

[Rdevries]

The Sinningia hirsuta ( see above) is finally beginning to bloom

[Rdevries]

A Few flowers open now

[Rdevries]

Lachenelia pygmaea SX4, this form does not seem to want to grow flat to the ground regardless of amount of sun. The white pygmaea on right has been in same sunny conditions in same plunge next to the purple since the end of summer.

[CG100]

Lachenelia pygmaea SX4, this form does not seem to want to grow flat to the ground regardless of amount of sun

L. pygmaea does not grow in habitat with prostrate leaves - they are naturally held erect, or close to.

If you search online, you will find that RSA receives around the maximum of insolation as anywhere on earth, so trying to get even close would cost an awful lot in artificial lighting.

[Rdevries]

Lachenelia pygmaea SX4, this form does not seem to want to grow flat to the ground regardless of amount of sun

L. pygmaea does not grow in habitat with prostrate leaves - they are naturally held erect, or close to.

If you search online, you will find that RSA receives around the maximum of insolation as anywhere on earth, so trying to get even close would cost an awful lot in artificial lighting.

The white form grows flat

[CG100]

The white form grows flat

Hybrid? Massonia influence?
If you take a look at the book by Duncan, it should not grow flat against the soil.
I have both forms here too - both have upright/erect leaves.

I am unsure that I have ever seen any evidence that insolation affects things like this - leaf orientation - lots of conjecture and supposition, but no more. VERY basic logic would suggest that to catch the maximum amount of light, plants with very few leaves in open ground, not shaded, would lay them flat on the ground, so high insolation = prostrate leaves is, at first glance at least, counter-intuitive.

[CG100]

In terms of insolation, summer figures for western, soutrhern Africa are around  60 mols of photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) /m²/day, and around half that in winter.

To achieve the higher energy figure in a 12 hour lit period would take something in the order of 6-700W of highly focused LEDs around 15cm above each square metre. (This is around the figure used for "vertical farming").